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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Oscar History: Dame Maggie Smith

by Cláudio Alves

Younger audiences may know Dame Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall and the sharp-tongued Countess of Grantham, but, before Downton Abbey and Harry Potter, she was already a British national treasure, having won two Oscars by 1979, with four additional nominations. This awards season, with the Dowager Countess promoted to the big screen, she might return to the Academy’s good graces.

Her Downton Abbey role has already proven an awards magnet with three Emmys and a Golden Globe. Maybe its popularity will translate to movie awards? 

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Monday Monologue: Miss Jean Brodie

With The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (just reviewed) garnering big audiences in limited release, Dames Judi and Maggie have been on the mind. Last week, I remembered my favorite scene from Judi Dench's best performance in Notes on a Scandal (2006), so this week a look back at Maggie Smith's Oscar winning signature role The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) for a companion piece...

What follows from the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is not technically a monologue. This progressive middle school teacher in a conservative girls school invites interjections into her speeches, if not actual participation or dialogue. I was tempted to publish this a day early and call it for a Sunday Soliloquy but it's not really that either. For Miss Brodie isn't speaking directly to herself.

Or is she?

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