The Yellow Wallpaper

I'm not sure how many times I've seen the Yellow Wallpaper adapted now. It's at least the third one, and wikipedia lists like 5 reasonably direct film adaptations. The story is justly regarded as a horror/feminist/short fiction classic, and I suppose because the author was a woman, it gets a lot of additional interest from the diversity and inclusion motive. I thought the 1977 short film was pretty good, though I haven't seen it in a long time. I think... a long format is maybe not the right way to go for a faithful adaptation. The author Gilman actually wrote nine novels, so I don't think she was incapable of long fiction, or disdainful of it, but yet she chose to write this as a short; and I have to trust that she knew what she was doing. Clearly, it's a literary classic, so... I dunno. Maybe we should trust the artist's judgement about the merits of brevity? I'm not too thrilled about the cinematography, but maybe they were just trying a lot of odd experiments with focus, camera angles, etc. To liven things up a bit. This is a slow, contemplative, meditative, cogitating, simmering, fermenting, rising in a pan in the corner, ripening, perambulating, gently unfolding film.

Lush exteriors, austere interiors, and the creepy music and sound set the scene. This treatment of the source material makes you wonder if we've progressed much since then about how we care for women who are suffering. Excellent work by everyone in front of and behind the camera.

I really enjoyed the premise of the story but my god the leading actress cannot act, she was dead like reading from a teleprompter. But I think movie revealed what it is like to go crazy especially during this time. Main character was suffering from postpartum, stuck in her mind, obsessing over minutia, unable to bond with her baby. It was pretty scary. I enjoyed the period costume and the lackluster home, devoid of comfort, bed in middle of room with windows always exposing, and the abundance of chipped paint. Silent tears of pain in exchange of screaming. I think the best acting came from the head servant who always had a look of dismay and disgust on her face. The other maid, didn't really have the look to fit in this movie.

If it's a horror movie I would classify it as a documentary of sickness happened in old times. Seeing bunch of mice being killed maybe the most scary to me. Way too long and no peak of this product.

I wanted to watch this movie since the plot looked very interesting, but the acting was so awful!!! I do care about watching only movies with the popular A list actors/actresses, but I mean come on, this woman was not trying at all!! It's as if she was reading from a teleprompter!

I am disappointed about the horrible acting because I believe this movie could be great.

The film is generally shot well with nice scenery, and beautiful photography, and a sad atmosphere which goes along with the plot. It's about a woman named Jane who is miserable in her marriage. Jane also seems to be going through postpartum depression. But the film makes you also wonder, if it is just the summer home that is causing her depression. Possibly both. She seems to already be miserable because on the ride to the summer home, her baby cries on the ride there and her husband asks her to do something about it. It seems her husband does not care about his wife's mental health at all, but instead just ignores it and only cares about himself. Jane says in the film that she feels she is being ungrateful. This is something I feel many people can relate to. Sometimes in life you become sad or depressed, even though you have everything going for you, which then makes you feel guilty because you have no real reason to be sad. This shows that it is a real sickness and a chemical imbalance that shouldn't just be ignored, sadly back then it probably was oftentimes ignored. It seemed Janes husband dictated her whole entire day as well. Jane wakes up in the morning and he wants to hear exactly what she will do during the day, now there is nothing wrong with that but it seems that he wants to tell her what she can and can't do, which he does. He tells the maid that he does not want her doing more than an hour of chores.

This film does go over very important topics, not only showing how women were very controlled back then, but how more research needs to be done on womens health in general. This woman clearly had severe postpartum depression and no one seemed to care. And this still holds true today, there is not enough research being done on womens health and women still are controlled in some ways. For example, abortion being banned in certain states.

I do not think this film deserves higher than a 4 because the acting was so awful and this honestly made it unbearable to watch. The film dragged on and could have been summed up in a half hour but I get that they wanted it to be a movie.