Maggie Smith
as Aunt Augusta Bertram
in
Travels with My Aunt (1972)
Screentime: 74 minutes and 2 seconds (68.2% of the film)
MAGGIE-METER:
Maggie Smith plays the aging, odd and eccentric Augusta
Bertram who meets her estranged nephew Henry at her sister/his mother’s funeral
and cremation. From there Augusta introduces and welcomes her nephew into her
extravagant and rather crazy lifestyle and Henry begins to learn of her illegal
dealings as she decides to go overseas and chase after an old lover she met
while she was young. The film is flawed and can be bizarre and stupid in places,
but is still a fun ride with engaging performances enhancing the absurd
screenplay. Interestingly the film’s humour/ type of comedy was something of a
rarity of 1972 with gags among others about severed human limbs, marijuana and (my
favourite) Augusta trying to sing the church hymn at the beginning.
FILM:
Maggie plays an elderly (with significant makeup), middle
aged and even a teenage version of Augusta (with the latter looking quite
ridiculous as a 40 year old Maggie stands next to actual 13 year old girls
wearing the same uniform). Nonetheless she is a riot and so engaging in all
aspects of her performances, she wears fabulous outfits (the film won the Oscar
for best costume design) and she sports a grating accent. Fun ride, don’t take
it too seriously. Surprisingly Maggie got a nomination for Best Actress here
(amongst Cicely Tyson and Liv Ullman in much more Academy genre fare), and I
think she deserves it!
MAGGIE-METER:
"It's the best way to win a woman, Henry, to make her laugh."
