Sylvia

[cyanide]

Anyone got any thoughts on the film about Sylvia Plath with Gwyneth Paltrow in the starring role?Is it for the anti-Ted Hughes brigade or is it unbiased?

[drchasuble]

I don't think it was too pro Sylvia as apparently TH was a philandering womanising sh*t and alledgedly stole some of her work and passed it off as his own. And his second wife killed herself too. And if I remember rightly she killed their kid as well.

[cyanide]

TH was a nightmare apparently,have read plenty about him and Sylvia to make my own mind up,Assia did kill herself and their daughter so to me that says a lot about him.My brother though thinks that he was the unlucky one in his choice of women!What is Gwyneth like as Sylvia,is she believable?

[drchasuble]

I think she showed the right amount of fragility and quiet hurt. And I'm not really a huge fan of the Paltrow.

[cyanide]

Hmm me neither,but i can imagine her being ok at playing Sylvia.I`ll rent it this weekend and let you know what i think.

[drchasuble]

Make sure you watch it with your brother!

[cyanide]

Ha!Ha! will do.

[noxlumos]

Well it's easy to have a go at Ted Hughes, who is dead and can't defend himself and who had the misfortune to have two neurotic, deranged wives selfish enough to take their own lives, one of whom was also a murderer. It hasn't occured to you that Assia Wevill (interesting you are on first name terms, lol) murdered her own child, so how is Ted Hughes the bad guy in this little exhibition of misandry?
His third wife oddly enough didn't kill herself, which either meant he mended his ways or she wasn't a raving, self centered nutter.
Long prior to their meeting Plath had ECT and was admitted to a mental hospital, for which I have the greatest sympathy with her, myself suffering from appalling depression, but in no way do I see why Ted Hughes has to bear the brunt of everyone's wrath about what was, to all intents and purposes, a simple suicide of a severly depressed woman. His children seemed to have a right enough relationship with him, and I'd imagine that they would have explored all avenues under the circumstances, and just how could you mistake a Ted Hughes poem for a Sylvia Plath one, and how could he possibly have hoped to pull that off assuming he had wanted to?
Why also do people need to stick up for one "camp" or another, I'm not saying Ted Hughes was a nice man, but I don't KNOW to the contrary, and neither does anyone else.

[suffragette]

I enjoyed the film and thought Gwyneth Paltrow was good, but Daniel Craig is even better as Hughes.

I don't think Ted Hughes can be blamed for either Plath's suicide or the later suicide of Wevill and the film depicts him as a selfish womaniser rather than a truly uncaring man.

Both women seemed overly anxious about their relationships with men and both needed levels of reassurance that few men could ever satisfy. I believe Assia Wevill has been unfairly ignored over the years and her importance in Hughes life much underrated. Many people forget hers was the deeper and more meaningful relationship for Hughes than his marriage to Sylvia Plath.