"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."

Pauline Kael

Emma Thompson

April 15, 1959 -

I adore Emma Thompson. In fact, I’ve recently learned that several people in my circle of friends seem to have an incredibly strong admiration and respect for her. When discussing what celebrities would have us completely weak in the knees were we to run into them, she is often the one woman we all agree on. Why is she so unsung? She’s a two-time Oscar winner. In fact, to date, she is the only person who has won Academy Awards as both an actor and a writer. She is as adept at comedy as she is at drama. At 49 years old she remains a natural beauty. In fact, she’s so worthy of worship that even Kevin Smith thinks she’s God. (Or at least, he had wanted her to play God in his film Dogma, before she had to back out due to her pregnancy.) Oh yes, and as a woman in show business? It can be agreed upon that she simply kicks ass. Here’s the story my friends and I shared one night that served only to raise our esteem for Emma Thompson: To prepare for the filming of her latest film, a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, Thompson made dinners for her on-screen family at her London home. One night, she noticed that co-star Hayley Atwell wasn’t eating much. Atwell revealed that the studio had instructed her to lose some weight. (Which, if you’ve seen Atwell, you will realize is preposterous!) Thompson was so angry that she threatened to quit the project unless the producers at Miramax dropped the issue. She also infamously told Kate Winslet, “If you ever lose weight, I will never fucking talk to you again.” This is a woman with the right priorities, talent and a general aura of goodness about her. I simply had to devote a few weeks to watching her film career unfold before me.

Once I had gathered all of my Emma movies together, it seemed a bit intimidating. There was a stack next to my television and a few movies added to the rental queue to boot. I started with something unexpected, a movie I never thought I’d watch despite my humongous crush on Colin (Mister Darcy!) Firth: 2005’s fantasy/comedy/family film, Nanny McPhee. In addition to adapting the screenplay from Christianna Brand’s books, Thompson plays the titular character, covered with warts, a long snaggletooth and a bulbous nose. She appears magically, like Mary Poppins, to help out a widower (Colin Firth) and his seven unruly children. It’s a cute film with charming moments that lead to a truly wondrous finale. Consider it an appetizer.

My journey continued with a couple of films in which she appears very briefly. In the first, Henry V, she plays Katherine. She appears only twice—and most of her dialogue is in French. It is one of the earliest collaborations between her and actor/director Kenneth Branagh, to whom she was married until 1995. The couple would come to fame in America together, but Thompson’s career had actually begun years earlier, as a comedienne. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English Literature and then starring in a revival of the show “Me and My Girl,” she ended up doing sketch comedy in her very own show, “Thompson.” This led her to the 1987’s BBC mini-series, “Tutti Frutti,” co-starring Robbie Coltrane. The same year, she gave her BAFTA Best Actress award-winning performance in another BBC mini, “Fortunes of War.” “Fortunes” would be the first collaboration with Branagh, with whom she later starred in the Judi Dench directed play “Look Back in Anger” before working again on a series of films which Branagh directed. “Fortunes” is clearly late 80s BBC from the opening moments all the way through the seventh and final episode. Which is to say, it isn’t the best looking thing you’ll see and the score is sort of dreadful and off-putting, but it’s filled with great performances and an interesting story. Thompson and Branagh play a couple of Brits in Romania near the beginning of World War II. It’s an interesting glimpse of the pair before Branagh’s films rocketed them into fame.

In one of her early non-Branagh films, Thompson manages to steal every scene in the first half of frequent Stephen Sondheim collaborator James Lapine’s Impromptu. It’s the story of writer George Sands (played by the staggeringly talented Judy Davis) and her romantic pursuit of the composer Chopin (as played by Hugh Grant). As wonderful as this story is, the film’s supporting characters offer the most entertainment: Mandy Patinkin as a jealous lover of Sands’, Bernadette Peters as another woman with her eye on Chopin and of course, Thompson. She plays the Duchess D’Antan, a wealthy woman who invites some of the most talented writers, painters and composers in Paris to her provincial estate for a fortnight. The Duchess is a woman who aspires to surround herself with artists who all believe her to be insufferable and silly. The role gave Thompson ample room to show off her comedic skills, especially when delivering the unlikely catch-phrase, “Stupid, stupid rain!” Although the artists find much to mock, the audience is likely to find the Duchess immensely likeable.

The next film I watched is probably the one that introduced me (and most of America) to Thompson: the suspenseful mystery Dead Again. The movie begins with Thompson silent and suffering from amnesia, while private detective Mike Church (Branagh) is hired to find out who she is. She’s haunted by mysterious dreams and memories of another life—one that ended in murder 40 years ago. Scott Frank’s story is perfectly put together and it is the sort of film that repays you with every single viewing. As amnesiac Grace, Thompson effortlessly glides from lost to found to frightened. Her chemistry with Branagh is undeniable here and even has the feel of a 1940s film noir couple, but a year later she would give a performance that announced to the world that Emma Thompson was a force to be reckoned with on her own.

Howards End was based on the novel by E.M. Forster and was brought to film by the same team who had previously adapted his books gloriously in A Room with a View and Maurice—producer Ismael Merchant and director James Ivory. In Howards End, Thompson plays Margaret Schlegel, eldest of three siblings whose lives intersect with the inhabitants of the titular home, Howards End. Thompson absolutely shimmers in the role, the picture of delight and all that is good as a woman trying to provide for herself and her siblings. She manages to stand toe to toe with Sir Anthony Hopkins and a breathtaking performance from Vanessa Redgrave. As far as I’m concerned, it is her best work ever. The Academy agreed and awarded Thompson it’s Best Actress Oscar. The next year, she would be nominated twice more: for Supporting Actress opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in the true story In the Name of the Father and for Best Actress in her second collaboration with Merchant & Ivory (and Hopkins), The Remains of the Day.

However, before that she would appear in two more films by Branagh. The first is the delightful comedy, Peter’s Friends, which was co-written by comedienne Rita Rudner, who also appears in the film. This film shows us the reunion of a group of friends a decade after their time at university. Thompson plays the shy bookworm of the bunch, who secretly loves the titular Peter (played by Stephen Fry). I’m sure that there have been endless comparisons and references to this as “a British Big Chill” and while I see the point, I must confess I like Peter’s Friends much more. Alongside frequent collaborators Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton, Thompson gets to shine along with the rest of the sparkling ensemble, appearing in some of the films most touching moments.

Her last film with Branagh is his fantastic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. As Beatrice opposite Branagh’s Benedick, Thompson is like Rosalind Russell’s His Girl Friday character, transported through time to Tuscany and firing off Shakespearean dialogue. The couple manages to steal the entire show. (It would be their last performance as a married couple, although both actors will appear in writer/director Richard Curtis’s upcoming film, The Boat That Rocked.) It was just as I had finished Much Ado that one of Thompson and Branagh’s earlier collaborations arrived in my mailbox. The film was the televised play, “Look Back in Anger.” Known as one of the “kitchen sink dramas,” it features the pair as a couple of working class Brits in a struggling marriage. Thompson may begin the film as a quiet shadow in the background, but it doesn’t take long for her to step into the spotlight with a delicate and soulful performance, the most naturalistic work in the production.

It is this quiet power that is on display in her second Oscar nominated performance, The Remains of the Day, in which she plays a housekeeper grown close to the butler (Anthony Hopkins). They both keep these feelings restrained, so much that it keeps them apart. Quite the opposite from her character Carrington, who becomes involved in an unlikely romance with gay author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce). Carrington was quite unrestrained, living in an open marriage and having several love affairs before a tragic ending.

Thompson would win her next Oscar not as an actor, but as a writer, for her adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Approached by producer Lindsay Doran, who had seen evidence of Thompson’s writing talents in episodes of “Thompson,” Thompson spent several years working on drafts of the adaptation. In fact, she writes in her production diary about how odd it was to have finished actually filming the movie:
          “Suddenly realized that for five years, every time I’ve finished a job I’ve gone back to rewrite this script. This will be the first time I can actually stop. Take it all in.”

Her diaries (available along with the published screenplay) are just as witty and delightful as the film itself. Her performance matches the elegance and grace of her writing. It is definitely, along with Howards End, what I would call “Essential Emma.” Impeccably cast, wonderfully directed by Ang Lee and of course bearing the Jane Austen pedigree, it’s hard to imagine a lovelier costume drama, or a better adaptation of an Austen novel. (As well as the screenplay diaries, I fully suggest the DVD. Not just because you’ll have a perfect film to enjoy over and over again, but for the sparkling commentary by Thompson and Doran, which is almost as entertaining as the movie itself.)

Another novel to film adaptation was her first collaboration with director Mike Nichols, Primary Colors. The book had caused quite a stir when it was anonymously written and published in the mid-90s, telling the story of a very Bill and Hillary Clinton-like couple on the Presidential election campaign trail. While John Travolta sticks to a Bill impression, Thompson shines through as Susan, the woman behind the rather unfocused candidate. Three years later, Thompson would work with Mike Nichols again in the HBO film, “Wit.” Aside from starring in the film, Thompson adapted the play by Margaret Edson. “Wit” is the harrowing story of a woman undergoing chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer. What makes it so special is the tour-de-force performance by Thompson that is filled with as many sharply comedic moments as heart-rending dramatic ones. She would work with Mike Nichols once more, again for HBO, in the astounding mini-series, “Angels in America.” Based on Tony Kushner’s highly praised play, “Angels” features Thompson (along with other cast members) playing multiple roles: from a nurse to a schizophrenic bum to one of the titular angels.

Over the last few years, Emma has appeared in several supporting roles, including that of Hogwarts Professor of Divination, Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She also played the author narrating Will Ferrell’s life in Stranger Than Fiction for director Marc Forster in 2006. However, of these smaller roles, the one that truly qualifies as “Essential Emma” viewing is her work in Richard Curtis’s ultimate romantic comedy, Love Actually. Although she spends much of the movie blithely supporting others (as Liam Neeson’s friend, Hugh Grant’s sister and Alan Rickman’s wife) and getting laughs, there is an amazing moment to be found involving her character and a Joni Mitchell song.

This month brings Emma Thompson back to screens in the breathtaking adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. I kept trying to figure out what seemed so different, so odd about her in this film when I finally realized that it’s the first time she’s tackled a character who is not entirely sympathetic. Her character is the devoted Catholic mother of Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) and Julia (Hayley Attwell), both of whom young artist Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is drawn to. Thompson and her character command the screen every time she appears, but in the end it is Whishaw and Goode who walk away with your adoration.

With three more films in the can and rumors of a screenplay adaptation of My Fair Lady swirling, Emma Thompson shows no sign of stopping. Which is fine by me. What is clear to me after spending a fortnight watching her films is that she only gets better with age and will never go out of style.

Rick@picturesandframesmagazine.com

SELECT EMMA THOMPSON FILMOGRAPHY

Brideshead Revisited (2008)

I Am Legend (2007)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Nanny McPhee (2005)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

"Angels in America" (6 episodes, 2003)

Love Actually (2003)

“Wit” (2001)

Primary Colors (1998)

The Winter Guest (1997)

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Carrington (1995)

Junior (1994)

In the Name of the Father (1993)

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Peter's Friends (1992)

Howards End (1992)

Dead Again (1991)

Henry V (1989)