HIDDEN TREASURES - IPHIGENIA, JEANNE DIELMAN, THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE

The Hidden Treasures series: every Sunday, a profile of three widely forgotten films, whose quality and worth alone ought to render them universally considered as classics of the screen, but whose visibility in contemporary culture is lamentably limited.

The first in the Screen on Screen series of Hidden Treasures focuses on films with memorable leading performances by female actors, perhaps some of the most memorable screen performances of all time.

IPHIGENIA (1977) - MIHALIS KAKOGIANNIS

Mihalis Kakogiannis is best known, internationally, for his 1964 picture, Zorba the Greek, which garnered several Oscar nominations and indeed wins. His 1977 adaptation of Euripides' play is, however, rarely talked about. It's not even his best-known Euripides - that would be 1971's The Trojan Women, which had a cast including Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave and Irene Papas. That film is an alternately beautiful and coarse experience; Iphigeneia (a prequel of sorts to The Trojan Women) is a coarsely beautiful experience from one highly-strung moment to the next. It's a searing film, which starts forte and builds to a throttling fortissimo, and then keeps building, and keeps building. Kakogiannis draws the tragedy and agony out in a melodramatic frenzy, and yet an immaculately controlled frenzy. The Greek army is preparing to sail to Troy to reclaim Menelaus' famed Helen, but the winds refuse to blow. The gods offer King Agamemnon a deal: they will make the winds blow, but, since he has just killed a sacred deer by accident, it will cost him his beloved daughter Iphigenia. This is a pure Greek tragedy, as theatrical as they come, and the tone is only amplified by the extraordinary performance of Irene Papas, in a different role here than in The Trojan Women. She is tempestuousness, ferocity, passion, fury, despair personified, her defiance at her husband and love for her daughter communicated in such a manner that one wonders why they didn't just send her into Troy rather than that bloody horse. A monumental performance in an equally good film.

After the cut, two more films with great leading performances by female actors.

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975) - CHANTAL AKERMAN

Rather than opposite of Iphigenia, this measured, ritualistic masterpiece from auteur extraordinaire Chantal Akerman is as stereotypically arthouse as they come, yet it is of such remarkable value that it could convert even the most ardent commercialist, despite the obvious superficial deterrents - it's essentially plotless, and well over three hours in duration, a large proportion of which contains no dialogue whatsoever. Akerman makes the superficial qualities of her film more than just that, though, as she immerses the viewer in Mme. Dielman's apparently inveterate routines, no matter how banal. It approaches cinematic hypnotherapy, only that the passage of watching it soon becomes more addictive than relaxing. At its heart, indeed the content of the entire film both is and depends upon her, is Delphine Seyrig, that most enigmatic yet expressive of actresses. It's beyond my ability to verbalise what Seyrig does as Jeanne Dielman, her best work, but her mostly impassive, intensely perceptive performance is totally riveting, never less than completely authentic, at least outwardly, and awesome in its depth of detail. Set aside some time for this film, it's worth it. It's one of those films which has the power to change your outlook on life, yet quite how and why remains a mystery, at least to me.

THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (1987) - JACK CLAYTON

Since Julian Fellowes persuaded her to basically reprieve her Gosford Park role in Downton Abbey (albeit with more scowling and less humour), and since she has undertaken the same role in eight Harry Potter films, Maggie Smith's star has undoubtedly risen, but her reputation as one of the screen's most versatile actors has been diminished somewhat. That's a shame, as this double Oscar winner has a range to rival, or even to surpass, those of any of her peers. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is a solemn, sad film, with a syrupy (although certainly pretty) score by Georges Delerue, and director Jack Clayton's grip on the correct tone to strike is less than secure, but Smith's powerful performance is reason enough to make this a must-see, particularly for fans of Smith or for aspiring actors. Few have wrenched so much emotion, so much harrowing emotion out of a role - Judith Hearne is a woman with a pitiful past, a pitiful present and pitiful prospects, someone who has circumstantially fallen through the cracks in a society developing in ways that only cause her worry and harm. No amount of false optimism at the end can disguise the fact, as we see it, that Judith is destined for a life of perpetual misery, and Smith's heartbreaking performance hits that home constantly and profoundly. Not a classic film, no, but one of the most undervalued pieces of acting in the history of cinema, without doubt.