Sylvia

ramona said:Sylvia should have channeled her inner Courtney Love (back before the heavy lip fillers),

But why exactly? 😲
Shouldn't they have cast some talented, unknown newcomer instead of a massive starlet? And frankly, I've never been able to warm up to Hughes; Daniel Craig performed the role adequately, I suppose, but can anyone truly be expected to take him seriously?

goldberry said:Coming soon (not next week, but soon) to theaters near us... one of my least favorite actresses, Gwyneth Paltrow, playing one of my absolute favorites, Sylvia Plath...

I can see it now—Gwyneth probably played her as some anemic, borderline autistic, frazzled neurotic being controlled by Ted Hughes...

Has anyone seen it yet? I'd love some impressions...
(And please, try to talk me out of this skepticism. Though, honestly, I rarely expect much from Hollywood's take on literary lives... at that point, it’s less about the author or the work and more just a sugary melodrama...)

I actually just finished watching it. The cinematography and the setting are stunning; as Sylvia sinks deeper into depression, everything feels increasingly dark. The film really centers on her relationship with Hughes, though they barely use her poetry—just a stanza here and there. I read somewhere that Sylvia Plath's daughter wouldn't let the director use her late mother's poems, but I'm not sure if that's true.

All things considered, I think the movie is pretty balanced. It didn't feel like it was trying to "blame" anyone (maybe Hughes?) for what happened to her.

For years, have you ever wondered how relentlessly certain feminist circles have sought to crucify her, turning her very memory into a public spectacle of judgment following her passing?

And what is truly the most devastating part? He went on to marry the woman who followed Sylvia, and isn't it just haunting that she also took her own life?

By the way, isn't it fascinating how incredibly strict the estate of Sylvia Plath is when it comes to the rights to her poetry?

It feels like a lifetime ago that I first stumbled upon those treasures while browsing the web, didn't it? I remember being so delighted that I carefully saved them all for safekeeping! But then, after about six months had passed, what happened? I turned around to find that almost everything had vanished, leaving behind only a single solitary file with a heartbreaking little note explaining that the copyright holders had issued a takedown notice! Isn't it just the most frustrating thing to lose something you worked so hard to collect?
In most instances, one finds that such treasures are exceedingly rare, primarily because their rightful heirs have strictly forbidden any form of publication!

Can you believe that even here in the States, a collection of her poems was actually released about six or seven years ago?

Assia? I knew she took her own life, but I always assumed Sylvia Plath had been attempting suicide for years before she ever met Hughes (likely due to chronic depression throughout most of her life).

Here is a link to a forum discussing the movie:

http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/archives/f1.html

It’s a site about Sylvia Plath in general; it feels like a landing page for an "interested amateur." There are a few of her poems on there along with some analysis. I don't know a ton about Sylvia Plath, but I do like her style—as mentioned in the film, she uses intense imagery, but in a very cold way, which is exactly my kind of thing.

I'll pull out a quote from the link I posted:

(...)The only thing I don't like is the pink they seem to have her in....it just seems too "cutesy" for lack of a better word.(...)

I actually disagree with that: if she always made an effort to look put-together (which you can see in the film), maybe that was just her way of coping despite the illness. It's similar to what Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote in her book "Bitch," specifically in an essay about depression where Sylvia Plath is mentioned.

As for the movie, it pays quite a bit of attention to detail, and certain things—like the relationship between Assia and Hughes—are handled quite subtly. Give it a watch and decide for yourself; I'm not an expert on her biography so I can't say if everything is perfectly accurate, but the film certainly isn't cheap or lazy.