Sylvia Plath

Documentary exploring Ted Hughes, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, focusing on how his life story influenced his work and vision.

A cinematographic response to Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus with Plath’s own readings of her poetry. A carousel of images in windows, an atmosphere of constant metamorphosis; her poetry as cinema. Audo outtakes of Plath reading from "Cut," "Daddy," "Lady Lazarus," "Ariel," "Ouija," as well as excerpts from a 1962 interview. Mixing images of Plath's obsessions (ouija boards, horses, violent self-harm) with photographs of the poet and her work, the film delves deeply into an existence that Plath herself, in a voice-over interview, calls "living on air."

The story of Sylvia Plath's seminal novel The Bell Jar as well as the parallels between her life and the book. The film includes an exclusive testimony from Sylvia Plath's daughter Frieda Hughes about her mother.

The end of Autobiography.

In this documentary you will follow in considerable (and sometimes excruciatingly painful) detail Plath's life from her childhood in Massachusetts to her suicide, at age 30, in London in 1963. Included are the candid recollections of her mother, Aurelia Plath, and such aquaintances as Clarissa Roche and Dido Merwin. Providing perspectives on Plath's work are A. Alvarez, a critic, and Sandra M. Gilbert, a feminist scholar and herself a poet.

A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from some of Britain's greatest poets.

"The Lady in the Book" is Sylvia Plath, a major author of 20th-century American poetry and a feminist icon following her sudden death at the age of thirty. This film offers a glimpse into her world and work, through encounters with women who live today in the places where she grew up.