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Tea With the Dames
Documentary
Come sit next to Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins and eavesdrop on their witty banter, amiable swearing and grand tales of their stage and film careers. Title fact check: The women are not just dames in the sense of “awesome badass broads,” but Dames in the British equivalent to a knight, titles awarded by the Queen for, in their cases, services to drama. But there isn’t much grand aloofness here, nor any tea consumed during the delightfully droll and snarky conversation director Roger Michell captures among these longtime friends. (There might be some bubbly later in the afternoon.) At Plowright’s home in the English countryside, these legendary women talk and laugh of horrible bullying directors (all men, of course); their self-doubt and lack of courage even after they’d achieved enviable success; bizarre lines of dialogue and snippets of odd songs from otherwise forgotten plays only they seem to recall; and the peculiarities and indignities of getting old as women, particularly in our culture, which has little use for little old ladies. Needless to say, they smash the stereotype of the “little old lady.”
Official Site: www.ifcfilms.com/films/tea-with-the-dames
Director: Roger Michell
Producer: Sally Angel, Karen Steyn, Sally Angel, Debbie Manners, Jamie Carmichael and John Schmidt
Cast: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright
Director: Roger Michell
Producer: Sally Angel, Karen Steyn, Sally Angel, Debbie Manners, Jamie Carmichael and John Schmidt
Cast: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright
