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
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector Larry Peerce and star Marilyn Hassett were married at the time of production.
- GoofsEarly 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 versionsCBS edited 16 minutes from this film for its 1983 network television premiere.
- SoundtracksHere Comes The Night
Written and Performed by Janis Ian
Produced by Janis Ian and Ronald Frangipane
Arranged and Conducted by Ronald Frangipane (uncredited)
Featured review
Just as all boys who become readers as a result of CATCHER IN THE RYE and later are either discovering Phillip Roth or "rebel" types, the same goes for the adult woman emerging from the BELL JAR....EVERY sort of bright or pseudo intellectual girl is introduced to this book which becomes their stepping stone into the neurotic hormonal changes into WOMAN. That is trite and will annoy most of you, but it has been true for a long time. Even Liz Taylor once was going to do the film when young but could not get anyone to finance the "downer" aspect of this terrific work. Of course, a film with a mental narrative is almost impossible to make into a good film. Joan Didion's PLAY IT AS IT LAYS was a fantastic film of a very little known subject....filmmaking and the "biz", but a good portrait of a woman and Tuesday Weld was mind blowing in it.Just as the boys went on into the literary world to Mailer, Kesey, Tom Wolfe,and others went on to the political savants Vidal etc.;the women did the Virginia Woolf and offshoots of downer hood and independence and the intellectuals of both genders met in the middle with earlier mentioned Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, but the bump in the rug was when Erich Segal had such a hit with LOVE STORY and both sexes were now trapped by this silly little book and started reading together because they became "adult" enough to discuss each others' favorites. Now, are new literary heroes are emerging through politics or trash and some heavy handed intellectuals or NO READING at all---compared to the days when one had up to three or four books going at once.There are so many writers from foreign lands who are doing better work because the world is so bizarrely transitioning into a heavy handed place to create and kids are using electronic communication devices which has played havoc with a lot of good storytellers who cannot get a publisher and we almost know what our old "favorites" are going to write about..There are a lot more books and writers than I make it appear....but, it is still frustrating to go into a store and come out empty handed because it is quite a luxury to spend $25-40 when you are having financial setbacks or one struggles to justify not reading a great book they have at their apartment or home bookshelves which are bursting. Try Lorca or some Chinese writers by going to the public library first.
- How long is The Bell Jar?Powered by Alexa
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content