Posterized: Judi Dench
Friday, March 6, 2015 at 11:30AM Today marks yet another onscreen reunion of besties & Dames Maggie and Judi: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in limited release (it goes wide next weekend). They shared a dressing room at the Old Vic in the 1950s and they've been tight ever since.
Dame Judi & Dame Maggie in 2014
They're both Oscar Royalty of course, among the most beloved actresses to ever live, but Judi Dench's story is particularly interesting since it took her so long to cross over into full stardom. Long a valued commodity in the UK, America was slow to discover her. Perhaps it started with the international hit and Best Picture nominated A Room With a View (where she & Maggie played spinster friends - they both won BAFTAs for their roles, Maggie in Lead, but only Maggie went on to an Oscar nomination with a demotion to supporting). By the time Judi got her first true lead film role in Her Majesty Mrs Brown, Maggie was already a two-time Oscar winner, with five nominations under her belt.
So Judi's late life success is a unique story. Let's look at her career since her stateside breakthrough. How many of these 24 Judi Dench films have you seen?
1997-1998 A sudden Oscar star!
Her Majesty Mrs Brown - Her first true leading role at 63 (!). Golden Globe & BAFTA Win. Oscar Best Actress Nomination. (Considered the Oscar frontrunner but Helen Hunt, the late arrival, stole everyone else's thunder)
Tomorrow Never Dies -second outing as "M"
Shakespeare in Love - Oscar & BAFTA Supporting Actress wins ('sorry about last year!')
1999-2004 Miss Dependable. Ensemble Good Luck Charm
Tea With Mussollini (reuniting with Maggie), The World is Not Enough, Chocolat (Oscar /BAFTA/SAG/Globe Nomination, SAG Ensemble nod). And during this time period she also won an Emmy & SAG nom, her second Golden Globe, and her ninth BAFTA for the TV film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000)
Iris (Oscar/SAG/Globe nominations, BAFTA win), The Shipping News (completely unneccesary BAFTA & SAG nominations), The Importance of Being Earnest
Die Another Day, Chronicles of Riddick, Ladies in Lavender (again with Maggie)
2005-2014 Okay, she's just a full on movie star at this point. Headlining consistent arthouse hits, increasingly successful Bond outings, and the random prestige ensembles.
Pride & Prejudice, Mrs Henderson Presents (Oscar/BAFTA/Globe/SAG nominations), Casino Royale
Notes on a Scandal (Oscar/BAFTA/SAG/Globe nomination), Quantum of Solace, Nine (SAG Ensemble Nod).
During this time frame she also had a huge TV hit with Cranford miniseries (BAFTA/Emmy/Globe nominations),
Jane Eyre, My Week With Marilyn (BAFTA nomination), J. Edgar
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (another outing with Maggie earned her a Globe nomination & they were both SAG nominated as an Ensemble), Skyfall (BAFTA nomination), Philomena (Oscar/BAFTA/Globe/SAG nominations)
HOW MANY HAVE YOU SEEN?
On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fan are you of Dame Judi?
Reader Comments (58)
I have seen
The best exotic marigold hotel
Nine
Notes on a scandal
Skyfall
I have seen 14+Second Marigold. This is more than I usually count in Posterized as I enjoy Bonds. I will say I'm an 8/10 fan. She is always good but I don't watch something because she is in it.
OMG did Cate Blanchett actually leave a comment!
I'm a 10/10, huge fan. Dench is right up there with Streep. She's so good in just about everything she does, difficult to pick faves.
1. Notes on a Scandal
2. Mrs. Brown
3. Philomena
oh boy, I've seen all of them... even the vin diesel one!
I am a big Dench fan! She is a calming presence in every movie she takes part in, what a charismatic performer. And her voice! I think her all-time best was Notes on a Scandal (2006) and she scared the living daylight of me. Other fave perfs from her are Queen Elizabeth I, M (Skyfall), Armande Voizin, and Evelyn Greenslade.
I've seen A Room With a View (1985), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The World is Not Enough (1999), Chocolat (2000), Die Another Day (2002), Ladies in Lavender (2004), Pride and Prejudice (2005), Casino Royale (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Nine (2009), My Week With Marilyn (2011), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Skyfall (2012), and Philomena (2013). Wow, that's 17! I have yet to see Hamlet (1996), Mrs. Brown (1997), The Shipping News (2001), Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and J. Edgar (2011).
Hmmmmm, I've seen 15, which I think is the most I've ever seen for the Posterized series. Who knew I was such a fan? And the thing is, I am a fan. I think she's great. Funny, intimidating, tough, vulnerable, all the things, basically. And yet, I don't remember a lot of her performances. She was in A Week With Marilyn and J. Edgar? Don't remember a single thing she did in either of those. Maybe that says something about those movies, but then I also realized why I have a hard time placing her in so many of the films I've seen. Her look hardly ever changes. As great as she is, I guess I never forget that I'm watching Judi Dench. Maybe it's because she became famous late in life so I never really saw her as a young woman, maybe with lots of different hairstyles or something. But since she often looks the same and is often stuck with the same kind of supporting roles (intimidating authority figure, for instance), a lot of these kind of blur together.
But her performances in Shakes in Love, Notes on a Scandal, the Bond movies and some others? Totally memorable.
I have to add, right after I left that comment, I remembered that she was of course J. Edgar's mother in that. I think I mostly focus on the old age makeup and the mystery of why Naomi Watts would choose such a thankless role.