STEVIE

UK/US, 1978, 102 minutes, Colour.
Glenda Jackson, Mona Washbourne, Alex McCowen?, Trevor Howard.
Directed by Robert Enders.

Stevie Smith won the Queens Medal for Poetry. This portrait, based on a play and with abundant selection of poems and prose, is generally confined to the rooms of the house where she lived for almost seventy years, many with her devoted aunt. Narrator Trevor Howard frequently gives information and recites poems, but the brunt of the film rests with Glenda Jackson - monologues, poems, explanations to the audience, all with her vigorous performance and diction. A strong portrayal. much of it is interaction with Mona Washbourne as the aunt -one of the best supporting performances for a long time, beautifully real in every detail.

A specialised experience.

1. The appeal of this biography? Audience interest in the subject, the background and environment, the biography of a poet transferred to the screen? For what audience was the film made? British, non-British, theatre-going, literary? The effect for the specialized audience, for the general audience?

2. The quality of the film as a vehicle for Glenda Jackson? The particular skills that she brought to this role, her presence, her acting style, her articulation, her ability to recite the poetry, present Stevie Smith's prose? The emotional range of the poet? The range of age in portraying this life? How skilfully did Glenda Jackson impersonate Stevie Smith and subdue her own personality?

3. How evident were the stage origins of the film? A good adaptation? The opening-out sequences suggesting the outside, the sepia stills and film indicating the past and its memories, the shuffling of past and present? The device of the man and his commentary, his entering into the film in its latter stages? The arrangement of the recital of poetry and prose? Many commented that the film was too much in its interiors. Is this a just comment? Its effect?

4. The quality of Stevie Smith's literature? Her poetry and its imagery, versification? Her prose and its quality? The recurrent metaphors, the quality of her imagination? Her tone and pessimistic tending outlook? Her rhythms? The placing of the poetry and prose throughout the film - as expressing her feelings, commenting on situations? The poetry recited by the man? How much was her poetry influenced by her life and experience? The quality of her poetry and her winning the Queen's medal?

5. The portrait of Stevie Smith as a woman? As a feminist? Her family, background, environment and her comments on it, social status? Her fiance and the contrast with his chauvinist attitudes? The tenderness of her relationship with her aunt? Her work and her poetry, the role of a woman in society, in a publishing house? The feminine creative spirit? Her pessimism and the suicide attempt? Her achievement as human, feminine, poet?

6. The importance of the structure of the film: the man and his entering her room, lightening it and presenting memories - the genre of a biography? The basic story of Stevie Smith and her monologues? The importance of her memories - the sepia effect of the long past, the shuffling of time for her more recent memories? The clarity of the time shifts? The device of having her speak to the audience? Of commenting on herself even in the middle of action, on her aunt?

7. The recurrence of the man and his presence, the reciting of the poetry? A contrived structure drawing attention to itself? An effective structure for this kind of artificial biography? Stevie Smith as English, her use of the English language, English style, working within the English tradition?

8. How effective was the biography - a life, a sketch, a look at Stevie Smith, an understanding of her? How well did the film build the chronology of her biography - information about her birth and the memories of Northern England, her parents and the comments on the suitability of the marriage, her mother, the disappearing father, the importance of her parents, the dramatic impact of the moving to London, the home and her staying in it for so many years while the environment changed? (The importance of seeing her going through a long walk and the environment before she arrived home at the beginning?) The memories of her early illness, the attention given to her over the years, her classes, the teachers and sexuality, the various episodes of her girlhood? How well did the film re-create and suggest an atmosphere of the past - interesting in itself, as background for Stevie?

9. The focus of attention on presenting her at home with her aunt, a strong personality as she grew up, the attention to detail in the home sequences -her arriving how, the preparation of the meal and her choices of what to eat, the drinking of the sherry, the newspaper and the talking? The various points of view as Stevie spoke to the audience and to her aunt? The significance of her talking and revealing herself within these domestic environments?

10. The importance both dramatically and emotionally of Mona Washbourne's characterization of Aunt? Her appearance, age, manner of speaking, manner of fussing, an average elderly lady, likable, with her own dignity? Living by herself but for the children? The meals, tidying up, the sherry, the newspaper? Her influence on Stevie and her calling her Peggy? Her memory of the various things that Stevie was telling us about? The shrewdness of her comments, her not understanding her niece's poetry? The importance of her comment on the fiance and the going back to the memories of the fiance? How dramatic was the transition to her illness and audience response to this? Her ageing, getting more feeble, hardly able to walk, the importance of the long sequence about her dinner being served and her enjoying the dessert? Being looked after by Stevie? Upstairs in bed and calling her for water? The final scenes and the dignity of her death looked after by someone who loved her very much? How memorable a characterization of an ordinary person?

11. The importance of the sequence with Stevie's fiance, his artificial British manner, love for her, sport, dress, social environment? The discussion of their expectations, their differences, what they agreed on? The effect on his having to break off the engagement, the effect on her?

12. The melodrama of her suicide attempt and the way this was described rather than visualized? Her returning home, her memories of this and comments on it, linked with her work and the descriptions of her being at work? The effect on herself, on her aunt?

13. How well did the film carry on with its study of Stevie after Aunt's death? Stevie ageing, becoming an old lady? A celebrity? Her living alone, her going out - and the fuss, especially about the car? The man explaining her illness, her final letter and her hardly being able to speak? The pathos of her growing sick and old and dying?

14. The character of the man - his entering at the beginning, the particular episodes that he re-appeared with, the places, for instance the association with the train, the bridge, the river? His entering into the plot itself and the significance of the episode of the car?

15. How much was achieved in this portrait of one woman, an ordinary but significant life, an achievement in life?

16. What feelings and understanding were the audience left with as they responded to this portrait of a creative woman?