Styles and Plath
What is it exactly about "The Bell Jar" and the grimly fatalistic Sylvia Plath saga (i.e., if not one and the same then at least closely related) that Julia Stiles and her mostly female producing partners (Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Galt Niederhoffer along with exec producers Christine Vachon and Jocelyn Hayes) feel has been untapped or insufficiently explored by Gwynneth Paltrow's Sylvia, which came out only four years ago and grossed $1,302,242 domestic?
Stiles is planning to star (and possibly direct or write?) a brand-new Plath drama in early '08, based on the famed autobiographical novel, but who's going to want to see it? Who outside of the hardcore Plath fans is going to say, "Great..another one!" After slogging through Sylvia and with the memory of that awful 1979 Bell Jar adaptation from director Larry Peerce and star Marilyn Hassett still vivid, I'm totally Plath-ed out.
Gregg Goldstein's Hollywood Reporter story says that the "1950s-era drama centers on young book editor Esther Greenwood (Stiles), who grows troubled by the social trappings of her time and slowly descends into mental illness." Good God, we've seen it...we've seen it!
Stiles wrote and directed the dramatic short film Raving, Goldstein reports. Starring Zooey Deschanel and Bill Irwin, the short will premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival and May 8 on the Sundance Channel.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 25, 2007 at 11:29 AM
comment #1
christian
says ...
chicks dig it.
Posted by christian
at April 25, 2007 12:31 PM
comment #2
jeffmcm
says ...
Obviously the Paltrow movie would have done better with someone a little more edgy in the lead role - not a smiling blond Oscar-winning face, what Plath-obsessed teenager would be sold by that?
Posted by jeffmcm
at April 25, 2007 12:39 PM
comment #3
bipedalist
says ...
I hate Sylvia Plath. Love her poems but her suicide, leaving those two babies to deal with life, fuck her.
Posted by bipedalist
at April 25, 2007 12:42 PM
comment #4
Michael
says ...
Maybe Styles thinks she would have been happier as a cheerleader. That would be awesome.
Posted by Michael
at April 25, 2007 12:44 PM
comment #5
tholl-yung
says ...
Definitely not going to be as much fun as Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Fear of Flying."
Did I mention I cried at the end of "Waitress" for Adrienne Shelly and her kid?
Posted by tholl-yung
at April 25, 2007 1:06 PM
comment #6
giantman
says ...
Maybe if she fought Giant Robots or something?
Posted by giantman
at April 25, 2007 1:12 PM
comment #7
VedaPierce
says ...
I heard Stiles is going to tackle the oft-neglected story of Elizabeth I next.
Posted by VedaPierce
at April 25, 2007 1:16 PM
comment #8
Rob
says ...
I thought Sylvia was quite good.
Stiles, however, has no range and is totally over.
Posted by Rob
at April 25, 2007 1:21 PM
comment #9
Craig Kennedy
says ...
Giantman, add monkeys with lasers and I'd be there.
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at April 25, 2007 1:27 PM
comment #10
Noah
says ...
Knowing some of the people associated with this project (Hayes and Vachon, especially), I predict it will be a failure. Julia Stiles is also one of the more irritating young actresses out there, her face always seeming to be stuck somewhere between confusion and constipation.
Posted by Noah
at April 25, 2007 1:31 PM
comment #11
jbf81
says ...
I am sooooo not surprise for Gwyneth movies doing so bad with audiences, she is unbearable.
Usually I go to see her movies because I do think she is a great actress and for me thats is what matters, but every time I try to convince my girl friends to come with me is a hell, they just cant stand her.
btw Julia Stiles is just awful
Posted by jbf81
at April 25, 2007 1:34 PM
comment #12
Rob
says ...
Noah, why on earth would Christine Vachon's involvement connote failure? She's produced some of the most vital American films of the past 15 years.
Posted by Rob
at April 25, 2007 1:44 PM
comment #13
Noah
says ...
Rob, I just don't like her as a person and I would argue that many of the films she is involved with in which she has had a creative influence on have been extremely flawed. I liked One Hour Photo, Happiness, Boys Don't Cry and Far From Heaven is decent, but I don't think she has produced any films that were "vital".
Posted by Noah
at April 25, 2007 1:50 PM
comment #14
Larry
says ...
I think Woody Allen explains it pretty well in Annie Hall: "Interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college-girl mentality."
Posted by Larry
at April 25, 2007 2:45 PM
comment #15
le corbeau
says ...
That's actually kind of a cool poster, the old Bell Jar one. But I'm more floored by the idea that Marilyn Hassett was the star. Even by the standards of half-forgotten 70s actresses (Susan Anspach, Marie-France Pisier, etc.), she's really vanished from the collective memory, yet The Other Side of the Mountain was a pretty good-sized hit.
Posted by le corbeau
at April 25, 2007 8:08 PM
comment #16
MPNeeb
says ...
My guess, and this is only a guess, but actresses dig Plath because it gives them a chance to ACT. And ACT depressed. And ACT emotional. But mostly, to ACT.
And because there's suicide involved, they get to ACT and be taken seriously because they ACT.
As I said, it's only a guess.
Posted by MPNeeb
at April 26, 2007 3:03 AM
comment #17
Rob
says ...
Really, no one else is sticking up for Christine Vachon?
Now, boys, I realize she's never produced a movie based on a comic book or a theme-park ride, but it wouldn't have killed you to have sat through Safe or Happiness or Swoon...
Posted by Rob
at April 26, 2007 4:19 AM