Paltrow’s Plath Premiere

Last night marked the finale of this year's London Film Festival and Empire Online has to admit that the turnout for this year's event has been very good indeed. We've seen Anthony Hopkins, Sofia Coppola, Colin Firth and (very briefly) Meg Ryan among the famous filmmakers who turned out to support their films and it's heartening to see our capital's biggest film festival finally drawing the attention it so rightly deserves. "Oh, it's been a massive, massive success," said BFI chair, Anthony Minghella. "There have been 550 filmmakers here in 16 days, which is an amazing number and it shows how excited filmmakers are about the festival and how important it's becoming." The closing gala is the story of famous American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath and her marriage to English poet Ted Hughes. Sylvia is a moving and supremely acted account of the writer's life, her volatile relationship and the difficulties she faced as a woman in the late fifties and early sixties. The second feature from director Christine Jeff, the film treads reverently around its literary origins and displays an enthusiastic affection for its subjects. "I thought that Gwyneth's performance was astounding," said screenwriter John Brownlow of the film's star. "It's not an actorly performance, you forget you're watching someone act. By the end of the movie you've really forgotten there's a difference between Gwyneth and the person she's portraying. To me, she had become Sylvia Plath, which is strange because I probably know as much about Sylvia Plath as anyone and I was still overwhelmed by the intensity." Paltrow herself was naturally present to introduce the film though nearly didn't make, having rushed straight from the set of Proof, where she's starring alongside Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal. "I just had a big day at work and we had a lot of traffic coming in from Elstree so I was a bit worried about getting here on time," she confided to Empire Online. "I think I've made it by the skin of my teeth." "Any time you play somebody that's not fictional then you have a great responsibility to the legend of the person, especially somebody like Sylvia Plath who is so brilliant and so complicated. What I really love about the film is that we really tried to tell an emotional story rather than an empirical one." Her emotional performance has even drummed up of a second Oscar for the star, though Paltrow was quick to avoid speculation on her chances: "I can't think about that, I'm just really thrilled that people have responded to the performances in the film and been so positive. It means the world to me because I really gave everything I have." Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin was also on hand to see his beau in her latest feature, accompanied by two other members of the band. Unsurprisingly though, Martin had a decidedly biased take on the whole proceedings. "Oh it's great," he told us. "It's the best film ever."