Lady Lazarus

Lady Lazarus

A cinematographic response to Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus with Plath's own readings of her poetry

Sylvia Plath introduced her Lady Lazarus reading by saying: "The speaker is a woman who has a great and terrible gift of being reborn. The only trouble is, she has to die first. She is the phoenix... She is also just a good plain resourceful woman." In this film Lady Lazarus is a woman irresistibly drawn towards Plath's voice. She becomes a medium for Sylvia, as in a seance, as the film travels between Massachusetts and Camden. Bringing together the poet's voice with a kaleidoscope of rich images, Sandra Lahire's film explores a cinematic alphabet for Plath's own readings of her poetry and extracts from an interview given just before her death.

Founded in 1966, the London Film-Makers' Co-operative started life at Better Books, a counter-culture bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where a group led by poet Bob Cobbing and filmmakers Stephen Dwoskin and Jeff Keen met to screen films. Initially inspired by the activities of the New American Cinema Group in New York, the London Co-op grew into a pioneering organisation that incorporated a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. During its four-decade history, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing film as an art form in the UK and participated in a vibrant international film scene. This BFI Replay collection brings together new scans of films distributed by and/or produced at the London Co-op.

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Poetry: Language & Landscape

Exploring poetry's connections to community and culture...

Many of us first encounter poetry at school, and sometimes it’s hard to shake the association with rigid analysis, rote learning and awkward recital in front of class. However, like all of literature and art at large, poetry is human experience turned into creative expression – a vital record of who we are, how we live, and what makes us tick.

This curated collection explores poetry’s relationship with language and landscape. These poets draw inspiration from their surroundings, from the contours of the country to their local communities and cultures, and use the form of poetry and performance to bend, twist and enliven the languages that we hear around us every day.

Here you will find programmes delving into the environments that have inspired poets from Liverpool to the Lake District and beyond, as well as performances that showcase a diverse range of spoken language and dialects from across the UK. Far from a stuffy institution, poetry endures and thrives thanks to a mixture of tradition and innovation, with vibrant work that is by turns playful, poignant, personal and political.

23 videos in this collection

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Brian Patten

  • 1972
A passionate poem about language and cultural identity from Scots poet Len Pennie

I’m No Havin Children

  • 2021
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Linton Kwesi Johnson / John Cooper Clarke (Late Night from Two)

  • 1982
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Benjamin Zephaniah, James Berry and Buchi Emecheta at Words to Life (Here and Now)

  • Cannon Hill Park
  • 1984
Seamus Heaney on how writers help give a nation its sense of self

Seamus Heaney, A Sense of Ireland

  • Belfast
  • 1980
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Hartlepool

  • Hartlepool
  • 1993
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Spirit of the Place: Swansea

  • 1985
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The Liverpool Poets

  • 1992
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I Is a long-memoried Woman Based on a Collection of Poems by Grace Nichols

  • 1990
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Subterranean Poetry

  • Skinningrove
  • 1997
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Writers' Rambles: Torquay

  • Torquay
  • 1987
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The Ken Fine Show [05/03/95]

  • 1995
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A Toast Tae The Daft Days- a poyum by Len Pennie for LIDL

  • 2020
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The Dales Diary [23/08/2007]

  • Coverdale
  • 2007
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J'accuse Philip Larkin

  • 1993
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The Never-ending Poem - Children of the Black Triangle

  • 1989
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Celebration (John Cooper Clarke)

  • 1980
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The Armagh Rhymers Performance

  • Belfast
  • 1980
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F.T. Prince - Poems

  • 1993
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Nesta Wyn Jones

  • 1989
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R.S.Thomas

  • 1986
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Gwilym R. Jones

  • 1986
A cinematographic response to Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus with Plath's own readings of her poetry

Lady Lazarus

  • 1991
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