GOOD AT BEING PICKY

THE 1967 photo book “Birds of Britain” refers to actress Julie Christie as “the very incarnation of the new British girl.” Though it has long been inappropriate to refer to her as either a bird or a girl, there is still something remarkably fresh about her, a hard-won mix of the carefree and the don’t-mess-with-me. To say they don’t make movie stars like Julie Christie anymore would perhaps incorrectly imply that they ever really did.

Christie won the acting Oscar for 1965’s “Darling” and has received two other nominations.

Notoriously selective in her choice of roles, she has built an enviable list of credits -- including “Doctor Zhivago,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Petulia,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” “Don’t Look Now” and “Shampoo” -- and worked with some of cinema’s truly great directors.

In “Away From Her,” adapted and directed by actress Sarah Polley, Christie costars with Gordon Pinsent, Michael Murphy and Olympia Dukakis, playing a woman who develops Alzheimer’s disease. Losing all memory of the life she has long known with her husband, she finds new love with another man.

Christie’s performance is a true marvel as her character moves in and out of lu- cidity, there one moment and gone the next, holding onto old betrayals and then forgetting them completely. In a sense, the same could be said of the actress herself, who seems motivated by a relentless need to keep pushing forward, living very much in the present rather than being content to traipse through her rather storied past.

As sad a film as “Away From Her” is, there is something unexpectedly hopeful in the way your character keeps moving forward in her life, is still open to change and to love, and that her husband comes to accept that as well.

I think it’s him that’s making the changes, not her. And I think it’s him the film is about, not her. What happens to her is almost arbitrary; it’s not her. The way you suffer from that disease is actually un-pin-downable. I don’t think anybody knows how anybody suffers with that disease. So she’s in a state of a lot of fear a lot of the time, because there’s no ground underneath her, but he is the one. Nothing’s being taken away from her that she knows she knew. It’s everything, but she doesn’t know what it is. With him, what’s being taken away from him is his life, what he knows he knows. It’s not his fault, it’s nothing he’s doing, but his life is just changing. I think the person who’s left is actually the protagonist in it.

Did you do much research into Alzheimer’s before shooting?

The parents of people my age, I was thinking about this the other day, I think about 50% of them have this. It becomes familiar in your life. And I had a very good friend who went through this, and I was with her a lot before she died. So I’ve got plenty of personal experience, I didn’t need to really go into homes and things. I read some of the books that have been written but they didn’t grip me because I can’t get my head ‘round all that scientific stuff.

I will ask this as delicately as I can, but your lighting throughout the film, and in particular your close-ups, are rather unforgiving --

You can say that. Put it in.

Was that something that concerned you?

I was concerned about it. I made that quite clear before the film started. People of my age, they should be tenderly lit. Everyone said to me, ‘God, you look so much older than you do in real life,’ and I said I thought so too. But I don’t know, maybe I look like that, maybe I look 101. So it does concern me but I think it would have been unsuitable if I’d looked any younger, so I think it may have been a secret pact between the lighting, camera person and Sarah not to give in to my vanity.

It’s been written about elsewhere that although you considered Sarah Polley a friend before this film came up, she still had to really pursue you to take the part. What made you turn the corner and accept?

She finally realized she had to offer it to someone else. So she made that quite clear, and I knew that too, but when she rang up and said, ‘All right, it’s going, nearly gone,’ I just said yes straight away. And I didn’t even think about it. I knew that I wanted to embellish on my friendship with Sarah, and if you’re very fond of someone and they’re doing something as exciting as making their first film, it’s like getting married or having a child or something. You think, if I’m not there, I’m going to miss this very important moment that will further the bond between us.

I get a sense you have a willingness to say no.

A tendency to say no, I think you might say. I’m not sure it’s such a good thing. Maybe I should quick-change into a person who says yes to everything. I do say no a lot. I’m very persnickety. I like to work with directors who interest me, smart people whose work I think stands out. I don’t want to make a film with someone who I feel is less intelligent than me.

On the DVD commentary for the film you make mention of the fact that you don’t particularly like to work.

I’m lazy. I really prefer to look out the window than work. I know everybody has to have a roof over their head, that’s why everybody works but some people prefer work to looking out the window and I prefer looking out the window.