Maggie Smith became a familiar figure to most people born in the last thirty years as Minerva McGonagall, professor of transfiguration and deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter films. . The strict yet benevolent sorceress issued imperious orders and compassionate advice in a clipped Scottish brogue from beneath her pointed black hat.
Others may know her as Violet Crawley, the acerbic Countess of Grantham. Downton AbbeyHer advanced age and gradual decline did not diminish her Old World authority—”I don’t know, I’m not familiar with the feeling,” she once said of the mistaken notion of foreignness—nor the precision of her landing. sex.
Those who knew Smith, who died in London today at the age of 89, would do well to see her many jewels in her seventy-year film history.
For those of us who have spent years admiring Smith’s priceless collection of the dryest quips and the most wonderful one-liners, the wider discovery of her formidable screen presence through these roles is satisfying for young people in the 21st century. Because young people finally caught up.
Smith was already in the 1960s VIP, pumpkin eater and the National Center for the Performing Arts film version OthelloStarring opposite Laurence Olivier, she received her first Oscar nomination as Desdemona. But this was released in 1969 Miss Jane Brodie in her primewhich earned her an Oscar for Best Actress and really put her on the map.
The protagonist is a free-thinking teacher at an Edinburgh girls’ school who is unapologetic about her preference for students who she considers special enough to benefit from her social, cultural and political shaping – shaping a A template that defines an actress but never limits her.
As one student enthusiastically elaborated on her accomplishments as a Girl Scout, Miss Brody interrupted: “For people who like that kind of thing, that’s what they like.” Another student rolls Rolling up her sleeves, distracting from the teacher’s touching monologue about love and war, prompting her to angrily snarl: “Do you want to do the day’s laundry?”
Smith somehow combines arrogance, erudition, a penchant for romantic fantasy and a subtle sense of camp into one character. She makes the film a lot of fun, about a protagonist whose passionate teaching career is called into question by the betrayal of her pet student, exposing her as a dangerously radical influence on impressionable young women.
Smith’s unparalleled mastery of acerbic dialogue made her a favorite among gay men, a trademark that came to fruition when she played the eccentric Augusta Bertram in George Cukor’s film adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel Position further consolidated. Traveling with aunt. Wearing a dazzling array of costumes designed by costumer Anthony Powell, she wandered around Europe and became the glamorous relative of our dreams, no less than Rosalind Russell in “Rosalind Russell” you. Aunt Mamei.
The character Augusta is nearly twice Smith’s age. A striking woman, she always seemed too worldly and intellectual to look too young, like her contemporary Angela Lansbury.
Smith’s deftly timed delivery was put to good use in two all-star adaptations of Agatha Christie: death on the nileIn the film, she joked viciously with Bette Davis, her nurse and traveling companion to the wealthy American socialite; and sin under the sunPlaying a former actress who now runs a hotel on an island in the Adriatic Sea, she throws verbal darts at a one-time stage performer played by Diana Rigg.
The first of two films Smith is making from a script by Singer expert Neil Simon is murder deathA thinly veiled parody of the famous fictional detective, a detective spoof about a weekend murder at a remote mansion.
Smith stars opposite David Niven as the elegantly sophisticated Dick and Dora Charleston in an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Nick and Nora Charles thin person series. When Dickie whispers to his wife about what the missing naked bodies might be used for, Dora’s words of disapproval don’t even try to hide her excitement: “Oh, that’s so tacky. That’s just so tacky. Etiquette The balance between humor and mischief is typical of Smith.
Her second Simon production is a comedy anthology California Suite. She’s Diana Barrie, a seasoned British actress on the verge of winning her first Oscar, and when she inevitably fails, she’s counting on an increasingly successful actor, played by Michael Caine. The indiscreet gay husband comes to calm her nerves and soothe her disappointment.
“It’s weird,” Diana said on the flight from London. “After eight years at the National Theatre, two Pinters, nine Shakespeares, three Shaw Brothers, I’ve finally been nominated for a disgusting little comedy.” The role had probably zero chance of winning, But her performance earned Smith a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actress.
In Smith’s work from the 1980s, Clash of Titansin which she plays the sea goddess Thetis, remains an inadvertently campy guilty pleasure. But she also won new admirers, such as Charlotte Bartlett, played by Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch A serious and protective companion. Room with viewadapted by James Ivory from the novel by EM Forster. The art gallery’s buzz sparked a wave of films about conservative Britons breaking free from their rigidity in Tuscany.
My favorites from that period were Malcolm Mowbray’s hilarious black comedies private function. Smith stars as Joyce Chilvers, a social climber in a small town in postwar northern England who longs to be accepted by the local elite but is frustrated by her cantankerous mother and underachieving podiatrist husband. Neither Gilbert (Michael Palin) helps her. When Joyce’s plot – which included stealing a pig for the royal wedding dinner – finally paid off, she blithely announced: “Well, Gilbert, I think intercourse is in order.”
The film marked Smith’s first collaboration with playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett, who later wrote ” talking avatarhis brilliant 1988 TV monologue series in which he played the alcoholic wife of a pastor; and lady in vanhis 1999 drama based on his experience with an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated vehicle parked in his driveway for 15 years. It was later adapted into a film, with Smith once again bringing her trademark greatness to this volatile, unhygienic character without overshadowing her vulnerability.
I lived in London for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, and I was lucky enough to see Smith on stage a few times. First as Millament, a woman on a winding path to the altar, in William Congreve’s Restoration comedy, way of the world.
Next up is Peter Shaffer’s British comedy Lettuce and lovage. Smith plays a tour guide to a British mansion with a penchant for wild, non-factual decorations, while Margaret Tyzak plays a conservation trust employee who ends up becoming her crusade against the ugly modern world. Comrades in the struggle for architecture. The production transferred to Broadway, earning Smith a Tony Award for Best Actress.
My third time was in Oscar Wilde’s satire of Victorian society, importance of seriousness. As the formidable Lady Bracknell, Smith departs from her usual scathing rage to deliver the classic line: “Handbag?” to a stunned murmur.
Highlights of Smith’s career in the 1990s include sister lawPlaying a disgruntled abbess, Whoopi Goldberg’s Reno Lounge singer becomes an unlikely ally as she takes refuge in a convent from her gangster boyfriend.
Smith was perfect in a small role First Wives Club Gunilla Garson Goldberg plays Gunilla Garson Goldberg, a famous, wealthy and multiple-divorced New Yorker who destroys Sarah… The social upward trajectory of upstart Shelly, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. Smith demonstrates her ability to make the most of a one-off with tone of voice alone when she greets Goldie Hawn’s Elise, an aging Hollywood actress freshly surgically retouched, at a mutual friend’s funeral. Line: “What a tragedy…and your lips!”
Smith, in Agnieszka Holland’s gorgeous screen version, shows she can bring warmth as effortlessly as she bites. secret garden. Along with acclaimed co-stars Joan Plowright, Judi Dench and Cher, she graces Franco Zeffirelli’s old-fashioned drama about foreigners in pre-war Tuscany. Tea with Mussolini.
The standout work of Smith’s 2000s screen work, alongside the Harry Potter films, is Robert Altman’s masterful Upstairs Downstairs English country house murder mystery, gosford park. She plays another Countess, Constance, who memorably assures a visiting American film director, worried about spoiling the plot of his latest film, “Oh, but none of us will see it.”
That film planted the seeds for screenwriter Julian Fellowes Downton AbbeySmith’s role made her a high-profile public figure after years of obscurity. It also won her three Emmy Awards.
Smith achieved another major success in 2011 Best Exotic Marigold HotelShe teamed up with Dench, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Dev Patel for a sequel that was inferior but still financially successful . I happened to call my parents who were planning on going to the movies to see the first one, and when I asked my forgetful dad what they were watching, he said, “I can’t remember what it’s called, but it has Judy in it.” Dench and Maggie Smith, so it doesn’t matter. Their names are the stamp of approval that many people need.
While you can’t go wrong with almost any of the movies mentioned here to enjoy Smith in all his glory, I highly recommend Roger Michell’s Drinking tea with the lady.
In this engaging and well-crafted documentary from 2018, Smith joins Dench and Eileen Atkins on their annual visit to Plowright’s cottage near Brighton. The four old friends share memories and anecdotes about their lives, careers and ex-husbands, including Plowright’s late wife Olivier, who was a striking ghost in the role of National Theater Arts Mentored them all as director. It’s irresistible to listen to these masters create their own dishes while sipping champagne and of course tea. How sad that Smith’s departure turns the venerable quartet into a trio.
