NOT TO BE MISSED… DELIGHTFUL UNEXPECTED LAUGHTER, TRUTH,
and GENIUS from “WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY"
By Lynn Isenberg
Dear Hollywood LIT Retreaters:
I almost didn’t go to the opening of this fantastic indie film. I had glanced at the trailer and thought it, well… odd. What was this unusual take on the life and times of the famous reclusive spinster poet Emily Dickinson? And therein lies the problem. I had been brainwashed by the very myths and legends this ‘comedy of manners’ film was now proposing to debunk for truth and so much more; “so much more” being the very serious matter of how generations have been misled to believe the “fake news” of Emily Dickinson written by the greed and ambition of a critical publisher and shadow writer from her inner circle who squashed recognition of her talents during her lifetime, then later redacted the truth of her literary genius to reshape it posthumously to their benefit.
But not only did they reshape the truth within the poems themselves, they fabricated a myth about the poet to meet with their perceptions of what society at that time would consume. And so, the myths stuck. Without realizing it, I had been shaped by those persistent myths. I had been taught to buy into the false legends of Emily and her poetry (a collection of her poems which rests inside my bookshelf from my college days of New England Literature studies). Those legends hid the object of her attention, the love of her life and the muse of her work. Those legends support what is innately not so—the desire to share one’s work, the desire to be recognized for one’s work, the desire to be remunerated for one’s work… alas, not just for men, but for women, too. And for women who dare to break the mold of their times in literature and in love. And so, I am so very glad I went to the opening of this film, which included the added treat of hearing a Q&A that featured the three female leads; Molly Shannon as Emily Dickinson, Susan Ziegler as Susan Dickinson, and Amy Seimetz as Mabel Loomis Todd. This film is clearly a labor of love, and a feat of artistic genius for the way in which the filmmaker has woven in Emily’s poetry through visual storytelling. The very talented actresses in these roles would clearly go to the ends of the earth for director Madeleine Olnek, whose gift for storytelling with social commentary inside a clever comedic framework is masterful. It is a refreshing take on a truth whose time has come to be resurrected. Indeed, this film packs both a fun and important punch for all to see and no doubt will become joyful viewing for all English Literature curriculums worldwide in exposing the pentimento of its truth.
– Lynn Isenberg, Reporting for The Hollywood LIT Retreat (LIT: Literature. Intelligence. Technology.)
