Happy 85th Birthday, Dame Judi Dench

This! She has had a few roles which were beneath her but, if she thought that, she never let it show and always enhanced whatever was there. But these were exceptions, and she has generally chosen good and widely varying roles.

Whether top dog (or should that be "top bitch"?) or underdog, she usually carries a natural authority. But in a recent movie, Red Joan (2018) dir: Trevor Nunn, she is either humble or feigns humility. Which, is left to the viewer to decide. It is the most interesting aspect of an otherwise prosaic spy drama.



I first saw her in Four in the Morning (1965) dir: Anthony Simmons, a critically (but not popularly) acclaimed attempt to create a low-budget Brit "Antonioni", but it was not she who impressed but Ann Lynn (whose cinematic career never really took off). I see that, rather surprisingly for a totally forgotten Brit movie, it is available on DVD in the US. I shall treat myself for Christmas. I think 54 years is sufficient interval for a second viewing.



I next saw her play Sally Bowles in the London production of "Cabaret", having been dragged kicking and screaming into a live theater by my new wife in defiance of my principles. My wife (rightly) tipped her for stardom but I only got the message once she started playing middle-aged roles.

I agree with spiderwort that she can do no wrong. I cannot think of a single performance (and she is very prolific) where she dropped the ball, and I can say that of few actors, even top-rank actors.