Filmmaker Solon Papadopoulos’s documentary about the life and work of 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson builds on A Quiet Passion (VL-9/17), Terence Davies’s recent biographical drama starring Cynthia Nixon. My Letter to the World not only includes clips from the film to complement archival materials, but also often inserts excerpts from Dickinson’s verse read by Nixon. But most of the film is given over to commentary by Dickinson scholars, who offer various perspectives on her personal relationships and frequently divergent analyses of her work (as well as very different views on the poet’s idiosyncratic punctuation). The documentary also periodically visits a museum where Dickinson-related artifacts are housed, one of the most interesting being a daguerreotype that some have argued shows the poet in middle-age—which, if true, would be a remarkable addition to the record, since the only authenticated photograph of Dickinson hails from much earlier. This is a fine introduction to a writer who, although reclusive and virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an important figure in American literature, a writer whose highly innovative style has been a major influence on modern poetry. Extras include a selection of Dickinson’s poems read by Nixon and Davies. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)
My Letter to the World
(2018) 81 min. DVD: $29.95. Music Box Films (avail. from most distributors). SDH captioned. Volume 33, Issue 5
My Letter to the World
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