Friday 27th October, 2017
125 mins.
Dir: Terence Davies
UK 2016
Cert 12A
Starring: Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine
Literate, witty, razor-sharp dialogue and repartee inform this insightful account of the life of poet Emily Dickinson. We first meet Emily as a young woman at her female seminary, defending her opinions with a quiet and steely determination. Emily has started as she means to go on! The film is appropriately entitled “A Quiet Passion” as, after moving back to the family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily settles into the apparently uneventful role of respectable spinster. However, she misses no opportunity to push against the constraints of polite society and received opinion. She also writes poetry, not a suitable job for a lady, according to critics and publishers of the day. She has a huge passion for life, expressed through her friendships, her interest in the natural world and, of course, her poetry, which, after her death, was recognised as groundbreaking.
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