Skip to content
Official Selection PIFF 40

A Quiet Passion

Directed by Terence Davies

United Kingdom, Belgium • 2016 • 125 mins. • In English

Showtimes & Past Screenings

A Quiet Passion is the life story of the celebrated American poet Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon), from her youth as a headstrong schoolgirl through to her reclusive adulthood, where poetry was solace. “You will see no more beautiful a film this year—beautiful in its sumptuous photography, but also in the respect and love that it brings to its subject. The internal lives of poets are hard to visualize, yet Davies, a magician when it comes to understanding the most sensitive of minds, has created an extraordinarily moving account of Emily Dickinson’s particular genius.”—Toronto International Film Festival.

Sponsored by Steven Smith Teamaker

Reviews: David Bordwell, Reverse Shot, MUBI Notebook, Sight & Sound, Cinema Scope

Interviews: Interview with Terence Davies at the Metrograph Edition

Filmography: Sunset Song (2015), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Of Time and the City (2008), The House of Mirth (2000), The Neon Bible (1995), The Long Day Closes (1992), Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)

Appears in: 40th Portland International Film Festival, PIFF XL: Masters

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.