Goodbye, Maggie Smith (1934-2024)

by Cláudio Alves

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA (2022) was one of Maggie Smith's last screen appearances.

We always knew the day would come, but it's still difficult to imagine life without the great Maggie Smith among us. Born to a secretary and a pathologist in the interim years between the Great World Wars, she became a respected star of the stage before a jump to cinema in the 1960s expanded her horizons. From temptress to bitter old lady, from romantic heroin to comic relief, dipsomaniac tragedienne, whodunit queen and deranged diva – she could do it all, despite what some might have said about her late-career range or lack thereof. To me, Dame Maggie Smith was a titan, one of my favorite screen presences, and a reliable workhorse who could elevate every project she was involved in, even those that didn't deserve her talents. The British star will be sorely missed and the arts are poorer without her. Nay, the world.

Over the years, multiple writers at The Film Experience have explored the career of the late great two-time Oscar winner. So, let's revisit those pieces and bask in the love for an actress of incomparable wit and unimpeachable craft…

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A Maggie Smith Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

Have you seen The Miracle Club yet? Thaddeus O'Sullivan's comedy has been in theaters for a week, and it's bound to bewitch actressexuals, showcasing performances from a cadre of lovely thespians. There's Kathy Bates and Laura Linney in what Matt St Clair described as a work of "unwavering grace and sly tenacity." There's also Maggie Smith, one of my favorite living actresses, delivering another late-career turn to remind viewers they shouldn't take her for granted. Sure, her decade-spanning portrayal of Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey seemed like a congealment of the actress's greatest hits. However, that doesn't mean Smith is a one-trick pony, that her filmography is without risk or variety.

To commemorate, let's make the two-time Oscar winner our subject for list-mania. So, dear reader, will you join me down Maggie Smith's extensive repertoire, searching for the top ten highlights? It's a vast scope of roles, from scene-stealing supporting parts to titanic leads, from heartbreak to cutting pithiness…

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The Best Costumes of 1986

by Cláudio Alves

At last, we must say goodbye to the 1986 cinematic year. The Supporting Actress Smackdown was a blast and, before moving on to 1937, there's one remaining matter to take care of – the Best Costume Design Oscar race. Just like Dianne Wiest won the first of her two Academy Awards at that ceremony, so did Jenny Beavan. The British designer dressed the likely runner-up for Supporting Actress, Maggie Smith in A Room with a View, delivering a dream of Edwardian fashions with the help of fellow costumier John Bright. Indeed, all of the nominees that year were period pieces, ranging from 1500s Venetian tragedies to a time-traveling misadventure through 1960's suburbia. The contenders were:

• Anna Anni & Maurizio Millenotti, Otello
• Jenny Beavan & John Bright, A Room with a View
• Anthony Powell, Pirates
• Theadora Van Runkle, Peggy Sue Got Married
• Enrico Sabbatini, The Mission

First, let's examine the winner, our favorite and much-dissected Merchant-Ivory classic. I promise this is the last time I write about A Room with a View…

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1986: The rise of Daniel Day-Lewis

by Cláudio Alves

Some years are especially momentous in an actor's career. A few days ago, I wrote about Adam Driver's promising 2021, how a collection of ambitious projects might make the performer essential to any overview of the cinematic year. A similar situation happened in 1986 when Daniel Day-Lewis first came to prominence for worldwide audiences. While he had had small roles in a couple of films in the early eighties, it was the international release of a remarkable pair of features that put his name on the map. It happened all at once, and, for New Yorker filmgoers, in particular, it was staggeringly sudden. On March 7th, 1986, NYC was blessed with the premiere of two pictures featuring two incredibly different performances by the same (then) little-known Irish actor. To this day, A Room with a View and My Beautiful Laundrette represent some of Daniel Day-Lewis' most excellent work…

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A Room With a View, Pt 3: A lot of lying on the way to Truth, Beauty, and Love

Previously in our deep dive retrospective, Nathaniel visited Lucy Honeychurch at her idyllic pastoral home in England and her new engagement to Cecil Vyse, whose sneering fastidiousness is only matched by his complete inability to relate normally to other people. Things got delightfully complicated when the Emersons turned up unexpectedly as neighbors.  They’re about to get a lot more complicated in part 3, with Charlotte Bartlett, of all people, emerging as the unsung savior of truth, beauty, and love.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW
(a three part miniseries)
part 3 by Lynn Lee

I’ll be honest: although A Room With a View is one of my all-time favorites, for a long time the third act was my least favorite.  Too much lying and denial by Lucy, too much drawing out of the inevitable, not enough humor to make it go faster.  But as I grew older, I came to see it differently.  If the first act is the most romantic and the second the most comedic, the third is – pardon my French – when shit gets real.  We see the emotional consequences of our heroine trying to bury what’s in her heart, and in so doing we get to see her finally grow up. 

1:18:26  First-time viewers may not know it yet, but the library book Lucy’s mother admonishes her to pick up is a narrative grenade...

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