{"id":10277,"date":"2015-12-11T09:17:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T09:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/intercardiff\/?p=10277"},"modified":"2015-12-11T09:17:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T09:17:31","slug":"review-the-lady-in-the-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/business-culture\/review-the-lady-in-the-van","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Lady in the Van"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Unfamiliar homeless woman by Maggie Smith touches us with familiar feeling<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11085\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11085\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72.jpg\" alt=\"Maggie Smith in the Lady in the Van\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72.jpg 640w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72-500x281.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11085\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72.jpg\" alt=\"Maggie Smith in the Lady in the Van\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72.jpg 640w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/12\/MaggieSmith_2_72-500x281.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Maggie Smith in the Lady in the Van<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter is not here, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey either. Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith) is a homeless woman who is selfish, difficult and who stayed in other\u2019s parking for 15 years. She may be charming, but not elegant or dignified like our familiar Dame Maggie Smith.<\/p>\n<p>This is a story written by Alan Bennett, based on\u00a0his true-story that he allowed the woman staying in his parking for 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Also this is a story of people with two faces and how they became free.\u00a0Bennett (Alex Jennings) has two himself for \u2018living\u2019 and \u2018writing\u2019. Ms Shepherd\u00a0has her present face and the past one. Moreover, Ms Shepherd and Bennett\u2019s mother are described in contrast as the two \u2018mothers\u2019 Bennett cares for. As the film goes on these structures, this is a complex story even with Bennett\u2019s witty monologue.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett\u2019s concern seems to be more familiar for many people. Caring elderly parent gives high pressure to sons and daughters (He hated word \u2018care\u2019 even though he often clean his toilet that Miss Shepherd failed using.) He felt some guilt\u00a0letting his mother stay in nursing home and kept Shepherd near him. But there is no physical contact between Bennett and Shepherd that may means they see each other as \u2018others\u2019. And that\u2019s why he could allow her stay for so long.<\/p>\n<p>Two \u2018mothers\u2019 may understand his emotional conflict. Real mother said she is okay, and the other sometimes blamed him that he kept them for his writing. But they never left and relied on him. This acceptance that psychological distance doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t show them love touches us. Using of natural sound such as howling wind or birds twittering in the film also encourages touching in unusual but ordinary days.<\/p>\n<p>In the climax, close-up of deep wrinkled Miss. Shepherds\u2019 hands and elsewhere-minded eyes talks all of her life. Hytner used a film\u2019s advantage effectively from its original playwright. Shepherd is not a familiar character at all,\u00a0but I can believe\u00a0her life and feeling.\u00a0Who loves Maggie Smith herself will love this film too.<\/p>\n<p>Trailer<\/p>\n<p>Alan Bennett: \u201cMaggie has got a sense of humour, but Shepherd didn\u2019t at all. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>in the Behind the scenes of the Lady in the Van<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfilms\/interview\/the_lady_in_the_van\">http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfilms\/interview\/the_lady_in_the_van_lff<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dame Maggie Smith&#8217;s &#8216;Mostly true story&#8217; of homeless woman shows us subtleties of human nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":11085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Review: The Lady in the Van - InterCardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: The Lady in the Van - InterCardiff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dame Maggie Smith&#039;s &#039;Mostly true story&#039; 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