Lynn Redgrave made warmth convincing by allowing it some firmness. We value her supporting work for the sense that these people have lives beyond the leading character’s troubles, even when the script would rather keep things simple.
Fi1m perspective
In Shine (1996), Gillian seems to have brought a life of her own into David Helfgott’s story. Lynn Redgrave gives her a firmness that Scott Hicks’s reassuring treatment needs. We felt relieved by it, because Gillian seems capable of more than offering comfort. This is where we rate Redgrave most highly: she takes a supporting part that might have existed only to help the central character and makes us curious about what happens when that character is not around.
After her screen debut in Tom Jones (1963), Georgy Girl (1966) gave her a breakthrough leading role. Its awkward, resilient Georgy suited her comic timing, although the film’s uneven tone could limit the effect of the performance. She continued to work across film, television and theatre, with stage experience informing her timing and her handling of character quirks. The renewed attention brought by Shine and Gods and Monsters (1998) came through supporting roles, where warmth did not have to mean being agreeable.
In Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters, her Hanna is a housekeeper whose devotion survives considerable disapproval. Redgrave has something more interesting to play here than a reliable supply of kindness: Hanna can care for someone and still find plenty to object to. The film’s chief pleasure remains the tenderness between Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser, and the script explains too much.
The temptation with an actor often cast as wives, housekeepers and eccentrics is to praise reliability and stop looking. In Shine, Redgrave and John Gielgud, who plays Cecil Parkes, reward closer attention because neither seems to exist solely for David’s benefit. Hicks’s film takes shortcuts with complicated feelings, but her understated playing gives its warmth enough firmness to be persuasive. Start there, and give Gillian the attention the film naturally directs towards David.
Biography
Lynn Redgrave was an English actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and made her stage debut in 1962.
She appeared in films including Tom Jones (1963) and Georgy Girl (1966), for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Later credits include Shine (1996) as Gillian, and Gods and Monsters (1998), which brought another Academy Award nomination. She also worked extensively in theatre and on television.
Redgrave was appointed OBE in 2001. She was the daughter of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and sister of actors Vanessa Redgrave and Corin Redgrave.
