A Quiet Passion Reviewed

A Quiet Passion is Terence Davies’s biopic of the nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson, author of 1,800 (incredibly wonderful) poems, of which only 10 were published in her lifetime.

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In the opening sentence of the review, we learn that Emily Dickinson...

• didn’t want her poems published in her lifetime.

• couldn’t get any poems published while she lived.

• had only a fraction of her works published when alive.

• had to spend her own money to get published.

A Quiet Passion is Terence Davies’s biopic of the nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson, author of 1,800 (incredibly wonderful) poems, of which only 10 were published in her lifetime. Who was this woman? She’s fixed in our minds as a recluse who would only talk from behind her bedroom door, but was she always a recluse? Is it the truth of her that matters, or the truth of her poetry? Can the two become one?

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In the first paragraph, the reviewer says she wants to find out...

• why the director chose to make a film about Emily Dickinson.

• whether our view of Emily Dickinson is accurate.

• why we no longer remember Emily Dickinson for her poetry.

• how Emily Dickinson’s poetry influenced her life.

As a general rule poets do not make the best film characters. Poets are not crime-fighters who are part spider or dress like bats. What a poet does is inward-looking – they sit, and think, and write. By its very nature, a poet’s life is uncinematic. Furthermore, films about poets tend to ignore the poetry, in favor of simplifying a character so that they are, for example, an angry or a miserable loner.

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The reviewer says that poets are poor film characters because...

• their lives lack the action of more typical film characters.

• they tend to have negative characteristics such as anger.

• it is difficult to ignore the poetry and focus on their personality.

• it is important to represent them in a precise way.

So, how well does Davies do? He brings the story to life in a fairly straightforward way. It is chronological, but told in a series of disconnected scenes, and it doesn’t simply go from birth to death like an old-fashioned biography. It opens with Emily, played by talented young actress Emma Bell, as a teenager. She’s being told off in school for breaking school rules. Time passes, and the film’s character grows into adulthood. Cynthia Nixon, well-known for her TV roles, is terrific as the adult Emily. Indeed, at times you feel that she has become the poet.

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What do we learn about A Quiet Passion in the third paragraph?

• It contains flashbacks from Emily’s adult life back to her childhood.

• It is old-fashioned because it sets out events in order.

• It shows both scenes from Emily’s youth and her adult life.

• It begins when Emily is born and shows her life until her death.

It opens with Emily, played by talented young actress Emma Bell, as a teenager. She’s being told off in school for breaking school rules. Time passes, and the film’s character grows into adulthood. Cynthia Nixon, well-known for her TV roles, is terrific as the adult Emily. Indeed, at times you feel that she has become the poet.

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What’s the reviewer’s attitude towards the actresses in the third paragraph?

• She is critical of one of them.

• She compares their performances.

• She dislikes both their performances.

• She compliments one of them more.

Cynthia Nixon, well-known for her TV roles, is terrific as the adult Emily. Indeed, at times you feel that she has become the poet.

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The reviewer says that Cynthia Nixon’s performance is...

• very thought-provoking.

• totally convincing.

• extremely touching.

• not entirely accurate.

Emily lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family, and they are her world because she has no other world. In the mid-nineteenth century, or so the film informs us, the lives of women were so controlled that their days were unbelievably dull. You feel it in the film. Clocks tick as women stare into space. They sew. They play hymns at the piano. And that was it, pretty much, for a Saturday night.

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What do we learn about the film in the fourth paragraph?

• It becomes dull when it shows Emily’s daily life.

• It depicts some women’s daily life in the nineteenth century.

• It tries to capture the lives of most nineteenth century women.

• It misrepresents Emily’s daily life.

The first hour of the film is pure period drama, with beautiful dresses, and horse carriages, and sunlight coming in through windows. Emily is vivacious, sociable and very opinionated. With a script by Davies, she is also sharp and funny, perhaps too much so. Was everything she said brilliant? However, you can also sense her spirit being crushed. She must ask her father for permission to write. She suffers disappointments in friendship and romance, and her love for a married man, who does not show any interest in return, marks the beginning of her decline into bitterness, despair and isolation. The second hour moves as slowly and as disconnectedly as the first, but is more deeply moving.

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What is the review critical of in the fifth paragraph?

• The way the film shows the contradictions of the main character.

• The settings, costumes and style of the film’s ‘period drama’ feel.

• The slow-moving nature of the later part of the film.

• Aspects of the film’s dialogue which may not be true.

However, you can also sense her spirit being crushed. She must ask her father for permission to write. She suffers disappointments in friendship and romance, and her love for a married man, who does not show any interest in return, marks the beginning of her decline into bitterness, despair and isolation. The second hour moves as slowly and as disconnectedly as the first, but is more deeply moving.

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In the film, Emily becomes increasingly isolated after...

• she is rejected by someone she has feelings for.

• her father fails to show support for her ambition.

• her spirit is crushed by people in her family.

• she finds it difficult to write under pressure.

From his first autobiographical films through to his later adaptations of great novels, Davies has always made highly personal films, and this is a very personal interpretation of Dickinson’s life. A number of facts have been changed. Perhaps, because he is more interested in exploring Emily’s feelings than her writing, this says more about Davies than Dickinson. And where is the poetry? We see Emily writing at a desk, and placing her poems into little books, but we don’t find out much about how she came to write them.

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According to the reviewer, why is A Quiet Passion typical of Davies’s work?

• It reveals things about the interests and views of Davies himself.

• It adapts a major novel, which is something he often likes to do.

• It changes facts in the story and isn’t always true to life.

• It shows a greater interest in the writer’s genius than in her emotions.