There is a video & illustrated version,
the end of the 1960s, a Pfaffle truck crashed into On Gloucester Crescent Street in North London, it found a place to stop for a few weeks, then glide deeper into the ramp, and then stopped. Until finally, it drove into the end of this gentle slope: In front of the house of the playwright Alan Bennett. House number 23.
The old lady who got out of the car was ragged, stern-faced, arrogant and anxious. She was Margaret Fairchild, and later renamed herself Mary Shepherd. Lady Mary Shepherd, our protagonist, the woman who lives in the van.
"Miss Shepherd's multi-flavored "scent" is covered by deliberately spreading all kinds of talcum powder. Yardley lavender is always the most beloved. At this time, it is a kind of elegant fragrance, which can be said to be the second chapter of her scent concerto." The
playwright Allen's window is facing the "home" of the old woman Shepard. After he had a conversation with the old woman--
("I hope I can ask you not to use my bathroom in the future. There is a bathroom at the end of the street, please use that."
"They smell. I Born to be a person who loves cleanliness.”)
——And the people in the whole street, like Allen, have the free literary style of the newly-emerged middle class, and I don’t know how to respond to this.
"It makes this social structure hilarious," Allen Bennett wrote in the original book. "It is the life these new middle class find that they can live, and their views on reform and progress are inconsistent between the two styles. . And this kind of gap gives Miss Shepard the possibility of survival.”
So, in the funny, embarrassing, and bitter bitterness, the film is brightly colored (blue sky, green trees and bright yellow trucks), and the pace is brisk. , Tells the strange friendship of fifteen years.
In January of this year, the New York Times published an interview about the film, some of which were very graphic, and translated a short sharing:
London-two old friends, Maggie Smith and the playwright Alan Bennett. On the sofa of the fashionable hotel, there were chats about the first meeting of the two people. "Then she jumped over the pig in one fell swoop," Allen said. Maggie leaned on the sofa and laughed heartily. "That's terrible," she said, wiping away the tears from her laughter. Alan looked at her with a serious face. "That pig feels the same way, I guess," he said.
All of this has a profound connection with "The Lady Who Lives in the Van", this weird story about Mary Shepard, a homeless grumpy woman who chose to live in a so-called van and parked in Benny. Mr. Te’s private driveway. Lived for 15 years.
For a writer, the material was too good to be true, but Allen didn’t write about Miss Shepard’s weird relationship with them—he was reluctant, her domineering and demanding—until she died in 1989. Only then did the London Review of Books first published a series of diaries, and later published a thin book, "The Lady Who Lived in a Truck." In 1999, he adapted the memoir into a play of the same name, starring Maggie Smith, directed by Hetner, and staged at the National Theatre in London.
Sixteen years later, they gathered to recreate this story into a movie, with Alex Jennings playing the younger Bennett. The six-week filming took place in the real location: Gloucester New in Camden. Moon Street, a shabby but decent neighbourhood of North London at the time, was expensive. Playwrights lived here for nearly 40 years.
"Those unidentified neighborhoods were a little panicked when they saw the crew's truck approaching." During an interview, they laughed.
How can we not panic! This difficult old lady.
Miss Shepard is not grateful, uncompromising, odd-tempered, and pious to God. Perhaps this is the way she has always existed: a string. (Otherwise, who would choose to live in a truck arbitrarily!)
Her funny comes from a kind of unknowing, just like a child. According to Allen, she has no sense of humor, but she is passionate about her far-right Fidelis party. The first time the two met, it happened that Miss Shepard was selling pencils and handing out Fidelis party flyers.
"If I'm elected," she asked, "should I move to Downing Street or do business in a truck?"
She doesn't think about or care about anyone except God. She survived desperately, only to survive, and she must also survive in another world.
However, she also has some solemn and beautiful places. Allen calls it "vagabond nobility."
Therefore, in those moments—for example, when she happily painted a truck bright yellow, or when she was sliding down a slope in a wheelchair—the neighborhood would be happy to see , She smiled heartily and cheerfully.
It was not until Miss Shepard died that Alan Bennett found her brother and asked about her story.
When he was young, Magaret studied under the master pianist Alfred Cortot, and needed to go to Paris frequently to attend classes ("It was not easy at that time," her brother said).
Margaret Fairchild has indeed become an outstanding pianist-meaning, to the level that can hold concerts.
She was always playing, always playing, until the other nuns stopped--As for why she became a nun, I don’t know, but after repeating it twice, the monastery eventually drove her out (perhaps because she was so temperamental). so bad).
Later, she became an ambulance driver.
Is this a turning point in her life?
When Margaret Fairchild was parked at an intersection, a young man quickly turned on a motorcycle and crashed into her ambulance with the car. It wasn't her fault, but she mistakenly thought it was her own responsibility, and quickly cleared the scene-and put herself on the other side of the law.
And the other side of life.
From Fairchild to Shepherd.
Alan Bennett said: When I was with her life, my life seemed pale and boring.
However, if Allen opened the February 11, 2015 newspaper, he would find such an obituary:
Anne Naysmith, pianist
Anne Naysmith, was about 77 years old. In the 1960s, she was a pianist with great professional expectations. In 1967, she performed in the Wigmore Concert Hall. She was described by critics at the time as "As an artist, she used her piano to depict the best The warmest and strongest tone.”
At the age of 39, she suddenly moved out of the house and lived in her Ford for 26 years. Later, the Ford was towed away. Those "neighborhoods" who were worried about the discount of their houses rejoiced, and people who wanted to protect their old neighbors gave her a Mercedes-Benz - but soon the Mercedes-Benz was destroyed.
For pedestrians in West London, the indecent reputation of "the car lady of Chiswick" represents the familiar unkempt sight. She lived in a deserted and old blue Ford at first, and then in the bushes next to the subway station.
There are many speculations in the media and the public as to why Anne Naysmith did this. Some people say that she is out of love and disgusting with the world, and some people say that this is "Diogenes the Cynic" (Diogenes the Cynic, the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, who despised the material world and slept in a large ceramic jar or barrel).
For Alan Bennett, the answer to this type of question is not that important.
On the day before Miss Shepard’s life ended, she was sent to the shelter, freshened and changed, and finally sat at the piano again, trembling and playing a song.
In the evening, Alan Bennett grabbed a small bouquet of flowers and came to the van to visit her. ("I have gotten larger bouquets, tied with ribbons. These are simply incomparable.")
music. How can people avoid it? Do you understand, it's at my fingertips. I can play in the dark, and sometimes I have to. And those keyboards are like a room, in C major and D minor. Dark room, bright room. To me, it's like a palace. The only thing that worries me is that playing is easier than praying.
"Mr. Bennett. Hold my hands. They are clean." The
next day, the social worker who came to take Miss Shepard to the asylum found that she had passed away.
"No one can really understand why she is like this - and how she can live like this, I really don't understand," Maggie Smith said. "I don't have a lot of time in the car, but I have to get in and out. Just It was a short period of time before I could stand it. Also, how did Allen endure it? He told me, "She didn't offend, either." But, how can you offend?"
Alan Ben Nit did give her enough patience and sympathy, so that her neighbor became "the lady's boyfriend in the van". He provided electricity to the minivan so that Miss Shepard could keep warm, watch TV, and often help her with shopping.
Ginger biscuits-"It's very warm after eating";
Whiskey-"Used to survive the day";
Milk and doll-shaped jelly-"You can't buy jelly in a hurry."
Perhaps many parts of this are beyond the "wiser judgment" of our playwrights, or perhaps because of this, two writers simply appeared in the film: "One I am in charge of writing, and the other I am in charge of life. They talk, they Argument. Writing is like talking to myself, and I have been doing this all my life.”
This calm observation and poisonous tongue, and the two separate images full of empathy, make the film more humorous and interesting. In any case, it is not difficult for viewers and readers to experience the deep empathy and care in light.
Oh, and, with some kind of admiration, deep wishes.
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