Will Kate Winslet and Judi Dench each get an Oscar nomination for playing Iris Murdoch?

JUDI DENCH and Kate Winslet could be in line for Oscar nominations for the same part. They portray prize-winning author Dame Iris Murdoch at different ages in Richard Eyre's life-affirming movie, Iris.

Academy Award contenders are announced in February and if their performances were to be recognised — Judi for best actress and Kate in the best supporting actress category — it would be the first time two actresses have been nominated for playing the same role.

Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro won Oscars for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2, but the honours were three years apart.

Iris is the love story of Murdoch, who died almost three years ago, and her husband, John Bayley, the literary critic and lecturer. Jim Broadbent and Hugh Bonneville share the duty of portraying Bayley, the keeper of Murdoch's soul.

He wrote two memoirs about how his wife disappeared into the darkness of Alzheimer's disease. At one point, the younger Iris asks: 'If one doesn't have words, how does one think?'

This contrasts with scenes of Dench and Broadbent coping with Murdoch's malady, which robbed her of her prized gift. As Judi observed to me when I visited her on the Iris set: 'It's a tragic thing to be at a loss for words when words are what you live for.'

Broadbent added: 'Bayley wants to learn how to communicate with Iris. He wants to tap into this new language Alzheimer's has given her.'

They discover that love is part of the solution. In the movie, Iris says: 'The only language that everyone understands is love.'

Watching the movie, I was struck by how seamless is the quartet of performances. There are several scenes of the actors swimming — Kate is naked while Judi wears a black swimsuit — and there is a sense of us having to communicate with nature as well as each other.

Poor Kate had to spend a lot of time in a tank for the swimming shots. 'It was freezing in there, but at least I didn't have to spend as much time in the water as I did on Titanic.'

The movie from BBC Films, among others, opens at cinemas here in January.

Thanks to Jan M for sending this article which ran in the Daily Mail (UK) on November 2, 2001 and to Mike Kennedy for sending the picture.

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