THE LADY IN THE VAN

UK, 2015, 104 minutes, Colour.
Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent, George Fenton, Deborah Findlay, Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour, Dominic Cooper, James Corden, David Calder, Sam Spruell, Stephen Campbell Moore.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner.

The Lady in the Van began its life as a memoir by Alan Bennett, the celebrated playwright. He published the memoir and then adapted it to a theatre piece in the early 2000’s. It seemed a perfect theatrical piece for Maggie Smith is the subject, the lady in the van, Miss Shepherd.

A decade later, he has amplified the memoir and the play, opening out the story, being able to film in the street, have a real van, bring in the neighbours and their life in the street, expand the story of Miss Shepherd, with scenes in the countryside, Miss Shepherd visiting her brother, Bennett visiting his mother, shops, the hospital, the church.

Miss Shepherd was an eccentric character, rather curmudgeonly in her attitudes and behaviour, travelling around in the van and settling in a street in Camden Town, finally moving into the driveway of Alan Bennett’s house, setting up a residence, able to get a pension, and living her eccentric life. She was roughly dressed, was not very good on hygiene, toilet going, washing, and she and her van smelt.

The film opens enigmatically with Miss Shepherd driving her van, hitting something or someone, blood on her broken windscreen and her driving away from the scene. Later, we see her returning to the scene and kneeling and praying on the road. It is only at the end of the film that there is an explanation of what happened and who was responsible. Nevertheless, she had a lifetime of guilt, avoiding the police, relying on prayer, confession.

The film is also a study of the playwright, Alan Bennett. By the 1970s he had a strong reputation and is seen going to the National Theatre and presenting his monologues. Bennett has the interesting device of creating two selves, his inner self usually sitting at the typewriter creating the story and the memoir, then his outer self who has to deal with Miss Shepherd and the dialogue between the two, the criticisms about his behaviour, his attitudes towards Miss Shepherd. At the end, there is a scene of filming with Alex Jennings as Bennett, an excellent portrayal in both his personas, and the real Alan Bennett coming to watch.

At the time of the making of the film, Maggie Smith was 80, a career of over 55 years on stage and screen, the end of her period as the Dowager, the opposite kind of character yet dominating, in Downton Abbey. She is a commanding screen presence with a commanding character, a character who will remain a long time with the audience.

The director is Nicholas Hytner, director over many years at the National Theatre and director of stage and screen versions of Bennett’s The History Boys. There are some incidental pleasures throughout the film as a number of character actors from the British stage have some moment re-cameos, including James Cordrn, Dominic Cooper, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Campbell Moore, Roger Allum, Frances de la Tour.

This is very much a film of words as well as of images and action, a film that challenges compassion for the homeless, not underestimating the harshness of the character of this homeless woman. We see her as a pianist when she was young, remember her time in the convent, her memories of being a stretcher bearer in the war, and, of course, the repercussions of the accident – and the telling scene when she goes to confession and the priest tells her that she had confessed this so many times but that forgiveness was not like a bus ticket, it did not expire.
The film ends with some touches of surrealism: a scene of filming in the Street where actual Alan Bennett comes to watch and then Miss Shepherd dying and, after death, encountering a new friend, the man killed in the accident – and she has a visual ascension into heaven, with a realisation that God certainly has compassion on characters like Miss Shepherd.

1. Based on a true story? Embroidered and imagined? A type, the car? The period?

2. Alan Bennett and his career, his actual experience of Miss Shepherd, the neighbours in Camden Town? The timid man, quietly gay, the presentation of the two selves and their dialogue? Helping audience attitudes deal with the puzzle of Miss Shepherd?

3. Camden town, the 1970s and the 1980s, the street, the accident and its aftermath, going up the street, the shops? Miss Shepherd visiting her brother? Bennett visiting his mother? Church, hospital, funeral? The musical score?

4. Maggie Smith and her career? Based on a piece of the theatre? Opened up? Words, images, action?

5. Alan Bennett as a character, his work in the theatre, his monologues and plays, the presence of his mother, the phone calls, the visits, her illness, losing her mind? Bennett and his neighbours, Vaughan Williams’ widow, the couple, the friendly mother with her children? Encountering Miss Shepherd, knowing that she was in the street, her van, moving outside his house, the yellow paint, the bags outside, the interiors, the shopping, and issues of the toilet, going into his house, later toilet episodes, her smell, coming into the drive, talking with him, the friendship, establishing a residence, the pension, going away and returning? Bennett and his two selves, the outer and inner, their arguments?

6. Miss Shepherd, the initial accident, the blood, the windscreen smashed? The police, avoiding the accident, on the run? The corrupt policeman and his visits, collecting the cash, his later comment at her funeral? Her sense of guilt? Catholic background, her prayer, kneeling on the road where the accident took place, the images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mystery of her life, her harshness and intolerance, self-centred, disagreeable?

7. The story, the initial credits sequences and the young woman playing the piano, the orchestra? Her relationship with her brother, the visits, his wife forbidding the visits? Her giving the note and the address to Alan Bennett? As a nun, being ousted, playing the piano? Prayer, going to confession, the priest and his treatment, her frequent confessions, explaining that forgiveness was not like a bus ticket, that it did not expire, going to Mass, Communion? The ritual of her funeral?

8. Her brother, his character, welcoming Bennett?

9. The social worker, her concern, discussions with Bennett, with Miss Shepherd? Going to hospital? Her enjoying the ambulance lift? The time in hospital, the kindness of the staff, her being bathed, the effect, discovering the piano and playing?

10. The neighbours, the snobbish couple, the mother with the children and her kindness, the men, Vaughan Williams’ widow? Over the years, some against her, accepting her, their all attending her funeral?

11. Miss Shepherd and not changing, her moments of enjoyment, with the ice cream, the ambulance, playing the piano? Yet harsh, disagreeable?

12. The change in Alan Bennett, accepting Miss Shepherd, experience, her using him, some liking for her?

13. The pathos of her death, the social worker, Bennett? In church, the funeral?

14. After her death, appearing to Bennett, finding the victim of the accident and his becoming her friend? And her ascension into
heaven?

15. The scene of filming the episode, the actor is Bennett, and the real Bennett coming to watch?

16. A film about the homeless, their condition, mental state? Human nature, hardness, hardships, the kinder side?