The Bell Jar

1979
R
1h 47m

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

274

YOUR RATING

Biography Drama

As the horrors beneath the idealized 1950s come about, a successful young woman finds herself having a serious mental breakdown when she returns to New England.As the horrors beneath the idealized 1950s come about, a successful young woman finds herself having a serious mental breakdown when she returns to New England.As the horrors beneath the idealized 1950s come about, a successful young woman finds herself having a serious mental breakdown when she returns to New England.

Director
- Larry Peerce
Writers
- Marjorie Kellogg
- Sylvia Plath
Stars

See production, box office & company info

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

274

YOUR RATING

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos6

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Director Larry Peerce and star Marilyn Hassett were married at the time of production.

Goofs
Early in the picture an early-'50s New York cab has a telephone number on it beginning with "555". The all-numeric phone numbers were not put into use for another decade.

Quotes
Esther Greenwood: To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.

Alternate versions
CBS edited 16 minutes from this film for its 1983 network television premiere.

Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: The Bell Jar, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dreamer, Old Boyfriends, Hurricane, Beyond The Door 2, Circle of Iron (1979)

Soundtracks
Here Comes The Night
Written and Performed by Janis Ian
Produced by Janis Ian and Ronald Frangipane
Arranged and Conducted by Ronald Frangipane (uncredited)

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

8/10

no, it's not the book, but...a flawed, intriguing interpretation nonetheless

I saw this movie when it first came out, before I had read the book. It's impossible to capture the immensity of Esther's pain as she staggers toward oblivion, but watching the movie gave me a definite sense of a life in utter chaos. Yes, the film is flawed, but in my mind it stands alone as a separate entity. Marilyn Hassett's portrayal of Esther is terrifying--I haven't empathized so completely with a character on the brink of dementia since Kathleen Quinlan as Deborah in "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden." The supporting cast is equally solid--it's not their fault that there's just too much ground for one little movie to cover. Donna Mitchell stays in my mind as creating, in Joan's character, a young woman as doomed and in as much mental disarray as Esther. Mitchell is an amazingly underrated (and under-used) actress. I'm not sure if our boys would have given it two thumbs up, but it remains one of my closet classics.

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