Julie Christie: Five Films for Newcomers
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Today is the birthday of acting legend Julie Christie. Not many stars are as generational as she has been for so many decades, with award nominations (and wins) stemming from the 1960s all the way to the new millennium. As a star of the Swinging Sixties, she went far and beyond as one of the most beloved, respected performers of all time. Narrowing down her career to just five films feels next to impossible, and you’ll see what I mean when you get to my selections. Nonetheless, I went with the roles that I think showcase her versatility as widely as possible. If you aren’t familiar with her filmography, there’s no better time to start discovering one of the cinematic medium’s finest stars. Here are five films for newcomers to the works of Julie Christie.
5. Darling
Usually, I wouldn’t be having an Academy Award winning performance last on such a list, but we’re also dealing with Julie Christie here. Her big breakthrough in the Swinging Sixties drama Darling placed her on the map, but I also think that the film itself is beneath her (it was one of John Sclesinger’s counterculture experiments before he really hit the nail on the head with Midnight Cowboy). Christie is the sole reason to watch Darling in the twenty first century, who brings complexity to an otherwise flat character within a film that is quite misguided with its depictions of liberation and exploration.
4. Don’t Look Now
One of the most fascinating horror/thriller films of all time, the incredibly artistic Don’t Look Now, directed by Nicolas Roeg, is an exhilarating, unique look at grieving parents. Roeg goes all the way with the extremities of these allegories and resolutions, and two committed performances would ground these hallucinatory nightmares. Donald Sutherland is heartbreaking as John Baxter, but there’s something about wife Laura — played by Christie — which is extra chilling and horrifying, as if she is forever dead on the inside after the accident that changed her and her husband forever. This was still early in the seventies, allowing Christie to branch out with a daring film that demanded a lot from its stars.
3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Christie was not just taking roles in genre films, she was selectively choosing works that would be transcendent themselves. Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller is one of the greatest western films ever made: in a genre that is usually quite showy, this delicately told drama invites you in as one of its own players. Christie garnered one of her numerous Oscar nominations as the titular Constance Miller: a confident businesswoman that steals nearly every scene that she is in. As McCabe & Mrs. Miller takes tragic turns, Christie flexes her serious chops as well, proving that she is as necessary for the film’s major turns as she is its heart and charm.
2. Doctor Zhivago
While Darling is the film that Christie won an Oscar for, her real breakthrough (which came out the same year of 1965) was in the form of her role as Lara Antipova in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago (and I think most people would agree with me on this). She goes toe-to-toe with Omar Sharif throughout the entire historical epic, and to this day most people point towards this love-interest part as Christie’s finest performance. I feel like she has so many incredible parts in her filmography that such a claim is tricky to make, but I can definitively agree that Doctor Zhivago is a must for those that want to get more familiar with the actor operating at her best.
1. Away From Her
My own pick for Julie Christie’s finest performance, however, goes to her work in Sarah Polley’s magnum opus Away From Her. She plays Fiona: a retired wife that starts to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. She progressively gets worse and worse, and Christie captures not just the weight of such an ailment but the grace necessary to not trivialize a very real situation for many. Christie is not just magnificent in Away From Her: this may very well be one of the best performances of the twenty first century. If you want to see an acting icon still firing on all cylinders towards the later years of her career, Christie’s Fiona is a reminder that the greatest never ever slow down. Despite not being the obvious choice, I firmly believe Away From Her is the best place to start in Julie Christie’s filmography.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.