Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

A Quiet Passion (Blu-ray Review) – Terence Davies & Cynthia Nixon explore the life of Emily Dickinson

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Filmmaker Terence Davies early work was intentionally autobiographical. The likes of The Terence Davies Trilogy, Distant Voices Still Lives and The Long Day Closes looked at growing up working class in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s, touching on the overwhelming effects of Catholicism on him, as well as his own difficult relationship to being gay. Although his work then hasn’t been so explicitly based on himself, there have always remained very distinct echoes of the director in the subjects he’s chosen and the way he’s approached them.

That continues with A Quiet Passion, his biopic of 19th Century American poet, Emily Dickinson. Davies personal connection to the material is apparent from the first scene, where a young Emily is being asked to pick between two strict ideas of where she and a group of other young women stand in relationship to Christianity. However, she stands alone, unable to say where she should be. Once again Davies is fascinated by the push and pull of religion, of someone who wants the world while simultaneously limiting themselves to a small part of it, as well as the strictures of society for those who both desire to fit in and reject it. [Read more…]

Cynthia Nixon Takes On Emily Dickinson For Terence Davies

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Emily Dickinson is one of America’s famous poets, although she’s never quite had as much impact over here in the UK as she has in the States. That’s a shame, as her work is wonderful, and now British director Terence Davies is hoping to bring her life on the screen, with THR reporting that he’s lined up Cynthia Nixon to play Dickinson in A Quiet Passion.

The poetess was famously reclusive, publishing only a few poems during hre lifetime. Most of her work was only found and published after her death, and as it was written just for herself, it has an intensely personal quality that’s rare. There are also rumours she was a lesbian and had a female lover, although whether this will be included in the movie isn’t known (as homosexuality has been one of the main themes of Davies work, it may well be). All THR says is that it will ‘trace Dickinson’s life from precocious schoolgirl to tortured recluse’.

“I wrote the screenplay with Cynthia in mind,” Davies says. “It was the kind of dream casting you hope for. I never, for a moment, imagined my wishes would materialize. Cynthia has such a strong feeling for the work – and now she is our Emily Dickinson. I’m over the moon.”

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Terence Davies Adapting Gay Novel Mother Of Sorrows

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Terence Davies is certainly speeding up his work rate. There were 11 years between The House Of Mirth and last year’s The Deep Blue Sea, but he’s recently revealed he’s moving forward with a long-cherished project called Sunset Song and now Variety reports he’s set to adapt Richard McCann’s award-winning novel, Mother of Sorrows.

Davies has never really come to terms with his sexuality and still claims to hate being gay. Much of his career as a director can be seen as him dealing with his difficulty growing up gay and it looks like that’s set to continue with Mother Of Sorrows. McCann’s book, which won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award and was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award for gay fiction, tells a series of interconnected stories, recounting the tough and tragic life of two gay brothers, growing up in the 1950s.

‘This is an important story because it touches the humanity in all of us,’ Davies says. ‘I love the delicacy of the book and its gentle odyssey from post-WWII optimism for the American Utopia to a deeper understanding of both maternal and filial love and an acceptance of mortality by surrendering to the light.’

It’s still early days and Davies has often had difficulty finding funding, but he’s hoping to get Mother Of Sorrows made after he finished Sunset Song.

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Gay Director Terence Davies Sets Sights On Sunset Song

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There were 11 years between director Terence Davies’ The House Of Mirth and last year’sThe Deep Blue Sea, but it seems that despite saying he doesn’t actually like directing all that much, it won’t take him as long to get his next movie on screen.

Variety reports that he’s now bringing to fruition a long-cherished project called Sunset Song. Producer Bob Last announced at the Berlin Film Festival that the project has now moved to the casting stage, with a shoot planned for either later this year or early 2013 in Scotland and Sweden.

Davies must be pleased The Deep Blue Sea was so well received as he’s been trying to get Sunset Song made for over a decade, but didn’t get much traction until people had seen his Rachel Weitz starring flick. The planned movie is based on Lewis Grassic Gibson’s 1932 novel about farmer’s daughter, Chris Guthrie, who struggle against life filled with pain and family dysfunction. It’s certainly not a jolly tale, as it opens with Chris’ mother committing suicide and poisoning two of her other children.

Davies career is certainly an interesting one, with much of his directing career, such as The Terence Davies Trilogy and Distant Voices Still Live, often seeming like a direct response to his difficulty coming to terms with his sexuality (he still says he hates being gay) and his childhood. Sunset Song seems like another indirect response to the latter, but we’ll have to wait and see.

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The Terence Davies Trilogy

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Terence Davies recently returned to the director’s chair after an 11 year gap with The Deep Blue Sea, but he started out behind the camera with this trilogy of short films made in the late 70s and early 80s. Together the three short films make an intriguing piece, with each film having its own style but following the same central character at different stages of his life, from childhood to death, with a heavy interest in the nature of memory.

The trilogy kicks off with ‘Children’, about a young adolescent boy called Robert Tucker. The film show us vignettes of his life as an outsider at his school, as well as his burgeoning sense that he may be gay. At home his father is presented as a strange and rather terrifying presence, with Robert having conflicting feelings about his death. ‘Madonna and Child’ sees Robert as a middle-aged man, still living his mother (who he’s devoted to) and working in a dead end job. [Read more…]