Emily Watson’s Triumph Is One of Acting Ability, as It Should Be

As professional musicians (we are both members of the Cleveland Orchestra), my companion and I were most interested in Mark Swed’s “Hilary and Jackie” commentary (“Some Notes of Inauthenticity,” Jan. 2).

We agree that watching non-musician actors mime instrumental playing is slightly distracting. However, we were upset that Swed implies this one aspect of the movie precludes any depiction of Jacqueline du Pre’s consuming passion for music and thereby destroys the entire production.

On the contrary, we felt that the emotional impact of the film soon overcame the fact that the actors were not actually cellists or flutists, and that the two protagonists delivered powerful and credible performances. We have seen far worse imitations of instrumental playing in many otherwise fine films.

Also, Swed’s analogy to a non-dancer actor playing Nureyev is rather absurd, since dance is entirely visual, whereas the movements of musicians are (or should be) still secondary to their music-making.

MARTHA AARONS

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Swed appears to be saying that films about creative artists should never be made, as they will always fall hopelessly short of the real thing. But of course there was only one Nureyev, as there was only one Jacqueline du Pre--that is the wonder and the tragedy of their existence and eventual loss. But it is ludicrous to disparage an artist’s representation of another artist as “inaccurate” because they are not and can never be the artist themselves. Emily Watson is doing what Du Pre herself did--interpreting.

Watson gives a stunning all-round performance that conveys the sexual and emotional energy Swed is especially critical that her cello mimicry lacks. Du Pre is presented with dignity, imagination and soul--the very elements her musical career incorporated. It is a pity that Swed cannot see that for the noise in his head.

LUISA F. RIBEIRO

Burbank

In my 1989 biography of Du Pre, I stressed that she was neither the saint that the British media made her out to be nor the self-absorbed monstre sacre of her sister’s self-serving book, on which the one-sided “Hilary and Jackie” is based. Rather, she was achingly human.

During the last years of her diabolical illness, her great regret was that most of her recordings were no longer available; she felt that her music’s life would end with her own. Viewers of the movie can do her memory--and themselves--a service by eschewing the movie soundtrack and buying Jackie’s CDs. The real and enduring story of Jacqueline du Pre is, now and for always, in her music.

CAROL EASTON

Venice