Michigan Today - November 2007

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Talking about movies

Julie Christie: Then, now and forever

By Frank Beaver

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Julie Christie'
The great Julie Christie, then (above, obviously) and now.
Julie Christie'

When critics argue about the "greatest" contemporary British actress, the result is usually a tossup between Judi Dench and Helen Mirren—two consummate actors whose screen work can be so memorable that even in the smallest of roles they dominate.  Take for example Judi Dench's minuscule, yet Oscar-winning performance as an earthy Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love" (1998); or Helen Mirren as Queen Charlotte in "The Madness of King George" (1994) who in just a few scenes with her erratic, distraught husband gave the film an important touch of warmth and affection.  Dench and Mirren are masterful character actors.

And yet I would ask whether there is a British film actor with a longer and more laudable track record than that of Julie Christie?  Because Christie has been highly selective in the last couple of decades about what she chooses to do on screen, we tend to forget just how remarkable and enduring her career has been.

Just to peruse the number of film classics with Christie in the lead is nothing short of astonishing.  In her early years she was the spirited Liz opposite Tom Courtenay in "Billy Liar" (1963), directed by John Schlesinger.  Two years later Schlesinger cast Christie as Diana Scott in "Darling" (1965), the story of a beautiful model-actress who unflinchingly uses her sexual prowess to climb professional and social ladders.  Christie's interpretation of the manipulative, amoral Scott is regarded as one of the greatest all-time screen performances.  To rescreen "Darling" is to again discover the powerful attributes that have sustained this actress over the past 40-plus years, a great beauty capable of subtle, mesmerizing nuance.  The role won Christie an Oscar for Best Actress. 

Also in 1965 the epic "Dr. Zhivago", with Christie as Lara, secured a broad international following.  Then came the roles of Thomas Hardy's  Bathsheba Everdene in "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1967), and Petulia Danner in Richard Lester's "Petulia" (1968). The 1970s brought other unforgettable roles:  the title character in Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" (1971); "The Go-Between" (1971); "Don’t Look Now" (1973), a horror thriller with Christie and Donald Sutherland in one of cinema's most evocative sex scenes; and the titillating "Shampoo" (1975), co-starring her sometime lover Warren Beatty.

In the 1980s Christie began to reject numerous roles in big films, turning more to British television work.  Her most notable film achievement of the decade was the role of Anne in "Heat and Dust" (1983), a lovely, ironic screen adaptation of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's novel about two British women, 60 years apart, living and falling in love in India. 

In 1997, Christie—age 57 and as radiant as ever—reemerged to international acclaim (and another Oscar nomination) for her role as Phyllis Mann in "Afterglow."  Christie's performance as an aging actress with a philandering handyman husband was one distinguished by a sense of both melancholy and graceful reserve.

And now 10 years later, Christie is Fiona in "Away From Her," an adaptation of Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain."  Its story is of a married couple of 40-plus years whose lives are overtaken by the wife's encroaching Alzheimer's disease.  I will say up front that this is the one film I've seen so far this year that I would urge every adult to see.  The film poignantly exposes the haunting and cruel ways that an all-too-familiar disease causes lives to fade into a dark world where the minds that connected them to their loved ones no longer exist.

"Away From Her" (written and directed by Sarah Polley) is about what Fiona calls her "disappearance" when she begins to sense her loss of memory and grip on the world around her. But it is also about Fiona's husband, Grant, who must stand by and observe the consequences of his wife's disease.  As her mind fades away, so do the couple's contented lives together. And Grant's long-standing commitment to Fiona to never be "away from her" is shattered.

After moving of her own accord to an assisted living home, Fiona soon attaches herself to another man—a silent fellow patient named Aubrey.  As Grant (wonderfully acted by Gordon Pinsent) watches Fiona and Aubrey interacting, there is a swell of jealousy, anger and perhaps remorse and guilt as he reflects on the fact that, as Fiona reminded him in a moment of lucidity before moving to the nursing home, he had been prone to sexual dalliance in the earlier years of their marriage. Tackling a complex set of emotional challenges, the film moves to an unsentimental conclusion about the enduring power of love. In the end there is an uplifting feeling about what has transpired between Grant and Fiona,

To observe Julie Christie in "Away From Her" is to see once more an actress who takes a complex role and renders it with nuance and graceful elegance.  Even as a character lost to the ravages of mental disease, Christie remains a luminous presence on the screen.  Every image of her lingers.   Robert Altman said of Christie: "She's my incandescent, melancholy, strong, gold-hearted, sphinx-like, stainless steel little soldier." It's a wonderful attempt to find words that  define the magical and enduring qualities of a great screen actress.      

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Frank Beaver

Film historian and critic Frank Beaver is professor of film and video studies and professor of communication.