It's difficult to make a movie about a writer, especially a poet (though it has been done well before). And for my taste director/writer Terence Davies falls into some of the pitfalls in the genre. He tries to hit what seems like every interpretation or theory for what ailed Dickinson, as well as what her daily passions and challenges and relationships were like. And then use specific poems to illustrate each of his insights, or takes, on these, almost like a graphic novel.
In a few instances that works, in most though it detracts from the depth of thought in the poems and the ways they transcend the mere details of a life, the poet's or anyone else's. And between each of these dramatic scenes, there's seemingly endless lingering shots to evoke, I assume, the tedious insularity and uneventfulness of much of Emily's life as a recluse.
A noble attempt to capture the significance and genius of the Eve of American Poetry, but uneven in its artistry for my taste. I commend Davies for getting a movie like this financed and made, but I would love to see what a good, thoughtful woman director, like say Maggie Greenwald for one, would do with a Dickinson biopic.
4 comments:
What are your favorite movies about poets?
I have one, Reuben, Reuben [1983] starring the brilliant, vastly underappreciated, tom conti as a dylan thomas-esque poet. pathos, obsession and self-destruction exquisitely distilled in one poet. it is the only movie that comes to mind that comes close to, at least for this fictional writer, a life in poetry.
Oh, before I forget, there is the film A Fine Madness [1966] starring sean connery as the poet samson shillitoe, and joanne woodward as his partner/muse. shillitoe is a jerk par excellence, but is played with gusto by connery.
I thought of both those movies too...but most movies about writers and poets don't capture the realities I know...I think the movie that best captures the life and work of a writer is Paul Shrader's MISHIMA...
Mishima is a damn fine movie. I saw that one cable back in the mid-80s when I was recovering from a pretty bad cold. But, I find, some of the ideas expressed by Mishima, as regaled thru the vignettes based on his novels, are pretty silly. Such as the uber nationalism, or the romantic ideals of suffering for your art. To wit, that portion about beauty where the protagonist says, "life should be line of poetry splashed with blood." That line electrified me at 19, and then later horrified me after the age of 40. Still, Mishima is an excellent film about a difficult artist.
What about Barfly? it is a flawed movie that remains for me essential viewing. This flick doesn't capture the working life of a writer but it does star mickey rourke as a lovable rogue who between hangovers picks up the chewed nub of a pencil, finds an old receipt or check stub, and pens lines like, 'those who don't go mad/what sad lives they live.' I hold this flick dear to my heart.
Barfly didnt work for me, it was supposed to be about a poet who's so courageous in facing the truth but then it depicts an alcoholic on a binge but not throwing up or pissing his pants etc. etc....seemed to glorify and whitewash a lot of a true drunk's experience...
but I did think of a few more that I like, Bright Star about Keats was incredibly well done I thought, and James Franco really captured what Ginsberg was like in the uneven flick Howl...and though not directly about a poet composing etc. Il Postino certainly centers around poetry, Neruda's in this case....and the recent Paterson...
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