LEDE: Lady in the Van opens this weekend at Arclight and Angelika Center. KPBS film critic Beth Accomando says it tells the “mostly true story” of playwright Alan Bennett’s odd relationship with a homeless woman who camped out on his driveway for more than a decade. LADY 2 (ba) 1:20 One day in 1970 playwright Alan Bennett crossed paths with an old woman by his Camden Town flat in London. CLIP I need a push for the van. It’s conked out, the battery possibly. I put water in it… distilled water… no holy water. The encounter led to him allowing the homeless Miss Shepherd to park her van in his driveway for 15 years. It also resulted in a play he wrote about his eccentric accidental neighbor that starred Maggie Smith. Smith now returns to the role for the film and perfectly captures Shepherd’s “vagabond nobility” and thoroughly churlish disposition. She fully expects people to satisfy her all her needs yet her pride never allows her to extend one iota of gratitude for anything. But Bennett snarkily suggests she met a need for the community. CLIP Alex Jennings’s uptight, clipped performance as Alan Bennett is the perfect match for Smith’s Miss Shepherd. Together they deliver a delightful two-person character study. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
Companion viewing
"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969)
"The Madness of King George" (1994)
"Dark Days" (2000)
“Lady in the Van” (opening Jan. 22 at Arclight La Jolla and Angelika Film Center) tells the “mostly true story” of playwright Alan Bennett’s odd relationship with a homeless woman who camped out on his driveway for 15 years.
One day in 1970 playwright Alan Bennett crossed paths with an old woman by his Camden Town flat in London. She asked him to help her push her disabled van. She explained that she had put water in. When he asked if it was distilled water, she answered, “It was holy water.”
So began Bennett’s “relationship” with Miss Shepherd. Bennett ended up letting her park her van, essentially her “home,” in his driveway where she camped out for 15 years. The experience also prompted him to write a play about her that starred Maggie Smith.
Sixteen years later, Smith is revisiting the role for the film.
I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing her onstage in the role but I imagine that the passing of years has only made her better and the performance richer.
She perfectly captures what Bennett describes as Shepherd’s “vagabond nobility” as well as her thoroughly churlish disposition. She fully expects people to satisfy all her needs yet her pride, or perhaps just her arrogance, never allows her to extend one iota of gratitude for anything.
She takes food, clothes, and gifts and then frequently dismisses the givers with an impatient, “Go away, I’m a busy woman.”
When someone looks down on her as a beggar she retorts that she is “self-employed.” Bennett never makes her someone to warm up to but you begrudgingly care for her and develop a kind of respect for her defiant attitude.
Bennett snarkily suggests that his Camden Town community tolerated her and even helped her because she helped alleviate their guilt. Giving her a meal or a gift made his neighbors feel like they were doing their part to help the homeless.
Alex Jennings’s uptight, clipped performance as Alan Bennett is the perfect match for Smith’s Miss Shepherd. A gimmick of both the play and the film is that Bennett has an alter ego: there’s the writer and then there’s the person who goes out into the world to live and the two bicker like an old married couple. Jennings makes the gimmick work well as he interacts more with his own alter ego than the outside world.
“The Lady in the Van” (rated PG-13 for a brief unsettling image) is not a great or deep work of art but it is a delightful, perfectly acted, smartly written two-person character study. The insights are mostly on a small personal scale but then the film doesn’t aspire to anything bigger. And seeing Maggie Smith showcased like this is a pleasure you don’t want to miss.
