A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie Review

The Belle of Amherst 2.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 17, 2017

Baby Boomers will no doubt recognize the name of Charles Nelson Reilly, the fussy comedic actor who was second (maybe even third) banana on a number of shows including the television series adaptation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and who was also a memorable regular panelist on television’s venerable enterprise The Match Game. Some fans may know Reilly won a Tony Award for his work in the original Broadway version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and received another nomination for his work in the original Broadway version of Hello, Dolly!, but after his time in Hello, Dolly!, he moved on to another musical which is remembered, if it’s remembered at all, chiefly by lovers of Broadway arcana (ahem). Skyscraper seemed to have all the elements to make it one of the standout hits of mid-sixties Broadway: it was based on a well known play, Elmer Rice’s Dream Girl (which was kind of a distaff version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), and it featured a book by the up and coming Peter Stone (who had just scored significant hits with his screenplays for Charade and Mirage), as well as a score by the legendary songwriting team of Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, a team responsible for a huge array of classics from the Great American Songbook, including their Academy Award Winning “Call Me Irresponsible” from the then relatively recent Papa's Delicate Condition, and their Oscar nominated “My Kind of Town” from the even more relatively recent Robin and the 7 Hoods. (Cahn and Van Heusen had already won two Academy Awards earlier for “High Hopes” from A Hole in the Head and “All the Way” from The Joker Is Wild.)

Despite these impressive collaborators, perhaps the single biggest drawing card Skyscraper offered, though, was its star: theatrical legend Julie Harris, starring in her first musical comedy. While Skycraper did in fact scrape out a more or less full season run (probably due chiefly to Harris' marquee value), in a season positively rife with blockbuster hits like the original Broadway versions of Mame, Man of La Mancha and Sweet Charity (where is the domestic Blu-ray of the Fosse film adaptation?), it was generally considered to be a lackluster entry and has largely disappeared into the dustbin of history. But Skyscraper did at least forge a friendship between Reilly and Harris, and once Reilly moved on to a directing career, he and Harris reteamed for what became one of Harris’ signature roles in her mid to late career, Emily Dickinson in William Luce’s one woman play The Belle of Amherst. Harris’ patrician qualities seemed perfectly in tune with the general emotional tenor of the reclusive and mysterious 19th century American poet, but Luce’s play had the convenience of a largely absent “fourth wall”, allowing Harris to inhabit a number of tangential characters, if only briefly, as she recited huge swaths of Dickinson’s ubiquitous letters, diaries and other works directly to the audience, as if she were involved in a personal conversation with them. That approach helped to illuminate Dickinson’s sometimes tortured inner world in a way that a traditional film biography probably can’t duplicate (there’s an old television version of The Belle of Amherst that aired on PBS back in the day), which is one reason that A Quiet Passion sometimes seems oddly divorced from the emotional content of Dickinson’s life.

Interestingly, the first glimpse of Emily Dickinson (played by Emma Bell as a younger woman, and then Cynthia Nixon for the bulk of the film) features Dickinson staring squarely at the camera and speaking seemingly directly to the viewer in what might be termed the cinematic equivalent to the technique Luce utilized in The Belle of Amherst. While it’s not initially completely clear what’s going on (the scene deals with Dickinson’s somewhat abrupt exit from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), it is completely clear from this first burst of dialogue that Dickinson is that most dreaded of things in a 19th century woman: she’s a free thinker. Refusing to be bullied into “appropriate” Christian belief, she is thrilled when her family, including her stern but understanding father Edward (a surprisingly effective Keith Carradine) show up to “rescue” her and take her home.

While Emily is ostensibly happier back at home, especially when her father more or less encourages (or at least tolerates) her poetry writing, there are still emotional struggles tugging at what seems to become an increasingly frayed psychological fabric. The overall context of A Quiet Passion more than capably depicts the strictures all women of this period were subject to, and writer-director Terence Davies easily ups the ante by depicting Emily’s native intelligence repeatedly getting her into hot water with everyone from her Aunt to the local minister, but there’s a curiously “external” aspect to this, one that deals in virtual reams of dialogue (a lot of it artificially arch sounding) with a kind of surprising lack of a more interior, ruminative quality.

The film teeters uneasily between melodrama and what might be termed the 19th century equivalent of sitcom one liners, and it never really adequately answers why exactly Dickinson was so almost pathologically devoted to her somewhat dysfunctional family, choosing them over a life with a husband or even living by herself (which is where things more or less end up in any case). The film trots out a series of vignettes, some of which are well handled, but there’s no focus here on a real through line, something that makes Dickinson’s retreat into a near hermetic lifestyle something of a head scratcher. Still, the film is generally quite sumptuous looking (a montage of sorts dealing with the Civil War is one notable exception and a real disruption in the film’s otherwise confident if trudging style), and performances are generally quite winning. Nixon does what she can in trying to externalize the inner world of this famous writer, but that is the rub: while the ultimate outcome of writing is of course a “product”, everything leading up to that outcome is necessarily an internal process, and aside from hoary biopic tropes like constant voiceover, Davies doesn’t seem to know quite how to get “inside” this epochal character.

A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Quiet Passion is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I'm sorry to sound like a broken record, but once again technical data is pretty hard to come by on this film, but it has the typically sleek and well detailed look of modern digital capture. This is an often quite beautiful film, especially when the camera ventures out of doors, where elements like the Dickinson gardens pop with gorgeous immediacy. The palette is nonetheless kind of muted at times, with pale hues predominating in other elements like fabrics, especially with regard to some of the apparel and other things like curtains. Detail levels tend to remain commendably high even in some dimly lit environments, as well as a couple of scenes that have been graded, as in some "nighttime" scenes that are skewed toward a deep blue color, though there is occasional murk that can tend to slightly diminish fine detail at times. Close-ups regularly reveal excellent fine detail levels.

Update: I found this interesting interview with Davies which some readers may be interested in.

A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Quiet Passion's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is nuanced and not especially showy, but it provides excellent immersion even though a lot of the latter part of the film finds Dickinson confined to claustrophobic interior spaces. Voiceover (which is quite abundant) is anchored front and center, but there's good directionality when things venture outside or in larger spaces. The film's score is slightly anachronistic at times, but spreads appealingly through the surrounds. Fidelity is fine and there are no problems of any kind to report.

A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Tale of Two Masters: Behind the Scenes of A Quiet Passion (1080p; 13:51) is an above average EPK with some fun footage of shots being set up and filmed.


• Q & A with Terence Davies and Cynthia Nixon at Lincoln Center (1080p; 23:20) is from the 54th New York Film Festival and is hosted by Michael Koresky. Catherine Bailey is also on stage with Davies and Nixon.


• CBC Interview with Cynthia Nixon (1080p; 16:12) is a video feed of a radio interview.


• Emily Dickinson Poems, Recited (1080p; 5:53) features Davies and Nixon reciting poems, with the text featured on screen.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:00)

Additionally, Music Box Films has included a very nicely appointed insert booklet with information on the filming and stills.

A Quiet Passion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Quiet Passion isn't exactly "quiet", what with near nonstop aphorisms being spouted by the high-falutin' Dickinson family and their friends, and it also isn't especially passionate, given Emily's preference for a life removed from the traditional roles of wife and mother. There's great intelligence in this film, but I'm not sure how strongly it will connect with audiences. I know I was always interested, but rarely moved, by Emily's story. Technical merits are strong, and with caveats noted, A Quiet Passion comes Recommended.