Reviews
"The Cream of the Crop" ---Curve Magazine
"Writer-director Linda Thornburg's brilliant screenplay, which was sanctioned by Sarton herself, sensitively portrays the poet and her loves, both male and female, without ever raising an eyebrow, making a judgment or affixing a label."---Sheela Lambert, Curve Magazine
"Based on the novel by lesbian literary icon May Sarton, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing is a very different sort of film in the best possible way.
Through narrative and flashback, the film tells the story of the writer Hilary Stevens (played by Lucy Brightman as an adult and by Acacia Leigh Duncan as a teenager), a major novelist of the 1920s who ultimately rejected narrative fiction to become a poet. The film begins in the 1960s with Hilary as an elderly woman preparing for the arrival of two interviewers; one is a young female reporter yearning for validation from Mrs. Stevens and eager for lessons on how to be both a woman and a writer.
Through the memories of Mrs. Stevens, the film examines the growth of feminism and the conflicts of career versus family. The fascinating life of a fashionable and brilliant woman —her loves, her trials, her conflicts and resolutions —are all conveyed in a lush visual style that transports the viewer back in time. Rare are the films that examine the lives of our elders; even more rarely are they this well done, as director and screenwriter Linda Thornburg (making her first feature film) brings a deft touch to a compelling story.
Romantic, smart and exquisite, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing is an easy film to love." frameline30
"Writer-director Linda Thornburg's brilliant screenplay, which was sanctioned by Sarton herself, sensitively portrays the poet and her loves, both male and female, without ever raising an eyebrow, making a judgment or affixing a label."---Sheela Lambert, Curve Magazine
"Based on the novel by lesbian literary icon May Sarton, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing is a very different sort of film in the best possible way.
Through narrative and flashback, the film tells the story of the writer Hilary Stevens (played by Lucy Brightman as an adult and by Acacia Leigh Duncan as a teenager), a major novelist of the 1920s who ultimately rejected narrative fiction to become a poet. The film begins in the 1960s with Hilary as an elderly woman preparing for the arrival of two interviewers; one is a young female reporter yearning for validation from Mrs. Stevens and eager for lessons on how to be both a woman and a writer.
Through the memories of Mrs. Stevens, the film examines the growth of feminism and the conflicts of career versus family. The fascinating life of a fashionable and brilliant woman —her loves, her trials, her conflicts and resolutions —are all conveyed in a lush visual style that transports the viewer back in time. Rare are the films that examine the lives of our elders; even more rarely are they this well done, as director and screenwriter Linda Thornburg (making her first feature film) brings a deft touch to a compelling story.
Romantic, smart and exquisite, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing is an easy film to love." frameline30