Director of ‘A Quiet Passion’ talks Emily Dickinson ahead of Houghton screening
Terence Davies comes to the Harvard Film Archive Monday for a screening of “A Quiet Passion,” his new biopic on Emily Dickinson. The 71-year-old British screenwriter and director, a careful craftsman himself, has long harbored great affection for Dickinson. He will discuss her artistry, her reclusive personality, and his film, which stars Cynthia Nixon, during a conversation with Leslie A. Morris, curator of modern books and manuscripts at Houghton Library. The Dickinson Collection at Houghton includes a second-floor room that showcases the Amherst poet’s furniture (including her writing table), family portraits (including one of only two lifetime images of her), and part of the family library. Digitized versions of her handwritten poems and letters, as well as facsimiles of her herbarium, are accessible online. Davies, whose earlier acclaimed films include “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes,” visited Harvard previously to research “A Quiet Passion.” He will speak following the Monday...