Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures
In the film Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures, Agatha Christie is portrayed at four different ages: herself as an elderly woman; a young married woman; an even younger, single woman; and as a child.
The actress who plays Agatha Christie as an elderly woman is Anna Massey. Massey's portrayal of Christie as the beginning of the film stresses that the author was uncomfortable with the fame that came with her success as a writer. In the first scene, the character is attempting to enter a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of her play, The Mousetrap, but she denied entrance because her identity is not known by the man at the door. "Why I couldn't say I am Mrs. Christie and I have been told to go in early for a press call, I don't know. Like a coward, I turned tail miserable, trying to get my courage to go back and say "I'm me." This shows the viewer that Christie seems to be a shy, introverted person.
Eventually she does get into the party and there the viewer sees more of Christie's reactions to being in the limelight. One sees even further how socially awkward she is, while watching her interactions at the party. She doesn't talk to anyone and at one point, she is sitting in the corner by herself, eating cake. There is a voice over, done by the character, during the party scene and at one point she says "I still have the feeling that I'm pretending to be an author."
During the party, she begins to be interviewed by journalists and one of them asks why she hasn't spoken to the press in thirty years. She answers "When you don't do a thing well, it's much more sensible not to attempt it... I have a very strong feeling that it's not a part of an author's life." This shows her as being a bit difficult when she deals with the press, although it also shows her as being intelligent, clever, and witty. A "smart ass", to put it bluntly.
After this opening sequence of scenes, there is a flashback to the year 1927, where actress Olivia Williams portrays the author as younger woman. She is suffering from a case of amnesia. She is portrayed as being confused, detached, and cold. But as the therapist takes Christie back through memories of her childhood, we begin to see emotion on the character's face. There are tears in her eyes and her voice shakes.
In the flashbacks to Christie's childhood, Christie as a young girl is acted by Bonnie Wright. In a voice over done by the middle aged Christie during the scenes of her childhood, the viewer sees that Christie's childhood was filled with happiness. "My parents were converted to the view that the best way to bring up girls was to let them run wild as much as possible. To give them good food, fresh air, and not force their mind in any way. There were no children around of my own age so I invented a set of friends of my own. My child's world was always at slight variance with reality." But there was also fear in her childhood. Christie describes a nightmare she had as a child involving "The Gun Man", a man with cold blue eyes and who carried a gun. Her father's death also affected her.
After the flashback into her childhood, the movie then goes back to the party, where the elder Agatha Christie is still being interviewed. Her intelligence is further shown by her eloquent, clear speaking and by the wittiness that she shows in what she is saying.
There is then another flashback, this time to when she was still young and yet unmarried. The elderly Christie is doing a voice over during this segment, explaining to the journalist how she started writing. The flashback shows that Christie as a young woman is very restless and bored, but becomes quickly excited with the prospect of writing when her mother suggests it to her. These flashbacks also show how Christie got into mystery writing. She volunteered as a nurse during World War II and there she learned about medicines and poisons. In this time period of her being a nurse, she is portrayed as being strong, mature, and possessing the ability to endure what was overwhelming to some of the other nurses around her. There is one scene where she is comforting another nurse who is crying and Agatha then disposes of an amputated leg that the nurse was suppose to get rid of. Agatha is also friendly and jokes around with one of the wounded soldiers.
The elder Christie described herself in her younger years as worrying more about getting married than about her writing career. "How much more interesting it would be if I could say I always wanted to be a writer and was determined one day that I would succeed. But honestly such an idea never came into my head. In my youth, I contemplated only one thing: a happy marriage. As all my friends did. We looked forward to love. To being looked after. We intended to get our own way in things that mattered to us while at the same time putting our husbands' life, career, and success above all. As was our proud duty."
As a young married woman, the viewer sees Agatha Christie portrayed as a lively, warm woman who had a lot of fun with her family, shown in the scene where she is taking pictures of her husband, daughter, and secretary in her new car. This is at the other end of the spectrum from where we first see the Agatha Christie talking to the therapist earlier on in the film. Her youth and energy is shown again when she is working with her secretary on her writing and she is pacing, imitating her character Hercule Poirot's accent, getting very excited and passionate about her writing, and laughing. There is a small dark part of this scene however, when her young daughter is standing outside her office, listening and watching, and Christie notices her and closes the door in her face, which may suggest her writing might have come between Agatha and her family.
There is than a darker scene, a brief flashback, when the happy family image begins to fall apart. Unless the viewer already knows the story behind Agatha Christie's disappearance, the reason why young Christie is suddenly unhappy is unknown. She is seen sitting at her desk, unable to write. The lighting and the colors on the screen in this scene is suddenly very dark and gray. She seems stressed, tired, pale, and depressed. She suddenly starts packing, she kisses her daughter goodbye while she is sleeping, she leaves a note for her secretary, and she leaves the house, driving off into the night. She drives through the night, with the camera showing the stress, pain, and tiredness that she is feeling, on her face. It then flashes back and forth between the Gun Man's eyes and her own again and again and then it shows her car has crashed and she has her head against the steering wheel before she closes her eyes, wearily. The scene is filled with fast, quick images. A lot of movement happens and it jumps quickly through time. Also, right before it shows she has crashed, the images get faster and the music is louder, accompanied by the images of the Gun Man's eyes. This builds up the tension and then the climax is when it suddenly becomes quiet and it shows that she has crashed and she has her head on the steering wheel and she slowly closes her eyes.
The scene then jumps back to when Christie is talking to her therapist. He asks her to remember the first time she met her husband, Archie Christie. There is a flashback from there, a series of scenes where Agatha is even more lively. She is flirty, yet shy when she first meets Archie. But it is hinted at that she has a lot of male friends. She seems to really like Archie. Then a scene is shown where we find out that she is engaged and the viewer can tell that Agatha does not feel anything for this man. But the following scene shows her relationship with Archie and it shows the two of them goofing off while they are filming themselves. She seems goofy and flirty and it is obvious that the relationship between Agatha and Archie is light and fun and that they enjoy each other's company.
Their relationship is also shown getting more and more passionate in the next scene where Archie demands that Agatha break off her engagement with her fiance and marry him, and then he grabs her and kisses her. But the next scene seems to foreshadow that the relationship is not as strong as it may seem. "I loved a stranger. Mainly because he was a stranger, because I never knew how he would react to a word or a phrase. And everything was new. He felt the same. I remember once he said 'I feel I can't get at you.'" This is all said in a voice over while she is swinging on a tree swing and he is sitting watching her. They are not talking. The scene is shot with a colder light, so everything seems chilly and strange between them. And then it shows Agatha on the swing going past Archie and it is then the Gun Man sitting there watching her with his cold blue eyes.
The scene then goes to where Agatha is sitting in her car she just crashed and it seems that she is also thinking of this flashback also. This scene is shot in a similar lighting as the last scene. Cold and dark.
The following scene shows the investigation of Agatha's disappearance. It is shown all in black and white like an old footage, except when the detective is interviewing Agatha's secretary or Archie or when talking to the press.
The movie then flashes back to during Agatha and Archie's courtship. She is like a young girl again, throwing paper airplanes from the tower she used to play in as a girl. She is happy but there are problems still. Archie has left for war and Agatha remarks in a voice over that "It was a tempestuous time. One or other of us would write and break it off and we would agree that it was the only thing to do. And that was unbearable. We would be back on the old terms." He returns but it gets worse and they have an argument but then they get quickly get married the next day.
After more scenes of the investigation of Agatha's disappearance, we learn more about why she disappeared. Her mother has died and in therapy, Agatha explains, her voice and expression showing her anger, that Archie was not helpful in helping her. She goes to her house where she lived as a child to clear it out. She still doesn't remember what happened.
There are more investigation scenes and scenes showing how her family is coping with her disappearance.
Then Agatha in therapy begins to remember more of what happened and it flashes back to show her leaving her car after she crashed, bleeding. She begins walking and then she finds herself at a train station. She decides to go to a hotel in Harrogate. "Until the accident, I am aware of being Mrs. Christie. Not after that." Because she can not remember who she was, she begins to assume another personality, a widow whose son died.
There is then a flash forward to the elderly Agatha Christie and she is still being interviewed at the party. The journalist begins to ask her about her disappearance. This question affects her and she looks shocked. She then looks away and doesn't look at him, not saying anything at all. It then shows the journalist leaving the room, shocked.
Then there is a flashback to Agatha's time at the hotel while she is suffering from amnesia. She seems peaceful but subdued and different from her fun, happy younger self. But she is recognized and police, her husband, and journalists come to the hotel to get her. She still doesn't remember her past but she quietly leaves with her husband.
Now we are up to the point where she is seeing a therapist and she begins to remember everything. And here is where we realized that while she was cleaning out her mother's house after she died, Archie came and told her that he had an affair with another woman, that he was in love, and that he wanted a divorce. She now remembers everything and she expresses her anger and pain.
The therapist then asks her what it was like to be Mrs. Neale (the woman she was when she disappeared). She answers "All the worries and anxieties left me. But when I was first brought back to my life as Mrs. Christie many of my worries and anxieties returned. I am now much improved. My old morbid tendencies are receding. I can be cheerful. But I have not quite that utter happiness of Mrs. Neale."
At the end of the session, the therapist is dictating notes to his secretary and saying that he believes her amnesia was real and now she is "cured".
Then the old Agatha Christie explains what happened afterwards. The younger Agatha decides to learn about who she was and began traveling. This is when her life begins to become happy again. While traveling, she meets an archaeologist, Max Mallowan. They get married and in the ending scenes it shows Agatha becoming her joking, energetic self again. We also see her writing more.
The rest of the film shows the elder Agatha Christie talking more about her writing and of young Agatha with her new husband. It focuses more on her literary career now. And this is how the movie ends.
I thought this movie did an effective job of portraying Agatha Christie's life. The actresses that portrayed her also did an excellent job. I thought that the jumping around in time and keeping the reason why she disappeared (her husband cheating on her) hidden until near the end, made the movie seem like a mystery story. Which fits Agatha Christie because she is a mystery writer. I also liked getting to "know" Agatha Christie through an onscreen portrayal of her life, as opposed to a biography, where she seemed like real and harder to identity with. Overall the bio-film was excellent and very helpful in understanding Christie's life.
Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures. Dir. Richard Curson Smith. Perf. Anna Massey, Olivia Williams, Bonnie Wright. BBC, 2004. DVD.
