4.29.2004

 

[sylvia]

just caught the movie Sylvia about the eponymous poet Sylvia Plath (she of The Bell Jar fame, and poet of choice for many angsty intelligent girls). interestingly enough the film opens in cam where she, on a fulbright scholarship (!!!) meets ted hughes, and then traces her life through initial euphoria to writer's block to severe depression to failed marraige to her eventual suicide.

it doesn't really offer any insight into her (or ted hughes') literary genius - the main criticism levelled at it by 8 days - but there are tantalising glimpses of how they just *clicked*, and at such a high level.. if not for the subtitles i wouldn't have been able to make out some of the english words, it was that fast. to paraphrase from the show, poets are like shamans.. but they're really like postdocs researching the english language. i can't even begin to elaborate what the implications of this are, because i've seen people with such intensity and passion working in science, and this is just the literary equivalent. *epiphany* there's really no dichotomy between the arts and the sciences.. (sudden revelation into the subject du jour - dont ask me, this is the topic in vogue now)

anyway, the other main reason why it's a good movie is because it illustrates the fragility of a relationship between two highly intelligent individuals working in the same field. although the film is called Sylvia, it's really about the relationship between her and ted hughes - the intellectual connection, the intense competition, the romantic love, the feelings of hurt and betrayal. i've never seen it captured so beautifully - gweneth paltrow is wonderful as sylvia plath - or so poetically. and the competition can be so draining: on one hand you want the other party to suceed, yet your own career is languishing. they're both really talented - that makes the competition all the more intense. it's really very much a love/hate relationship.

i also never really factored how kids can shelve their mothers' careers. its more of a sideline in the film, her kids, but there was this one scene where she was trying to write and her babies were just bawling away in the cot next to her table.. you know you always instinctively *know* that it's hard to balance work and kids, but this was quite a graphic (and literal) depiction.

that said, it's NOT a mother's day movie (it ends with a suicide, for crying out loud), DON'T bring your mothers to see this.

timestamp: anonymous 14:58 0 comments