‘Lady Lazarus’: a visual exploration of Sylvia Plath’s poetry
There is no questioning the fact that Sylvia Plath was one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Best known for her posthumous poetry collection Ariel and her novel The Bell Jar, Plath was a pioneer of confessional poetry, exploring extremely personal themes within her work, including motherhood, depression and the complicated relationship with her late father.
A prolific writer, Plath wrote countless poems, short stories, journals and even children’s literature. In the 1950s, she landed a position at Mademoiselle magazine, where she established herself as a highly-skilled writer, using her experience as source material for The Bell Jar. However, she was desperate to find happiness, marrying and bearing children with fellow poet Ted Hughes and relocating to England, although his infidelity only caused Plath to sink into a deeper depression. Tragically, she eventually killed herself in 1963, aged just 30.
However, in her short life, Plath revolutionised poetry, using it as a medium to process her emotions, allowing her vulnerability and honesty to stand at the forefront of her work. Plath’s legacy has often been boiled down to her experiences with mental illness and nothing more, becoming a symbol of sadness and suffering. Yet, Plath was ambitious and desired to experience everything life had to offer, often exploring the vast spread of emotions she felt through her writing and painting.
She once wrote in her diary: “I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”
In 1992, filmmaker Sandra Lahire paid tribute to the poet by creating the short film Lady Lazarus, named after Plath’s iconic poem from Ariel. The 25-minute film is a beautiful homage to the beauty and scope of Plath’s work, with Lahire layering experimental imagery alongside audio clips of Plath reading her own work.
Excerpts of poems such as ‘Daddy’, ‘Ouija’ and ‘Cut’ are accompanied by lucid images, often in direct conversation with Plath’s words. Glittering shots of the sea, photos of Plath hung on the wall, and abstract imagery of bulbs, flames and flowers intersect and overlap, creating a visual collage that brings the poet’s words even more vivacity.
A woman, played by Sarah Turner, appears throughout, using an Ouija board, reading copies of Mademoiselle, driving a car or taking an excessive amount of pills. These scenes are often filmed with uneasy camera movements or coloured in various contrasting hues and filters, creating a disorientating viewing experience.
Lahire’s film emphasises Plath’s multitudinous nature, highlighting her dry humour through interview clips, as well as the pure beauty and hopefulness of many of her words. The director explained: “In this film, my Lady Lazarus is a woman drawn irresistibly towards Plath’s voice. She becomes a medium for Sylvia, as in a seance, as the film travels between Massachusetts and Camden”.
Giving Plath another chance at life through these images, Lady Lazarus is a beautiful exploration of her work using a uniquely experimental visual language that is essential viewing for fans of her poetry.
