NYFF Diary: Emily Dickinson's Quiet Passion

An Intense Emily Dickinson In Terence Davies' A Quiet Passion

By Liza Bear

New York, October 5 2016--If a reference to poetry is intended by the title "A Quiet Passion", no doubt the act of writing itself is quiet, but as presented in this film there was absolutely nothing quiet about Dickinson's turbulent emotional life, forthrightness and outspokenness about moral principles, preservation of her creative independence, atheism and challenge to accepted pieties and social hypocrisy. 

Cynthia Nixon brilliantly portrays the rebellious and soulful Emily Dickinson in A QUIET PASSION by Terence Davies. His latest 19th century biopic is an exquisite, sublimely-lit film that seamlessly merges Dickinson's poetry, family life and searing--and often scathing-- quest for truth and honesty, in herself and others. An abundance of bons mots and sharp repartee in the verbal sparring between Emily, her sister, brother, father and best friend keep the narrative moving at a fast clip. The rapports between family members are nevertheless marked by a deep affection and Emily is gentler with her mother. 

Liza Bear produces Cherchez La Femme on Youtube. She also writes for Bomb Magazine. Liza is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle.
 

Nuit Debout: Why Not! A Conversation with French New Wave Screen Legend, Anna Karina

**Nuit Debout - Why Not! French screen legend and Godard muse Anna Karina phones in to Arts Express to discuss a New Wave classics retrospective touring this country. And her thoughts about new generations of French youth breaking ground as well, in the streets.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

**Mr. Smith Does Not Go To Washington: Treat Williams talks dismayed and dropping out of DC politics, in his latest movie as, The Congressman. Along with thoughts about his own representative from up at his Vermont farm where the actor lives to get away from it all, Bernie Sanders.

**Blood At The Root: Race on stage dramatizing the case of the Jena Six, a production of the National Black Theatre. A conversation with the director John McCrory and producer Camille Forbes. Chris Butters reports.

Arts Express: Airing on WBAI Radio in NY and the Pacifica National Radio Network and Affiliate Stations.

Thelma Adams Talks The Club

...Rhoda recalled the words said to her by a female film critic newly inducted into the Fraternal Order of the Gotham Film Critics at a recent studio awards party: "I'm used to being the only woman in the room."

CONTINUE TO READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Thelma Adams is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle. Her second novel, The Last Woman Standing, will be published on July 1st.

The Curious Case Of The Missing Women In Film Criticism

By Thelma Adams
Variety

...According to the Gender at the Movies study of top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, men account for 91% of those writing for movie/entertainment magazines and websites such as Entertainment Weekly; 90% of those writing for trade publications and websites; 80% of critics writing for general interest magazines and sites such as Time and Salon; 72% of those writing for newspaper sites; and 70% of critics writing for radio outlets and sites such as NPR...

Continue To Read Here


Thelma Adams in a member of The Women Film Critics Circle 

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS AND CEREMONY ON-AIR 2015

THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS CEREMONY 2015 BROADCAST

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

The Women Film Critics Circle Awards 2015

The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of sixty-five women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media. We came together in 2004 to form the first women critics organization in the United States, in the belief that women's perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully.

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2015

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Suffragette

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Suffragette

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Carol: Phyllis Nagy

BEST ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan: Suffragette

BEST ACTOR
Eddie Redmayne: The Danish Girl

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Brie Larson: Room

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Amy Schumer: Trainwreck

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
The Second Mother

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Suffragette

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Jurassic World
       
BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE  
Bridge Of Spies

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE   
Steve Jobs

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Amy

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
TIE:
45 Years: Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay
Room: Brie Larson and Jason Tremblay

BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Bessie

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Joy, Amy Poehler: Inside Out

BEST FAMILY FILM
Inside Out

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE
Suffragette

*SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS*

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Sarah Gavron: Suffragette

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: A film that most passionately opposes violence against women
He Named Me Malala
 
*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
What Happened, Miss Simone?

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Suffragette

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
Olivia Wilde: For her work with Save The Children, ACLU, and Artists For Peace. And her support for holistic organic causes needed for the sustenance of every community.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Lily Tomlin

COURAGE IN ACTING: [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Brie Larson: Room

BEST FEMALE ACTION STAR
Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD: [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Alicia Vikander; The Danish Girl

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD:



Cate Blanchett: Cinderella

 
 











JUST KIDDING AWARDS [Individual Picks]

*Thrown Under The Bus Award: Girlhood. Goes to the talented cast and team of Girlhood for being made invisible (again) during awards season. Hmm, we wonder why??

Runners-Up:
Effie Gray
The Book Of Negroes
The Keeping Room


*Best Female Images: Fifty Shades Of Grey


*Best Equality Of The Sexes: Leonardo DiCaprio and that Female Bear on top.

*Bond Embracing Maturity Award: James Bond fully embracing mature actresses by casting Monica Bellucci as the oldest Bond Girl, by featuring her on screen for exactly seven minutes.
   
**ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: Adrienne Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of forty by a construction worker in the building, after she complained about noise. Her killer tried to cover up his crime by hanging her from a shower rack in her bathroom, to make it look like a suicide. He later confessed that he was having a “bad day.” Shelly, who left behind a baby daughter, had just completed her film Waitress, which she also starred in, and which was honored at Sundance after her death.

**JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and marriage at age fifteen, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer, starring in the films Princess Tam Tam, Moulin Rouge and Zou Zou. She also survived the race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois as a child, and later expatriated to France to escape US racism. After participating heroically in the underground French Resistance during WWII, Baker returned to the US where she was a crusader for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks against her by reporter Walter Winchell who denounced her as a communist, leading her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless integration was implemented.

**KAREN MORLEY AWARD: Karen Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, in such films as Mata Hari and Our Daily Bread. She was driven out of Hollywood for her leftist political convictions by the Blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. And also for daring to have a child and become a mother, unacceptable for female stars in those days. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

CONTACT: Criticalwomen@gmail.com