Monday Monologue: Barbara's Revenge
Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:00PM Dame Judi Dench has been on my mind lately what with the eye condition, a new James Bond film coming and Marigold Hotel in theaters. So herewith an article from 2008. If you only started reading The Film Experience in the past few years, it's new to you! May is also Mental Health Awareness Month so let's appreciate some crazy bitches...
They always let you down in the end."
My contrarian opinion of Dame Judi Dench is that sometimes she phones it in. How many ways can one play the quippy unfazeable grande dame? But in Notes on a Scandal (2006), she's unimproveable. Faced with the atypical character of "Barbara Covett", Dench rises and soars. The film's politics are horrendous: boo hiss --an evil predatory spinster lesbian attempts to destroy a heteronormative marriage! But the actress is magnificent, giving the film a metronome precise drip drip of theatrical malice.
My favorite sequence in the film runs from Barbara's inconsolable grief for her lost feline, through the resulting perceived betrayal by Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), who doesn't have time to console her, to the exquisite sequence when she is confronted with another teacher with amorous feelings for Sheba. She boils with vengeance in mind.
You'd like me to ask Mrs Hart if she's inclined to commit adultery with you? I don't want you to suffer more than is necessary. No one should. I couldn't possibly speak for Mrs. Hart but instinct tells me you might not be her type.
"She's got a type, then?" is her co-worker Brian's sad response. The film has a few exquisite and small supporting turns and Phil Davis (also terrific as the husband to Vera Drake) is aces in this scene, all befuddled crush turned to shell shock.
Kettle's boiled. Dench likes her tea with bile.
Oh it's no reflection on your attractiveness. My impression is that her preference is for the younger man...surprisingly young; Boys, I'm told. Naturally she doesn't discuss any of this with me but I've been hearing some rather alarming rumors about one in particular.
Playground gossip, staffroom whispers and so on. You might know the boy in question. Ummm... Stephen Connelly."
Brian indicates that her tea is ready.
I think the kettle's boiled.
[V.O.] You say the words and it's done. Easy. Judas had the grace to hang himself. But only according to Matthew, the most sentimental of the apostles. Is this the last night of her old life? I wonder how long my messenger will take?
People like Sheba think they know what it is to be lonely but of the drip drip of long haul no end in sight solitude, they know nothing. What it's like to construct an entire weekend around a visit to the laundrette or to be so chronically untouched that the accidental brush of a bus conductor's hand sends a jolt of longing straight to your groin. Of this, Sheba and her like have no clue.
Dench's every line reading is carved out of the tough bark of decades of loneliness and cynicism; if you could cut through Barbara's hardened shell, you'd see disappointment and repression expanding like rings in an ancient tree. As the words escape her, she sharpens them to a lethal point with fermented emotions and curdled wit, wielding them like weapons. Earlier in the film, Barbara refers to herself as a battle axe. For a woman drowning in self-delusion, it's a surprising lucid self-assessment.
Dame Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal, monologue
Reader Comments (19)
I love this performance. This one, Penelope Cruz in Volver, and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada are the ultimate acting trifecta of 2006, and any year. I'm glad Dench's performance still stands as such magnificent work, her career best without a doubt.
I had just finished reading the book and I'm very much looking forwards to watching the movie itself. Based on the quoted lines, I have a feeling that the movie was very faithful to the material, and if so, I'll have a good time watching it.
Love love LOVE this movie and Judi Dench in it. She's one of those actresses that I love even though I haven't seen all of her work, but I can't imagine any scenario where this performance isn't in the top 5 of her career (it's #1 for me).
Insanely memorable work. In my opinion, this was the strongest year for best actress of the past decade. Judi, Penelope, Meryl, Helen, Kate. Not only are all exquisite performances but all are from very fine films indeed. Notes on a Scandal was a terrific film to see in theaters and I distinctly remember people laughing and squeaming awkwardly during the scene where Barbara makes Sheba close her eyes and caresses her arms. I also remember seeing Little Children in theaters and the whole audience letting out a collective sigh after that climactic, thematically intense fifteen minutes....not to be a downer, but it makes me reevaluate this past crop of best actress contenders and they just don't hold a candle to those group of ladies.
On a side note, Judi Dench gives the best performance EVER of Sondheim's Send in the Clowns. Watch it and I dare you not to get misty eyed.
Such a brilliant performance and movie. Her career best, hands down.
I don't know about career best (I'm not that familiar with Dench's filmography), but definitely best Best Actress year of the past decade. Only 2010 came close (Bening, Portman, etc).
Barbara's monologue reminds me of your split review(s) of Notes on a Scandal. Now that was one of your best write-ups ever (and a nice counterpoint to a recent review).
This would've been Dench's Oscar—if I had any say.
I know it is accepted that Helen deserved the win, but by god, my Oscar that year went to that woman, Judi just tore down all her stereotypes and broke through new barriers. Unlike Mirren's performance which was technical perfection (like Streep VS Davis this year) Dench got under my skin, she stayed with me beyond the movie.
That year was one of the best, so much better than the previous year. Meryl was an amazing spectacle, Helen was technical perfection, Cruz was beauty personified.
Leaves me stuck between Winslet and Dench but because Dench stuck with me for days and days after, I have to give the gold to her for going to depths that I'd only seen from her on stage, not on screen.
Agreed it her best even better than mrs brown,i thinks he needed only 3 noms i have soft spot for iris the supporting turns no no no that is truly phoning it in as for 2006 i think it would be perfect if bening had got in for running with scissors over cruz..
Dench and Laura Dern FTW in 2006.
I wish there hadn't been that ridiculous last scene where Barbara is looking for her next "victim" in the park, because I think the rest of the film is sympathetic to both Barbara and Sheba and doesn't condemn Barbara, but the society that made her become bitter and lonely.
I'm glad to read all these positive comments. Love Judi in general, and this performance in particular. The monologue you mention is priceless. I also agree that Phil Davis is a brilliant actor.
What a marvel of a performance this is. If only someone else had been cast as Sheba, I can only imagine how infinite the possibilities of more awesomeness might have been. Her acid delivery of the line, "You are not young" continues to resonate after all these years. With that 2006 best actress lineup I'm still a bit annoyed that Helen Mirren won.
@Aaron: I also believe that her rendition of "Send in the Clowns" is the best I've ever witnessed (thank God for YouTube).
I didn't care for Notes on a Scandal. I thought everything except for Judi Dench was just a bit too much. Blanchett especially went unhinged there. Those voice overs are how she still managed to make my Best Actress line-up. For me, no one will unseat Helen Mirren for The Queen, but Dench might come the closest. I have to think about that.
2006 was a decent acressing year. I'm more ambivalent about Dench but that's probably just because of the genre (although Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada bears the brunt of that, as good as she was there). That monologue though touches on something so real, it's blood curdling, just like I want it to be.
What a movie, what a performance! One of the best of 2006.
"My contrarian opinion of Dame Judi Dench is that sometimes she phones it in. How many ways can one play the quippy unfazeable grande dame?"
OK, yes, I usually hear/read that about Dench. But then, how many challenging roles as Barbara Covett can an actress in her seventies get?
I remember seeing this in the theater. When Barbara was at the table with the teacher that liked Sheba, he said something to her like you never know about people, and then Dench said in her awesomely icy way, "It's a minefiield." Oh shit, that was incredible. The audience lapped it up, and this is usually the stodgy arthouse crowd cheering and oohing. I wish that Judi Dench could get one more role on the level of this one. That year in best actress was insane. As much as I love Mirren in "The Queen," I honestly would have been happy with any win that year (and if they had awarded Cruz, Winslet, or Streep then, we wouldn't have been subjected to one of their godawful later wins). And Dench needs to win a lead Oscar anyways. But with her eye condition, she'll probably have to retire soon. That makes me so upset. :-/
Thanks Nat, love this post..