Year: 2015
Director: Nicholas Hytner
My daughter’s current boyfriend is from Leeds while I, in case it had escaped your notice, hail from the mighty steel city of Sheffield. Last time I saw said boyfriend we played a kind of Yorkshire Top Trumps, each trying to outdo the other with the artistic and cultural achievements of our respective cities.
The entire county of Yorkshire doesn’t have a football team worthy of the name, so we quickly skip past sport and move straight onto music and the arts. My opening gambit of Def Leppard, Arctic Monkeys and Joe Cocker looks strong and is met with the frankly feeble response of Kaiser Chiefs, Jake Thackray and (snigger) Jimmy Savile. Actually that last one may have been my suggestion, thrown in with the intention of queering the boyfriend’s pitch, so to speak. But then, just when I think it’s in the bag for the Steel City, the bf plays his trump card – Alan Bennett – and suddenly it’s all over. That’s game set and match to Leeds, then. I can’t name anyone from Sheffield (not even Michael Palin) to match the great humorist/author/playwright. No one comes close for me.
From all of that that you will gather that I’m a huge Bennett fanboy and went to see this movie with both spirits and expectations set to “high”. The film opens in Australia just this week, by the way, six months after the UK release, in case you were wondering why this review is so late.
Set in Camden Town in the early 70s, The Lady In The Van was adapted from Bennett’s book of memoirs and tells the (mostly) true story of an eccentric homeless woman Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith), who lived in Bennett’s street (and then his driveway) in a series of dilapidated vans for more than fifteen years.
Then, as now, Camden Town was no ordinary London suburb of course and Bennett’s neighbours included an assortment of arty types, luvvie actors and musicians including, impressively, poet and author Ursula Vaughan Williams, played by Frances de la Tour, who turns in a fine performance as the widow of the great composer Ralph VW.
Bennett himself is played quite splendidly by Alex Jennings and is cleverly portrayed as two separate and quite dissimilar characters: Bennett the writer and Bennett the man who tries to lead a normal life amid the chaos. The two are often at odds and while Bennett the writer sees Miss Shepherd as a rich source of raw material for yet another book, the other Bennett is left to pick up the pieces and deal with the disruption she brings to his life.
Jennings has Bennett’s look and distinctive flat Yorkshire vowels down perfectly and only a fleeting appearance of the man himself in the closing scene, as a Blue Plaque is unveiled to Miss Shepherd, breaks the illusion.
Ultimately this a sad tale of mental illness, religious bigotry, blackmail and corruption in high places, yet Bennett’s writing style ensures that laughter is never far away and the preview audience I saw the film with were guffawing out loud at almost every line.
Only at the very end did the plot unravel somewhat as we entered the realms of fantasy. But we won’t go there in fear of revealing too many spoilers and by that stage the film had done more than enough to earn a decent review, anyway.
Beautifully filmed in and around Camden at Bennett’s actual former house in the street where the whole thing took place, there are some nice touches of detail, such as period-correct cars parked in the street. Watch out for a beautiful 60s red Alvis drophead which is present throughout, yet always parked in different place. Just like in real life.
The Lady In The Van is an enjoyable, if ultimately a flawed movie. Sterling performances by Maggie Smith (natch), Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent, Frances de la Tour and the wonderful Gwen Taylor (as Bennett’s “mam”) make it all worthwhile however. Then there’s the always-brilliant writing of Alan Bennett himself.
He’s from Leeds, you know.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
A Private Function, The History Boys, Talking Heads
—–> Now read on.
Considering he’s currently doing huge business in America, James Corden, playing a chirpy cockney barrow boy street trader, had just one line. And then he was gone, never to be seen again.
Having spent a lifetime (or maybe it just felt like it) working with actors, any self-respecting thesp – and is there any other kind? – would claim JC’s contribution as 3 lines JC.
(That’s JC as in you rather than JC as in the fat bloke geezering it up in the USA )
And interestingly, not only is Corden’s participation flogged to death in the blurb but his entire blink and you miss it appearance features in the trailer in its entirety, which must be some sort of record.
Good review – but I was surprised that Alan Bennett wasn’t played by em, Alan Bennett.
According to IMDB, he was born in 1934, so AB was probably too old for the role.
Agree with you JC. He is a national treasure. Such a wonderful ear for the language.
Maggie Smith was also wonderful in AB’s A Bed among the Lentils, one of the Talking Heads monologues.
Yes, KFB, those Talking Heads monologues are some of Bennett’s greatest work IMHO
It’s remarkable how early in his career Bennett found his own rather distinctive style. His contributions to Beyond the Fringe, particularly that sermon (it’s called Take a Pew and is on the Tube) are so unmistakeably him. It’s that ear for the nonsensical things that people say.
Beyond The Fringe. I often think that was possibly the greatest meeting of comedic minds Britain has ever witnessed. And that includes The Goons and Monty Python.
I’ll overlook your football comment as it clearly comes from a place of deep-seated jealousy JC.
PS I looked in vain for a similar tome on Sheffield
It’s a familiar and long-running tale MC. Whenever the Yorkshire news came on TV my Sheffield relatives would loudly opine how “Leeds-centric” it was.
http://i65.tinypic.com/2i6jrjr.jpg
Let’s try this one:
http://i65.tinypic.com/2i6jrjr.jpg
Nope, neither. Tinypic is phucked.
Fighting talk JC. Apart from the mighty LUFC (Yes, I am living in the past), Leeds also had Keith Waterhouse.
Part of it was filmed in Primrose Hill (as was parts of Paddington), must go and see it now. Enjoyed the book. If you haven’t already done so, read the Nina Stibbe book about working as a nanny in Camden Town. She paints an intriguing picture of Alan Bennett.
I’m with you on Keith Waterhouse DL. A great writer (Billy Liar etc).
Other parts of the movie were filmed in Broadstairs where Miss Shepherd’s brother supposedly lived.
Talking of Sheffield boys – how come JC forgot this bloke?
Classic scene. I had a few famous Sheffielders up my sleeve Gary. Not only the great Brian Glover, but Sean Bean, 60s popster Dave Berry and @colin-h‘s mate Chris Spedding (although he may be adopted).
Great review. And your curatorship of the comments is a lesson in professionalism.
Thank you. And I didn’t even bring my egg with me.
Loved this film and I really adore Maggie Smith. She has that mischievous glint in her eye that makes me think she would be a great companion on a night at the pub.
Great stuff, Johnny. I really enjoyed The History Boys. Apparently Bennett set it in 1984 as that was when he felt the approach to education was changing, represented by the old school (sorry) chaotic but inspiring teacher and his younger, efficient but slightly cynical colleague. I read recently that Bennett doesn’t think much of what has happened in the UK since the 80s.
Cheers Hawky. I tend to agree with Bennett on the last point. But maybe that’s just part of getting old.
As mentioned, there is a beautiful 60s Alvis drophead coupe, like the one pictured here, in almost every street scene of the film. It’s a nice touch because that’s exactly the kind of car a bohemian Camden resident would have owned in 1970 – grand, but very much out of the ordinary.
One detail they got wrong was the colour. The one in the film is pillar-box (or guards) red, which I’m certain was not an Alvis option in the 60s. They were usually sedate colours such as maroon, dark (or metallic) blue or silver. I’m guessing the one in the film was the subject of a restoration and re-sprayed bright red.
http://i.imgur.com/lwVQROo.jpg
I grew up in the same suburb of Leeds as Bennett and it’s weird to read in his autobiography that he frequented the same Armley library that I did as a kid. I’ve always thought there should be a plaque on 92a Otley Road, Headingley that housed his dad’s butcher’s shop. It’s the location where he wrote or features in a lot of his writing (Forty Years On, for example). I used to go past it every day without knowing the background. It’s now the Royale Dry Cleaners – the butcher’s shop (then owned by a Mr Waters) shut a decade ago.
Nice!
Bennett’s “mam” (played by the wonderful Gwen Taylor, she of the “I think it was the trousers” scene in The Rutles) features in the film a lot and there’s a strange and beautifully handled juxtaposition, as Miss Shepherd becomes more prominent in Bennett’s life, so “mam” (previously the dominant woman in his life) slips into terminal dementia and is hospitalised in Broadstairs.
One of the best scenes for me was the moment when Miss Shepherd confronts Bennett with “And don’t think I haven’t noticed all those young men coming and going from your house at all hours. I know what’s going on”.
Bennett is mortified and stammers “Er, what do you mean?”
“Communists!” she fires back “It’s all a communist plot. You’re all plotting something”
Bennett breathes easily.