{"id":33141,"date":"2017-05-16T13:35:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T18:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=33141"},"modified":"2017-05-17T14:26:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:26:13","slug":"a-quiet-passion-emily-dickinson-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/movie\/2017\/05\/16\/a-quiet-passion-emily-dickinson-film\/","title":{"rendered":"~’A QUIET PASSION’ . . EMILY DICKINSON FILM \/ TERENCE DAVIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

EM & me . . . <\/p>\n

yesterday, May 16 . . was the day Emily died – in 1886, at her home in Amherst.
\nthe Ghost – is in<\/em> the room !!!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Emily-Dickinson---A-Quiet-Passion---poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

besides the current exhibit on Emily Dickinson, ‘I’m Nobody! Who are You?’ at the Morgan Library<\/a>, up only til the end of the month \/ don’t miss it.<\/p>\n

a feature length film . . on EMILY DICKINSON, titled, ‘A Quiet Passion’ \/ opened last week, here in NYC. <\/p>\n

between the two of them \/ one can begin begin to feel closer to the austere Emily.
\nher times, her family and friends, her upbringing, and her life’s work . . with each endeavor, the museum show and the feature length film – dovetailing with the other, to fill in the blanks.<\/p>\n

‘A QUIET PASSION’, (2017) . . . a feature film on EMILY DICKINSON,
\ndirected by TERENCE DAVIES & starring CYNTHIA NIXON as Emily Dickinson – is now playing,
\nat the Quad Cinema . . here in NYC.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

unlike the press I saw online just now, I would say, no<\/strong> – it is not<\/strong> a brilliant blockbuster, lordy.
\nwhat-ever . . are they thinking ?
\nit’s really only for . . diehard Dickinson fans; and perhaps some diehard poetry, and early Americana religious & history buffs \/ or . . . . ,
\nthose with stressed-out jobs in, say . . the fashion world, who are just dying to veg-out on a pretty & yet informative \/ sensitive & delicately . . spaced-out 2 hour, period docu-drama, with . . good costumes.<\/p>\n

speaking of which:
\nthe various, period-correct \/ hand-tatted lace collars, seem to be authentic museum pieces ?!!!<\/p>\n

PASSION ?
\ndid somebody say: passion, albeit . . quiet ?<\/p>\n

turns out, at the beating<\/strong> heart of the Emily Dickinson real life drama \/ lies a most passionate & most illicit, yet apparently hardly<\/strong> hidden . . love affair; that between her brother Austin, and his mistress . . MABEL LOOMIS TODD \/
\nwhile of course, wouldn’t you know: EMILY and his proper wife, SUSAN . . were best friends.
\ngo figure !! <\/p>\n

it gets even more <\/strong>complicated by the evil woman Mabel’s apparent utmost devotion to Emily’s poetry, if not to Emily herself, but who really knows ?
\n. . turns out, it was<\/strong> MABEL who first edited, preserved and published Emily’s poems, after her death !! and a most interesting facet of the whole tale – and which is more<\/strong> fully addressed in the Morgan Library exhibit.
\nand, in fact not mentioned here at all. the publishing. the devotion to Emily’s work.<\/p>\n

instead, this film’s focus, is to try \/ to fill us in on, cinematic-ally<\/strong> . . on how hard<\/strong> it was, for the contrarian Emily, so rebellious, and yet in her own way \/ so very rigid . . to come to terms with her brother’s absolute flaunting of convention \/ to live and to work . . amidst a very complicated betrayal<\/strong> of her life, on all<\/strong> levels.<\/p>\n

it’s a long meandering road, but we do<\/strong> get . . how Emily’s stubborn, questioning & contrary views – the depth of which gave rise to her inward \/ haunting voice, and which followed closely nevertheless upon the strict & repressed Protestant \/ Puritanical upbringing she had been raised in; and whose conventional practices she upturns & questions at all turns . . <\/p>\n

and which clearly has its own<\/strong> individualist \/ stubborn yet undeniably ‘passionate’ set of narrow beliefs, . . how that ‘QUESTIONING’ . . . is thrown right back at her, to rationalize<\/strong> and ask her to accept Austin’s deviant <\/strong>behavior.<\/p>\n

as in: doesn’t everyone have a right to find their own path, passion, and way \/ and, most importantly to ber to be . . forgiven ?<\/p>\n

there is some gentle alluding – to the fact that the long suffering wife, Susan . . might be lacking in the passion department \/ or else, ‘why did she resist Austin’s proposals of marriage – so many times ‘?<\/p>\n

there’s also some ‘alluding’ to some ‘acceptable’ veneer for the affair; as to the fact that ‘Mabel’s husband might be compromised by . . venerality’\/ or, as we say . . std \/ and in those days, it was quite a devastating situation, re final solution ‘surgery’.<\/p>\n

at any rate, unlike the Morgan museum exhibit, which keeps a petty tight pace attuned to the intellectual & ‘literati-life’ \/ whirl of passion, that complicated Emily’s life, and I guess made her akin to a contemporary reality star<\/strong> – in her own little village, no ?
\ncollege town, or not.<\/p>\n

‘A Quiet Passion’ . . treats us to a physical, lustful . . . scene of Emily actually walking in on Austin and Mable, getting it on, while innocently on the way to the kitchen – for a midnight snack !!!
\noh my !!!!!<\/p>\n

you know, and then all that Protestant – faith questioning \/comes on-board \/ so you see them all argue it out – from both sides of the ‘righteous’ ledger \/ or any<\/strong> side, actually.
\nback & forth endlessly !!
\none thing’s for sure, Mabel does not get kicked out.<\/p>\n

but, my question is: is it ever directly addressed in the poems, or in any of the huge correspondence she is supposed to have kept up ? how Emily felt about this affair ?
\nwhat was the low-down ?<\/p>\n

what’s in the real . . archive \/ and, what was . . re-imagined by these filmmakers ?<\/p>\n

a poem is narrated overhead, after the ‘outing’, to the effect that: ‘why has my world spun out of my control’ ?!! <\/p>\n

I don’t think there is much mention, either on paper, in letters or diaries \/ or at least in ones that haven’t been long burnt (!!) by now . . . because there’s absolutely<\/strong> no portrayal in this film, on how that relationship \/ the between Emily and her brother’s mistress, Mable – evolved over the years. though it seems it did, re the Morgan exhibit.
\nand that’s one reason I would like to read the poems – now.
\nsearching for references . . to the ‘goings-on’ \/ between the . . lines !!<\/p>\n

though, that’s where the Morgan Library pipes in again, letting<\/strong> you know how MABLE was a big fan of Emily’s work, and sent her letters, and Emily sent her poems.
\nin fact, it was red letter ‘Capital A’ MABEL LOOMIS TODD, and not wife\/ friend Susan, who was to publish Emily’s poems after her death . . <\/p>\n

the Morgan does give us some tantalizing facts, but with very little emotional detailing.
\nagain, I guess none<\/strong> exists on record ?<\/p>\n

but still, who knew . . <\/strong><\/p>\n

that under all that carefully crafted, minimalist phrasing, a questioning, troubled emotional ‘storm’, based on a most purple love triangle, though not<\/strong> of her own making \/ but one sibling step away – was a-brewing,
\nall along . . confounding & confusing her ????<\/p>\n

no wonder, she looked so outward for order – in the world.<\/p>\n

but the singular, most important<\/strong> aspect of this film, and one that fills in a big void at the Morgan exhibit, is not an emotional ‘coloring’, of her life, but an actual . . DEMONSTRATION<\/strong> !! <\/p>\n

of EMILY, at work on her famous ‘fascicles’ \/ or hand-sewn tiny packets of poems, small folded paper pages stitched together \/ or, in other words . . as we would say today, DO-IT-YOURSELF-BOUND !!
\nat the ‘spine’, or fold.<\/p>\n

although the Morgan exhibit speaks of these ‘fascicles’, or ‘packets’ – there are no photos or reproductions, let alone a precious archival one. turns out Mabel, who actually gave<\/strong> the name ‘fascicle’ to these little hand-sewn packages of poems, and the other early editors . . dismantled them !!
\noh. no !!!!!!!!<\/p>\n

wow, that’s a whole other<\/strong> story, somebody else – has to write.<\/p>\n

A quiet passion . . ?
\nindeed !!!!!!!<\/p>\n

\"Emily-Dickinson---A-Quiet-Passion\"<\/a>
\nCYNTHIA NIXON, as a pretty good, very believable . . EMILY DICKINSON, first stabs a few holes, clear through a few leafs of folded paper, upon which she has scribbled her poems \/ to ready them for hand-stitched sewn binding, or DIY, as we would term it today !!<\/p>\n

and that’s another reason, Dickinson is seeing a sudden revival, & relevance today.
\nher shaped pages, scraps, collages . . and DIY binding !!
\nare allowing us to see her \/ through the magic of modern digital \/ photographic reproduction, not just the old typeset printing of yore, as the singular poet – artist \/ she really was !!
\nthe times, they just<\/strong> be a-catching up . . to her.
\nrebel, outsider. visionary. self-driven. <\/p>\n

\"Emily-Dickinson---fascicle\"<\/a>
\nEmily pulls the thread – through the holes, to hand-bind the tiny books into packets, the easier to store the poems.
\nor . . what we would call today, self-published ZINES !!!!!!!<\/p>\n

\"Emily-Dickinson-stitching-poems\"<\/a>
\na priceless moment in the film . . ‘A Quiet passion’.
\nEMILY stitches . . a hand-bound – ‘fascicle’.
\nyou can see how good CYNTHIA NIXON is, too.<\/p>\n

all 3 images: screen grabs \/ via a short clip on the @aquietpassion \/ Instagram page<\/p>\n

how strange \/ funny, well actually sad:
\nthat although, as the Morgan gets it . . Emily is now being seen through new eyes as a poet-artist<\/strong>, and they, the filmmakers . . did<\/strong> make a point of re-creating this well-informed scene of her hand-binding her little books, and it’s produced so well, and so lovingly . . .
\nthe footage doesn’t make the . . commercial trailer ???<\/p>\n

I guess they forget, that in the end, probably . . it would be only artists and writers, in effect the scholars . . who know, and are desperate for this kind of historical detail \/ that would be the ones who would be watching the trailer, and they should have included it.
\nthey should not never have dumb-ed it down, for the masses.
\na ‘Hallmark’ film, despite the illicit affair – this is, not.
\na cross-over film \/ this is . . not !!
\nwhy not revel in what it – is.
\nit definitely has its moments. <\/p>\n

see: ‘A QUIET PASSION’ – OFFICIAL WEBSITE \/ TRAILER<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A-Quiet-Passion\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EM & me . . . yesterday, May 16 . . was the day Emily died – in 1886, at her home in Amherst. the Ghost – is in the room !!!!! besides the current exhibit on Emily Dickinson, ‘I’m Nobody! Who are You?’ at the Morgan Library, up only til the end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33141"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33179,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33141\/revisions\/33179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}