#mona washbourne

[scholarofgloom]

[dare-g]

One Way Pendulum (1965)

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A T C H I N G

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[screenshotingmonstercinema]

[letterboxd-loggd]

if... (1968) Lindsay Anderson

January 3rd 2024

[ozu-teapot]

The Bed Sitting Room | Richard Lester | 1969

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

STEVIE

We should all be so lucky as to have Glenda Jackson do for us what she does for the life of poet Stevie Smith and Hugh Whitemore’s slight play about it, STEVIE (1978). Her portrait of the sometimes reclusive poet who was preoccupied with death from an early age (thanks to a childhood bout with tuberculosis) is brimming with life and warmth. There’s no real dramatic arc. The film simply presents Stevie at different points in her life as she interacts with the aunt (Mona Washbourne) who raised her and a friend (Tervor Howard) who drove her about in later years, and relives her final confrontation with the fiancé (Alec McCowen) she broke with because of his aspirations to a conventional middle class existsence. That’s the only scene in which you can see the Jackson most of us know; the biting intellectual from films like WOMEN IN LOVE (1970) and the TV series ELIZABETH R. The rest of the time, she speaks wittily to the audience and treats her aunt with great delicacy and affection. It may be her most varied performance. First time director Robert Enders tries to keep the piece from being stage bound by cutting to sepia-toned flashbacks and scenes of Howard walking around London discussing Smith and reciting some of her poems. The flashbacks are exquisitely shot by Freddie Young and Howard’s readings are almost impeccable, but they feel obtrusive. All I wanted was more of Jackson and as much as I could get of Washbourne, in her last film. Her portrayal of The Lion Aunt, as Smith called her, is a perfect balance to Jackson. The older she gets, the more she finds the joy and normality in her dwindling capabilities. And the interplay between the two actresses, who had performed the play on stage, is a treasure.