Julie Christie is among the most famous British actresses of all time, having made her feature film debut more than 60 years ago and becoming one of the biggest stars of the 1960s and 70s. She won an Academy Award when she was just 25 years old, and continued to receive Oscar nominations throughout her career, with one nomination each for the 1970s, 1990s, and the 2000s.
Her most recent film role was in 2012, and since then appears to have stepped away from acting. If this is the case, she's still left behind an impressive legacy, with half a century's worth of roles in numerous - and varied - movies. Some of the best of these are ranked below, beginning with the good and ending with some of the classics Christie featured in during her acting career.
12 'Afterglow' (1997)
Afterglow takes a familiar kind of romantic-comedy/drama premise, but puts a somewhat novel spin on it by having its lead characters be middle-aged, and arguably towards the end of such a stage of life at that. Beyond this, it's not trying to revolutionize the rom-com by any means, with its story being about an unhappily married couple meeting other people and drifting further apart.
Still, if a well-worn premise ain't broke, don't fix it, and that ensures Afterglow works pretty well. Julie Christie received her third of four Oscar nominations for her role in this movie, with co-star Nick Nolte also putting in solid work, and the two convincingly play the couple at the movie's center well.
11 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' (2004)
It feels a little strange ranking Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as one of Julie Christie's best movies. While it is very good (some might even say the best of the Harry Potter movies), she's really only in here very briefly, seemingly because this movie series had a need to cast every single well-known British actor in some sort of role, large or small.
She plays the barmaid of The Three Broomsticks pub, and at one point in the movie, is responsible for hosting a meeting at said location for some more important characters. It's arguably just a cameo, but it's still a good movie, and Christie is technically in it, so it deserves at least a brief mention.
10 'Heaven Can Wait' (1978)
While it wasn't the only movie starring both Julie Christie and Warren Beatty to come out in the 1970s (more on the others later), this was the only time the former was in a movie directed by the latter. Beatty might be most recognizable as an actor, sure, but he's had an undeniably interesting career as a director, with Heaven Can Wait being one of several compelling films he made.
It's quite a strange film to summarize, being a romance, comedy, sports, and fantasy movie all at once, and revolves around a man who's prematurely taken to Heaven without dying, only to struggle to return to Earth because his body's been cremated. It's a little offbeat in a very 1970s way, but it still has something of a charm when watched today, and features good performances from Beatty, Christie, and the others in its cast.
9 'Darling' (1965)
While Darling wasn't Julie Christie's first movie, it was her first starring role, and came out the same year as another huge movie she starred in, with the two working in tandem to raise her profile considerably. That other one (see below) might've earned more money, but Darling was the 1965 movie that got Christie her Oscar win, earned when she was still in her mid-20s.
Darling was daring for the standards of 1965, centering on a young woman who has quite a flippant attitude to life, and spends much of the film bouncing between different older men, and often toying with them. It's unlikely to shock modern-day viewers, but it still holds up quite well and the acting's strong, with both Christie and co-star Dirk Bogarde proving to be very magnetic.
8 'Fahrenheit 451' (1966)
Though François Truffaut was a French filmmaker and therefore best known for the films he made in France, he branched out and made an English-language adaptation of the famous novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1966. It's set in a dystopian future where the government has outlawed literature to better control the minds of the people, and complications ensue when one of the men tasked with book-burning begins to question what he does.
Julie Christie plays two characters, both of whom are involved with the main character (one's his wife, and the other's a schoolteacher who he falls for). She does this successfully and elevates the movie considerably, though it's otherwise admittedly a pretty good adaptation, even if it's not quite as acclaimed as the original novel.
7 'Shampoo' (1975)
Filmmaker Hal Ashby always made interesting movies, and even if Shampoo can't be considered quite as good as either Harold and Maude or the Peter Sellers-starring Being There, it's still a pretty good romantic comedy/drama. It follows a hairstylist who has big plans for his life, though his frequent womanizing often hinders his capacity to achieve his ambitions.
It was the second movie to star Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and the first they both featured in after the end of their on-and-off relationship between 1967 and 1974. Perhaps similar to Darling, it's the kind of movie that might've felt a little more daring or provocative back upon its release, but nevertheless holds up today as a decently entertaining film.
6 'Billy Liar' (1963)
John Schlesinger directed Julie Christie to her Oscar win in 1965, but the first collaboration between the two was back in 1963, with Billy Liar. Interestingly, it has a similar premise to Darling, but in this one, it's a young man who's the main character, and he's shown to be juggling relationships with several different women, one of whom is played by Christie.
It's also a little more comedic than Darling, and has some odd fantasy sequences that are used to depict its protagonist's increasingly loose grip on reality, and the progressively more intense chaos of his life. It's a good film all around, and a classic 1960s British movie, also being notable for giving Christie her first notable/breakout supporting role in a movie.
5 'Away from Her' (2006)
Some years before writing and directing Women Talking, filmmaker Sarah Polley made a critically acclaimed and emotionally devastating directorial debut with Away from Her. Like any film dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, it's not exactly an easy watch, but it's tender and empathetic enough to be worth visiting for those after a compelling and grounded drama.
Julie Christie received her fourth Academy Award nomination for the film, playing a woman who's institutionalized after Alzheimer's begins affecting her life, with the film showing how she slowly drifts away from her husband. It's heavy-going but expertly made, and it's easy to see why it got the acclaim it did back when it was released.
4 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965)
Darling may have won Julie Christie an Oscar, but 1965's Doctor Zhivago likely made her even more of a star, as it's one of the highest-grossing movies of all time when adjusted for inflation. It's a huge movie, running for well over three hours and having a sweeping story about love and war during the early years of the 20th century in Russia.
The titular character finds himself torn between two women, with one of them being Julie Christie's character, Lara. It's a somewhat slow-paced epic, and you certainly can feel its length, but it's remarkably well constructed from a technical perspective and quite the experience to soak up and get lost in, making it understandably regarded as a classic of its decade.
3 'Hamlet' (1996)
There are plenty of movies out there that adapt Shakespeare's Hamlet, or at least take inspiration from it, though few can claim to be as massive as 1996's take on the play, directed by Kenneth Branagh. In this particular version, the story of revenge and tragedy plays out over approximately four hours, and notably adapts the entire play, whereas previous film versions were abridged.
The story concerns the Prince of Denmark wanting to avenge his father by murdering his uncle, which is complicated by the fact that his mother, Gertrude, has now married said uncle. Christie plays Gertrude here, and is one part of a remarkably huge cast that also includes the likes of Branagh, Kate Winslet, Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, Charlton Heston, and Judi Dench, among many others.
2 'Don't Look Now' (1973)
A bleak horror movie that also stars Donald Sutherland, Don't Look Now is about a grieving couple dealing with a horrific loss, with Sutherland playing the husband and Julie Christie playing the wife. The pair take a trip to Venice, only to find themselves haunted by memories of their past, and perhaps something more literal, too.
Don't Look Now isn't exactly a good time, but it is a good movie. Those in the mood for something psychologically devastating should find it appropriately unsettling and surprisingly riveting, and though it's not exactly in-your-face when it comes to its horror elements, it proves more than capable of delivering genuine scares when it wants to.
1 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' (1971)
The first of three movies starring Julie Christie and Warren Beatty, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a classic revisionist Western, and one of Robert Altman's greatest works as a filmmaker. It's about two unlikely people forming a partnership in an Old West town, only to have their business threatened by a large corporation.
It feels distinctly of its time, but in a way that ultimately works and serves the story being told, and the film ultimately becomes one that feels equal parts gritty/grounded and entertaining. The two leads both shine in their roles, and it holds up to this day as perhaps the best movie Julie Christie ever starred in.