Sylvia Plath – The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath: Inside the Bell Jar (2018)

Directed by: Teresa Griffiths | 59 minutes | documentary, biography | Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ina Marie Smith, Charlotte Brokenbow, Zoe Hickson, Frieda Hughes, Deborah McBride, Willow Nash, Charlie Noakes, Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) had struggled with deep depression since her early years – short intense periods accompanied by suicide attempts, electroshock therapy and hospitalization. Not a small story for a normal life, but Plath didn’t have that anyway. Lost father at an early age, an aspiring but neurotic mother and an enormous talent for writing, perhaps the greatest of the twentieth century. When she died at the age of thirty, thanks to her enormous productivity, she already had four collections of poetry, a novel, as well as a posthumously published collection of short stories to her name.

That strongly autobiographical novel, ‘The Bell Jar’ or ‘The Bell Jar’, is the anchor point of this BBC documentary. This setup seems to have been chosen to illustrate Plath’s life on the basis of fragments. A somewhat flimsy premise, since “The Bell Jar” only covers six months of Plath’s life, during which college student Sylvia was assigned the guest editorship of “Mademoiselle” and attempted suicide. Lively enough nonetheless because of the sprightly quotes read by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The pace is good, although most of the friends and fellow students who speak in Plath’s further career have a minor role.

The interpretation of the poetry is also on the poor side. As is often the case, Plath prefers to focus on life rather than work. The richness of this 59-minute long documentary lies in its breadth; the fathomless depth of the poetry and the presence in it of a real death wish remains underexposed. It is nice to see daughter Frieda Hughes speaking. British, Hughes is kind to her mother, and she is the only living family member after the deaths of father Ted and brother Nicholas in 1998 and 2009. The latter, like Sylvia, committed suicide, having survived his mother’s act as a toddler. The work was left behind, to the consolation of many.