Sylvia

[Gold Trumpet]

Taken from another thread: http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4996&start=165

I heard almost nothing about Sylvia upon initial release. No thread or even mention here. I read the Stanley Kauffmann review of it but immediately forgot everything he said. I still haven't went back to it to see how my thoughts correlated with his. It just so happened I was wondering around my video store and rented the film because I was surprised my little city even had it.

Its really one of the most exceptional biography films I've seen in a while. Of the last 25 years, Raging Bull is prolly the most applauded. I think its overrated. A good film that captures the fire of Jake LaMotta in the ring but generalizes his life outside the ring that doesn't get beyond typical drama. For those who love Raging Bull, I wish they'd see This Sporting Life from 1963. A movie that really captures the fire of frustation a sportsman has in his whole life and the ambiguilty of that pain. Sylvia does the same for Sylvia Plath's paranoia and sense of loneliness in a magnificent texture of feeling put onto film. The movie never talks about her general, hallmark events but the traumatic secrets that dominated her existence and kept her from any happiness. Gywneth Paltrow finally gets a role she can speak for just on physical characteristic and she is great through out the entire film. Her best performance ever. I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.

I almost put this as the best film of the year. City of God has the filmmaking power of almost no other film in a long time, but Sylvia is the drama of recent years for me and ten times the film City of God is in substance. The filmmaking achievement in City of God just won me over. I'm going to buy the dvd of Sylvia and watch it again and hopefully elaborate more in my appreciation.

[Chest Rockwell]

Wow, is it really that good? I saw a few previews and wasn't really excited about it. Not like it ever came to my theatres anyway.

[Ghostboy]

I liked it -- and it definitely ranks with Gywnneth's best performances (the only other one I'd consider really good is in Royal Tennenbaums, in which she plays a very Plath-ish character), reminding one after all the drivel she's chosen lately that she actually is a good actress. But the film itself never really came to life for me; I never felt her pain, and part of my reasoning for that is was nicely explained by Kirsten Dunst, of all people, who apparently is a big Plath fan and criticized the movie for making her seem more like a victim and less like an intrinsically depressed person. It did, however, do a nice job of depicting the way depression can lead to artistic success. And the scene with Blythe Danner was wonderful.

GT, you might find this article interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1026462,00.html

[mutinyco]

I interviewed director Christine Jeffs last fall. Go to:

http://movienavigator.org/cjeffs.htm