Stevie

Anyone interested in Stevie Smith, or with a taste for literary films, can't fail to appreciate the beauty of this little movie.The atmosphere created by the film is intimate & bookish, and Jackson's well-honed performance (she created the role in the stage play) conveys Stevie's vulnerability & brilliance wonderfully.

Reading the reviews and feeling like I feel, I want to keep this film alive by adding a comment here.

I saw this years ago and never forgot it. I was (and am) a Glenda Jackson fan - although we are both of age now. The story of Stevie Smith was new to me at the time. What a wonderful way to get to know her writings ! It blew me way. I've read much of her since thanks to this film. I found it sublime. Much thanks to Mona Washburn and Trevor Howard (both died in 1988), but mostly to Glenda Jackson. I wish I could see it again. Can anybody show me where to get it ? Dl or otherwise. I'm grateful that I have the vinyl LP so I can listen to it from time to time :)

This is a wonderful film. It is not perfect; not many man-made artifacts are. However, if you have seen any film of Stevie Smith, you will realise how well Glenda Jackson captures her spirit, and especially her appearance. The claustrophobic scenes (mostly in the living-room of her very ordinary house) enhance this impression. The music and the interspersed commentary by Trevor Howard detach us from the story so we can be objective. Yes, it is sad; anyone who reads Smith's poetry knows it is sad, macabre and eccentric. The only real drawback is Mona Washbourne's portrayal of the aunt, not apparently true to life. Shame, as she is the warmest of the characters in the film. I only wish they would release it on dvd as video does not do it justice.

This is an appallingly boring film. Perhaps it was an interesting stage play...I don't know. But it doesn't work as a film because there is virtually nothing cinematic about it. It remains confined largely within the dimensions of a stage set (there is really only one set, a shabby-genteel apartment where "Stevie" (the real-life poet Stevie Smith) lives with her long-suffering aunt (played by Mona Washbourne). Stevie, you see, has problems---emotional problems, problems with her "muse," problems living with her dependent aunt, problems with lovers (one of them, Trevor Howard, bears the enigmatic name of "The Man.") And Stevie TALKS...all the time, a constant stream of arty, supposedly meaningful, but utterly self-indulgent jabber. Glenda Jackson plays "Stevie,"...she really liked talky parts, it would seem. This one fits her like a glove. She, Howard, Washbourne, and Alec McCowen are four of the finest actors Britain has produced. Yet they wallow in this mess for what seems like days (the film actually only runs a bit over the usual 90 minutes). Steer clear of this deadly dull bio-pic, unless you just can't do without the poetry and posturings of Stevie Smith, or you absolutely must see the entire "oeuvre" of Glenda Jackson, M.P.

Literate, lovely, sad film about the British poet/writer Stevie Smith with splendid performances by Glenda Jackson as Stevie and Mona Washbourne as the "lion aunt." Stagy, yes, but filled with love and wit and great wisdom.

The narrative follows the adult years of the eccentric poet in her suburban London home she shares with her aunt. Her workaday like is a background to her domestic life with flashbacks of school, a failed love, and death ... a major theme in her writing.

But rather than being gloomy, the film points out the joys of a life even if unfulfilled by husband and children. Jackson enacts many of Stevie's poems as a counterpoint to her own life, and she is quite superb.

Mona Washbourne is excellent and endearing as the aging aunt who really doesn't understand the Bohemian life of her gifted niece. Yet they have a wonderful life together. The domestic scenes of the simple joys of conversation and good sherry are wondrous.

Alec McCowen is the lost suitor. Trevor Howard is the narrator who wanders through the story.

A pity this is not available on DVD. A lovely film for the intelligent viewer.