Past Visions with Nuance of the Present: The Life of the Late Dame Maggie Smith

FILMOLOGIE: An Examination of Ageism Which Boxed Maggie Smith

Pictured: Dame Maggie Smith — LOEWE SS24 Pre-Collection Campaign

The age of the goddess of film is eclipsing as our late actors pass on, allowing film to evolve into a differing age of emerging story-telling from every diverse view. Past catalogs serve as an archive of nuanced time for historical text we can only hope survives for future generations.

The first point to make about Dame Maggie Smith’s life is the public persona of the ‘older woman’. In my generation and many generations growing up with Smith, the most prevalent and well-known role she held was that of Professor McGonigal in The Harry Potter (2001–2011) films beginning in November of 2001. Then, through several child-like film roles, she starred as the astute television character of Mrs. Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). With these roles, the American and younger international public claimed Smith as the grandeur grandmotherly figure of the world, in congruence with the likes of Julie Andrews.

With the best of intentions I don’t think any one person tries to age someone, but as time goes on older releases loose their appeal, and slowly older films become almost a lost collection of footage to the future generations, only found on the Turner Classic Movies channel at your grandparent's house.

I’m here to report that yes Smith lived a full career of film roles almost no one remembers in the present time, but Smith was once 21 and 35, fully relatable to the younger populations of the time and today, as the lessons of love and trepidation. The reasons I brought up this archetype of which Smith was placed in the past four decades is because there is a unfair and misogynistic timeline we put on women in film. Occurring to all early film actresses (and the present), the archetyping begins and once you claim the age of a label it sticks. Looking through Smith’s catalog it’s as it seems she was as well.

LIFE

Dame Maggie Smith was born in 1934 on December the 28th in England. She began a long career studying first, at the Oxford Playhouse School and reveled in theatrical success with New Faces of 1956, and Share My Lettuce (1957–58). She earned credits in the Old Vic Theatre in London, and Britain’s National Theatre Company in 1963. Smith was 24 with her debut on the big screen in Nowhere to Go (1958), but only gained international credits with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). The 1960s and 1970s were a defining time for Smith with two films I reckon are the most notable of her performances. A few performances I am detailing are that of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and Death on the Nile (1978), and the dissonance of her career thereafter.

LOVE AND THEATRE

The 1950s was a time of live theatre and educational pursuits for Smith, catapulting her into the swinging sexual revolution of the 1960s. Smith’s first internationally recognized role which she won an Academy award for, was that of Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Before we knew her as the astute professor, Smith played the sexually liberated and progressive Jean Brodie. Teaching her girls of love and prowess without the traditional subjects which came into constant conflict with administration. Not to mention her love affairs with two men, explicitly learning with the girls along the way. One could take this film and see the literal sense of ignoring the real effects of misleading 12-year-old girls, but stepping back it’s more about the lessons of life. It’s a jarring film, especially for someone who’s only seen Smith as the older matronly dame. The film begins in an uplifting comical sense, ending with a reveal of narcissistic manipulation and unprofessionalism in the most diluted lens of analysis. In a sense she played the role of growing into mid-adulthood, growing out of the delusion of love and future mystics, and coming face to face with her age and the societal repercussions of her actions at this age. Professor McGonigal if she were still flaunting her sexual prowess and

adventure. Sometimes it’s hard to grow up and we never really do. Smith taught us growing up is simply age, but the feelings and delusion never really disappear. Large differences to her counterparts are that of her acting of realism never delving into the facade of misplaced femineity of earlier mega-actresses. Smith portrays her characters in a very liberating and real sense of the word. She doesn’t hide behind unblemished beauty and delicate actions, rather real and loud actions of a living woman.

MISPLACED DISILLUSIONMENT

Without knowing the inner workings of Smith’s life there’s no way to truly know what was going on through her life and to speculate in life after passing is crude and obscured. I can only imagine she was making strides in the ways she thought fit her career and what mattered to her, at least we can hope. It seems the literal hypocrisy of the misogynistic film industry came for Smith as well because as soon as she entered the 1980’s her features became closer to what we know today as the astute leader.

After Death on the Nile (1978), came Evil Under the Sun (1982), cousins in every sense of thematic elements. I thought Death on the Nile (1978) still heeded the early visions Smith had for her work and prowess, but Evil Under the Sun (1982) began a new era for Smith. Out of the late 1970s and 1980s credits, only this I see as a truly good film she participated in. Evil Under the Sun (1982) is a kind of thematic linear replication of older Golden Era dramas similar to that of Key Largo (1948), or Casablanca (1942). 40 years later a good film none-the-less, but a cheaper imagined version in 1982. It seems Smith was a part of this misaligned guidance of the early blockbuster era. An industry that was wrought from decay, and nowhere to go until the likes of Jaws (1975). Evil Under the Sun (1982) had definitely a more captivating story than other similar films, but alas the astute grandeur of her future artistic personality forms in these years for the next four decades. Her hair becomes more matronly, her clothes motherly, and her demeanor astute and resound, the antithesis of young progressives. It’s important to note that the roles don’t explain Smith personally, but you can’t help but argue the way she chose these, reflects the nature of the situation she was placed and what she had to do. Excellent roles none-the-less, but at odds because if only women could continue to pursue regardless of ageism. Why is James Bond allowed to be upwards of 60 years old, while the counterpart must remain at a mere 23.

IMMORTALITY

Women are socially forced to take upon differing titles in their lives whichever life they choose. Choosing to have a dream career, a family, both and all of the above, societal veils have yet to be lifted. Older women are still expected to have the wisest wisdom and most demure personality whereas most still see themselves as 21 or 35. We age, we don’t forget. In the case of Smith, she was always known for one thing, her banter. The quick wit of someone who lived a full life, bright at heart, making even the dullest break into laughter. She took her life with knowing hands and created a career most can only dream of.

Something quite wonderful was Smith’s debut on Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2024 campaign. Looking through the lens of fashion, you see the hope and beauty of someone who is still 24 at heart. The quirkiness of couture and high fashion allow Smith a nuance of movement and gesture most films can never capture because of our negative nuance towards ageism and the box it creates. Whether people discover the world outside her box, she is a fundamental pillar of the 90s and 00s film. With all the reasons we should remember the early years, it’s also essential to recognize the significance of later years as well. Connection is key as one leads to the other, and somehow Smith laying about on a sofa with couture fashion captures her vibrant essence in the best of ways.

Reasons are multiple for writing this, but the most important of all is to remember Dame Maggie Smith was always there at heart in 1960 and in 2024, she was not just the matron, but also the lover, the stud and the accomplice.

If you enjoy my work; articles, essays, novellas, and poetry are published first on my Substack.

-xx