distant voices , still lives
distant voices, still lives (part 3) – music, memory and society .
distant voices, still lives – nostalgia and hardship through sound & music (part 1) .
with the headline: review / film;' distant voices, still lives,' a reminiscence .
weinrichter antonio, “distant voices, still lives. times of a return, ” 253 - 259 .
distant voices, still lives (part 3) – music, memory and society. – celluloid wicker man
pingback: distant voices, still lives – sounds of the past. (part 2) | celluloid wicker man
now you played a very different kind of character in an earlier movie called
distant voices, still lives .
pingback: distant voices, still lives (part 4) – communal singing and domestic abuse. | celluloid wicker man
distant voices, still lives – nostalgia and hardship through sound & music (part 1). – celluloid wicker man
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing distant voices, still lives near you .
terence davies' s' distant voices, still lives' is one of the greatest british films of all time at around 80 minutes .
distant voices, still lives is a 1988 british film directed and written by terence davies. it evokes working - class family life in liverpool during the 1940s and early? location -? autobiographical references -? songs -? alcoholdistant voices, still lives (1988) - rotten
jun 3, 2006 - not the least among its achievements, terence davies' s wondrous distant voices, still lives offers a crystallization of the appeal of the musical .
terence davies' distant voices, still lives, a bleak, masterful portrayal of poverty and domestic violence set in 1940s liverpool, brings back vivid memories for beryl bainbridge .
craig nye on twitter :
terence davies' s' distant voices, still lives' is one of the greatest british films of all time at around 80 minutes. …
34 see antonio weinrichter, “ distant voices, still lives. times of a return, ” in q. casas (ed .), op. cit. , 258 .
yes, we were (slightly) promised by the bfi the terence davies trilogy and distant voices, still lives this year. surely this a no brainer for criterion to whip up as well .
lavery, d. ,
functional and dysfunctional autobiography: hope and glory and distant voices, still lives ,
in film criticism (meadville, pennsylvania), no. 1, 1990 .
urltoken - buy distant voices, still lives at a low price; free delivery on qualified orders. see reviews & amp; details on a wide selection of blu - ray & amp; dvds, both
thanks gropius - it does seem unlikely, but one can only hope. two major forthcoming releases are available to pre - order at â£11. 99 from hmv: bigger than life. distant voices, still lives .
cargin, p. ,
diver on distant voices ,
in film (london), january 1989 .
shirobamba wrote: one of my all time favourite films from britain, terence davies'
distant voices, still lives
will get its own bfi booklength study. scheduled for may 2006. the author is paul farley .
the lives of an english working - class family are told out of order in a free - associative manner. the first part ,
distant voices
, focuses on the father' s role in the family. the second part ,
still lives
, focuses on his children .
i' ve been waiting for quite some time on news of the bfi releasing their terence davies films - the trilogy, distant voices, still lives and the long day closes on dvd. is there good news on the horizon ?
in his direction of actors in these films, his stylized cinematography and radical, dreamlike editing helps them dispense with the realism audiences would come to expect. in their clear move away from these traditions ,
distant voices, still lives
though the same actors are used in both sections of distant voices, still lives, different actors and different names are used for the same characters in the long day closes. the locations, however, are similar (if not identical): both features are set in the same desolate, dingy working - class house and liverpool neighborhood. davies’s surrogate is named tucker in his first trilogy and bud in the long day closes; in distant voices, still lives he has no surrogate .
screen dreams are strangest and strongest when they hit close to home. in terence davies' searing [ distant voices, still lives ]... mystery resides in the vision of his mother, magically poised on the hall sill, washing the outside windows .
mr. postlethwaite: absolutely true. i still have it. i still have it in a little tin box at home and it' s still there. that' s true .
distant voices, still lives (uk, 1988): dir. : terence davies; prod. : british film institute (bfi), channel four films; cast: freda dowie, pete postlethwaite, angela walsh, dean williams; colour; 85 min .
postlethwaite began appearing on television in the 1970s, in both films and series. it was a brazen and brutal performance as a drunken, abusive husband and father in the 1988 film
distant voices, still lives
that brought him wider attention as a film actor .
distant voices, still lives was released in the year 1988, some songs of the official soundtrack are the finger of suspicion by dickie valentine, taking a chance on love by ella fitzgerald, oh, mein papa by eddie calvert, o waly, waly by peter pears. listen the soundtrack online !
'' distant voices, still lives,'' was shown as part of the 1988 new york film festival. following are excerpts from vincent canby' s review, which appeared in the new york times on september 29, 1988. the film opens today at cinema third avenue, at 60th street .
mr. postlethwaite: i never thought about it like that, really, but looking at it now, you' re obviously right. yeah, there was a difference. strange, really because maybe the father in
distant voices, still lives
was inherently weak, whether it was because of his lack of employment or his migraine or his drinking problem, i don' t know, but he was inherently weak, whereas in a way giuseppe conlon was inherently strong and outwardly weak. i mean he had - he was ill, whereas the father in
distant voices, still lives
wasn' t .
terence davies' s new english film,'' distant voices, still lives,'' which won the golden leopard at the locarno film festival and the critics prize at the toronto festival, is one of those dimly realized personal statements that ultimately says a lot less than the written program notes that accompany it .
the classical, nondiegetic music used in distant voices, still lives is often played sparingly but for smoothing montage like sequences. they also add metaphorical and heightened values to the scenes in which it is used and brings forth the positive nostalgia for the more rose - tinted views of the characters before the inevitable crash of reality occurs .
the filmed i / v with terence davies is by geoff andrew on distant voices, still lives... no mention however of a commentary track by davies, which kind of makes sense, as a constant prattle would negate the power and effect of this particular film, and i suspect not something davies would do ...
the lives of an english working - class family are told out of order in a free - associative manner. the first part ,
distant voices
, focuses on the father' s role in the family. the second... see more »
gross: so it' s interesting how you were able to embody two such different kinds of fathers and husbands. and i wonder what the difference is in how you carried your own body, how you presented your own self physically in both roles, in
in the name of the father
and
distant voices, still lives .
for no organic reason, mr. davies divides the film into two parts,'' distant voices'' and'' still lives,'' in both of which marriages, deaths, baptisms and other family occasions are remembered in no special chronological order. this leads to redundancies that, i' m sure, are intentionally anti - dramatic .
via a collage - like conglomeration of memories and pop - cultural references ,
the long day closes
brought davies himself back into the equation. front and center is bud, a dour - faced boy on the verge of a puberty all the more traumatic for the explosion of homosexual desire that comes with it; unlike
distant voices, still lives
the spectre of the father pervades the film, making it a peculiarly anguished and lugubrious rekindling of childhood. however, in comparison to terence davies' s earlier trilogy, filmed in penumbral monochrome and steeped in sexual and religious guilt, isolation, and fear of death, distant voices, still lives is a positive romp. at least it has music .
sadly, most of the time distant voices is a hit parade of father' s swiftest punches played to the hit parade that he might have been listening to on the radio .
for those with satellite access to artsworld the trilogy is playing this week and was preceeded by an hour long doc. about douglas. distant voices plays on december 17th. too .
terence davies' s stunning debut feature film distant voices, still lives was instantly recognised as a masterpiece on its release in 1988 and the director hailed as one of britain' s most gifted and remarkable filmmakers. re - released in april 2007 as part of a complete retrospective season of terence davies' s films at bfi southbank, it was once again showered with critical acclaim .
as bigger than life sounds like a film to own... and as criterion seems to have ended their relationship with fox to some degree... i' ve just ordered the bfi disc. and since davies sounds like something not to miss, i' ve also ordered distant voices, still lives as well. i expect that two disc criterion editions will be announced in two weeks .
part nostalgia, part nightmare, the autobiographical distant voices, still lives is writer - director terence davies' s bittersweet look back at his working - class upbringing in postwar liverpool. while it' s beautifully photographed, davies' s portrait of a house divided by a near - psychotic father (pete postlethwaite) - - loving one moment, brutal the next - - is... read more
despite not even glimpsing davies in the film, distant voices, still lives is a tellingly autobiographical work – his following film the long day closes (1992) is much more about davies’ childhood with particular emphasis placed upon the exploration and cultivation of a young boy’s burgeoning cinematic consciousness. despite the obvious continuity of distant voices, still lives ‘ two halves – though they were actually shot two years apart using very different crews – there is a subtle variation of light and tone which marks each. for example, the second part of the film (“still lives”) is much gentler, less mournful and more dream - like: as the family starts to die (both literally and figuratively) it takes on different formations and enters into a different time and place (mostly of increasing isolation, and in relation to such compartmentalising media technologies as radio). the ties that bind, but also the tension of the film itself, loosen as the cultural and social landscape shifts, culminating in a flood of rain and tears .
katie, who has bipolar disorder, describes her experience of hearing voices when she is manic or depressed .
wyeth, p. ,
voices from the past ,
in stills (london), march 1986 .
having now seen the bfi' s restored print of terence davies' distant voices, still lives at a cinema, i thought i would make a few comments that some may find helpful when the dvd appears shortly. yes, the images are rather soft. yes, the film is decidedly grainy in appearance. yes, the colours are muted. any reviewer who complains about these qualties may well be asking for something that the original film never delivered !
this priority towards the “truly novel musical resources” sums up the music of distant voices, still lives. it is however far more complex and less of a novelty than adorno would probably give it credit for. similarly to the use of sound, the use of music in distant voices, still lives is a deliberate evocation; an exploration into the director’s own personal nostalgia for past practices and memories. the use of music can be split into two different types with one notable exception. there is no composed score for the film in a normal sense for a period drama. instead, distant voices, still lives uses a variety of sourced music and specially recorded arrangements of songs, both used equally to evoke the era and the memories. everett (2004, p. 176) is again the main investigator of this stating: “however, autobiographical discourse, as we have seen, is about the processes of memory and does not therefore seek the closure of nostalgia, so that, even when the nostalgic potential of popular songs is exploited, this is generally done ironically and self consciously. ” because of a lack of distinction between whether she is discussing diegetic or nondiegetic, we will see that this is only half true. the first of these uses is found in the nondiegetic section of the soundtrack and can be described as more classically orientated both stylistically and in its use .
i' ll most definitely be picking up those davies films. great to see that they' re coming so soon... distant voices was a real revelation. doesn' t bfi also own bill douglas' s films ?
this is the first feature film of liverpudlian terence davies, obviously autobiographical, dealing with a family called davies and their lives during the 1940s and 1950s. the film is divided into two parts: distant voices (45 mins) centers on the wedding of eileen, eldest of the three davies children, and the funeral of her father, [ … ]
terence davies wrote in the introduction to the published script for distant voices still lives (1988) that he was' trying to create' a pattern of timeless moments'.' yet that picture has a stronger dramatic line than the long day closes (1992). in distant voices family life eddies around an immovable rock: the father' s violence to the mother and their children. he has furies, never explained. at christmas, sat down to dinner, he suddenly pulls the cloth off the table and roars at his wife to clean up. a man can die eventually, but that sort of timeless moment lingers. violence persists, like an old smell, and can make new nostrils mad again .
the latest addition to the venerable bfi modern classics series is dedicated to distant voices, still lives, terence davies ’ elegiac debut feature. set in ‘a world before elvis, and in a liverpool before the beatles ’, this intensely autobiographical meditation on a post - war working - class child hood remains one of the finest british films of the last twenty years, and its maker one of british cinema’s most original voices. davies has not made a film since the house of mirth (2000) and his treatment at the hands of uk film bodies and financiers is evidence of a shameful and almost criminal neglect .
more generally, it still amazes me the number of classic films that are not available on dvd. it does make me wonder why companies devote time and resources to relatively obscure dvds and books when many classics still are not available .
distant voices, still lives
is aesthetically distinguished by two radical choices that set it dramatically apart from other family - memory films of the era (john boorman ’s
hope and glory
[ 1987 ] is an excellent concurrent example in the united kingdom; while ettore scola ’s
the family
[ 1987 ] and barry levinson ’s
avalon
[ 1990 ] make for more sentimental evocations of similar themes of generational loss from other countries, italy and the united states, respectively. )
with the long day closes english filmmaker terence davies completes his second autobiographical trilogy. (faber and faber has conveniently published the screenplays of the six films — all his films to date – with an introduction by davies, under the title a modest pageant .) i haven’t seen the first trilogy – children (1976), madonna and child (1980), and death and transfiguration (1983) — but the first two parts of the second, shot in 1985 and 1987 and distributed as a single feature, distant voices, still lives (1988), still strikes me as one of the greatest of all english films .
drawn from his own family memories, distant voices, still lives is a strikingly intimate portrait of working class life in 1940s and 1950s liverpool. focusing on the real - life experiences of his mother, sisters and brother whose lives are thwarted by their brutal, sadistic father (a chilling performance by pete postlethwaite), the film shows us beauty and terror in equal measure. davies uses the traditional family gatherings of births, marriages and deaths to paint a lyrical portrait of family life - of love, grief, and the highs and lows of being human, a' poetry of the everyday' that is at once deeply autobiographical and universally resonant .
if distant voices was marked by its temporal leaps, then still lives seems marked by a static lack of progression—perhaps appropriately, considering its title. even though the father is dead, the memory remains, and, in davies cinema, memory is as alive, real, and affective as any present. it also plays on the titles possible double meaning, ambiguously suggesting both its pairing as an adjective - noun and adverb - verb (their lives have stilled, because the father still lives). the biggest time shift features a remarkable cut from eileen and daisy tearfully watching love is a many splendored thing in the theater (with the title track swelling), to tony and masie’s husband falling in slow motion and crashing through glass from a top - down perspective. as is typical in the film, we only find out what this is connected to later, as both were injured in a scaffolding accident .
the film is a diptych. distant voices was shot in the autumn of 1985. at that time still lives, which was shot in 1987, had not even been written. however, the narrative is elliptical. depicting various key moments—wedding, christening, illness, war—in the life of a liverpool family, it jumps from tableau to tableau: there is no jarring disjunction between the two halves. if anything, the gap between them helps to give a real sense of time passing and enables characters to age convincingly .
whereas other films potentially could work in narrative terms without its music, distant voices, still lives is at once completely reliant on both digetetic and nondiegetic music and sound; “… music is not being used as mere background support, surreptitiously shaping our emotional responses as we concentrate on dialogue and action, but is at least as important as these in creating the film’s meanings. ” (everett, 2004, p. 172). the argument between these two terminologies will become increasingly complex from scene to scene as it becomes more ambiguous and debatable as to where the sound comes from. this is a brief overview of a complex drama whose relationship with sound and music is the first to truly reflect the complexity of working - class life. though it also deals with a number of similar issues to the previous films, the power of nostalgia and memory ironically allows a truth to enter into the representation of the working - class in distant voices, still lives; an obvious irony considering that it has the longest time between its production and period setting .
the film is divided into two parts: distant voices (45 mins) centers on the wedding of eileen, eldest of the three davies children, and the funeral of her father, events which spark memories of the past, including the frightening war years when the city was bombed frequently; still lives (39 mins) actually was filmed two years after the first part, with the same actors but with a substantially different crew. it’s a seamless continuation which climaxes with the wedding of another of the clan, son tony .
this is one of the key features that distinguishes the film from the other two and allows a breed of nostalgia to be born. whereas before the films were made to highlight problems and issues of the very present day, distant voices, still lives is a personal journey back into the past allowing the 1988 film to be set at roughly the same era as our other examples. this explains a number of the techniques on display that will be discussed later but it is too generalising to simply state that it is the main factor .
what is most surprising about terence davies' film adaptation of lewis grassic gibbon' s sunset song is how close the director seems to his material. the novel, published in 1932, is the story of a sensitive young woman growing up in a rugged, rural community in the north - east of scotland just before the first world war. it is a world away from the working - class liverpool of the director' s own childhood in the late 1940s, so movingly depicted in his autobiographical distant voices, still lives (1988), and yet the two films sit together as companion pieces. they are both deeply felt family dramas with the same mix of lyricism and extreme brutality. they both feature abusive father - figures who terrorise their wives and children. there is plenty of music and communal singing in each of the films. the interior of the little farmhouse in which the family lives in sunset song isn' t so different from that of the home depicted in distant voices .
the filmmaker actually shot the film as two deliberately contrasting halves, each made with a different crew over a two - year phase; distant voices peeks through pale - sepia tones while still lives abounds in ominous - ethereal fades to white just as painterly stillness alternates with gliding camera movement. the title may imply the stagnation of oppressed lives, yet the picture’s lasting impression is one of concentrated, purified motion, of images poetically triggering images, and, above all, of waves of feeling flowing from screen to audience and back. never ignoring the characters’ pain as the family dissolves in the course of the film, davies brings to their gatherings a heartfelt sense of emotional community struggling with the inescapable passage of time .
the songs, presented cold, clearly mean more to the director than they do to an audience that doesn' t share his very specific feelings of loss and love.'' distant voices, still lives'' has the rigorous, studied look of advanced film - school work. the color photography has a soft, golden hue, and the camera movements are stately, with a lot of pans from right to left and, on occasion, a slow rise toward heaven, as if the film (and the man directing it) were looking up to god .
davies recently detailed with characteristic candour his struggles with organisations such as the uk film council but events seem about to take a turn for the better. a new film, an adaptation of lewis grassic gibbon ’s sunset song has been announced, and after its rousing reception at the recent 50th london film festival, the restoration of the magnificent distant voices, still lives will go on general release in february 2007. time has done nothing to dim the film’s beauty and power; farley’s book – to which davies’ was a fulsome contributor – is a valuable and erudite companion piece .
if you' re living with any of the issues katie describes in her blog you may find our info on bipolar or hearing voices useful .
this is the first feature film of liverpudlian terence davies, obviously autobiographical, dealing with a family called davies and their lives during the 1940s and 1950s .
arthur miller professed surprise when death of a salesman, to him a quintessentially american play, was successfully produced in china. distant voices, still lives, despite being located in so specific a time and place, has a similar universality of appeal. it taps into british and american cultural memory; in the way it recreates an era through its media habits, its cinema - going and wireless listening, it is akin to woody allen' s radio days. but its themes, marriage, birth, death, memories of the anguishes and pleasures of family life, make it accessible to almost anyone, even to xenophobic continental critics who still find it impossible to link the idea of
cinema
with that of
britain .
made in 1961, when homosexuality was still illegal in britain, this drama sees a gay lawyer fighting against a blackmailer targeting gay london men .
even if you weren' t in a foul mood, this is still a completely valid point, this film should be on a fucking dvd .
fullerton, j. and king, e. (2005), ‘local views, distant scenes: registering affect in surviving mexican actuality films of the 1920s’ ,
its narrative quirks are another hint that time has passed since the events in the film occurred. moving on from the clearly signposted backtracks of the loneliness of the long distance runner, distant voices, still lives is a more impressionistic look at the lives of a worn down post - war liverpool family and it is given this impressionistic view by its sound world. songs and sounds appear and disappear, moving from scene to scene, sometimes from the past, sometimes from a fixed present. it is a visual feast of a film with williams (2001, p. 110) recalling davies’ work (among other directors) to be of a heavily visual basis; “their work is so strong visually, it shows harrowing class experiences, but it’s not didactic. it shows something from the inside. ”
the second film in terence davies' s autobiographical series (' trilogy',' the long day closes') is an impressionistic view of a working - class family in 1940s and 1950s liverpool, based on davies' s own family. the first part,' distant voices', opens... read all
58 the first attempt to blow up the concrete framework of the winnipeg arena did not succeed; it was still standing after the explosion of dynamite charges .
set in 1940s england, distant voices / still lives is a compassionate look at a radically dysfunctional family. the son and his mother must endure the casual and overt cruelties of the bull - necked father. the ongoing abuse takes its toll in the form of failed marriages and misguided attempts at seeking security outside the family unit. as was the case with his earlier short subject trilogy (the children, madonna and child, death and transfiguration), director terence davies based much of the material on his own life, combining rheumy - eyed cynicism with soft - edged nostalgia (the musical track, drawn from popular wartime songs, is particularly evocative) .
this is another reason most of the media — including supposedly “serious” publications like the new yorker – feel ill at ease with such a movie, preferring just about any hackneyed plot to a piece of cinema without a paraphrasable story. similarly, some reviewers have argued that the absence of the brutal father figure in the long day closes means a certain loss in dramatic tension compared to distant voices, still lives. i can see what they mean, but only if drama and tension are defined solely in terms of character and incident. if consciousness itself is the subject of the long day closes, as i believe it is, then there’s very little drop in feeling and intensity .
terence davies’ autobiographical second feature is the last film to be examined. unlike the other two examples, this film needs far more recontextualisation as its overall aesthetic choices for sound and music are greatly affected by differing factors. the first thing to note is that distant voices, still lives can be classed as a period film. williams (1993, p. 241) argues that “whether conscious or not, davies attempts traumatic depictions using characteristic techniques of memory fragmentation and nonlinear representation involving his audience in the unpleasant realm. by doing this, he avoids the nostalgia inherent in any work dealing with the past. ” as we will see, the musical argument completely contradicts this reading .
it would be impossible for davies to show working class life in all of its complexities without music and sound. everett (2004, p. 171) believes this is instantly obvious because of the sheer volume of music in the film, stating “however, as soon as we move to distant voices, still lives, we become aware of a major shift in davies’s treatment of music. this is obvious merely from noting the proportion of the film in which music is heard. ” the film is one whose soundtrack tells as much as its visual narrative, sometimes even more so. as we will see, davies is a director who is conscious of the powerful relationship between sound and vision; one that when used in very specific ways can recreate that feeling of stumbling upon a memory. its haphazard jumping between time frames and reliance on sound worlds from different periods in the family’s life speaks of the whole film being one long recollection with only an olivier voice - over missing to give it the obvious tell - tale sign. everett (2004, p. 65) also argues that “in distant voices, still lives, the camera glides through and between memories, twisting and turning upon itself in complex patterns which if not chronological or plot - driven may instead be recognised as musical and harmonic. ” even the very structure of the film seems quintessentially musical .
davies’s film is an act of exorcism, but also one of redemption. “i make films to come to terms with my family history, ” the director has said. “if there had been no suffering, there would have been no films. ” distant voices, still lives is a far darker work than the long day closes, davies’s luminous 1992 follow - up, where he could freely, lyrically recall the burgeoning awareness of his homosexuality, his joy for cinema, or, simply, the stupefying play of light on a carpet; as armond white superbly put it, the difference between the two films is the difference between “memories davies can’t get rid of and memories he won’t let go. ”
the second way davies’s film represents a radical move away from traditional forms of fictional narrative is in its use of music. the whole of
distant voices, still lives
is constructed of seemingly disconnected scenes, threaded together by a complex series of voiceovers, popular songs and religious hymns, and, occasionally, synched dialogue that is used to sound - bridge disparate spaces. the most memorable sounds that bring together the film’s many shards as well as create a more thematic harmony, however, are the popular radio tunes or ditties sung on - camera by its many characters. entire sequences are made up strictly of these songs, whether performed as solos or singalongs, in the family’s parlor or in the neighborhood pub .
his film credits were extensive, but particularly notable were his work on john schlesinger' s cold comfort farm (1995), and his long association with the director terence davies, for whom he worked as musical director on the films distant voices, still lives (1988), the long day closes (1992) and the neon bible (1995). davies' s meditative and elegiac films about a liverpool working - class family were appealing to lockhart, who was born and brought up in wigan and never quite adjusted to what he viewed as the terminal effeteness of the south - east. other film credits included andrew grieve' s on the black hill (1988) and the thriller vicious circles (1997) .
what is perhaps more interesting is that, by recalling this post - war era, davies has also recalled its reliance on music; something that neither of the previous films acknowledged. “the first problem of reflectionism affects both classical and marxist schemes since they conceive of music as a primarily reactive phenomenon. ” argues flinn (1992, p. 88) and though the musical reactions of the loneliness of the long distance runner reflect this problematic stance, distant voices, still lives shows a reliant music rather than a reactionary relationship. in the context of davies work though, many of flinn’s general arguments are lacking (through no fault of the writer’s) prompting everett to call them “over - simplistic” (2004, p. 175) .
despite a career of critical acclaim, terence davies still struggles to get his films made. whose fault is that? just about everybody' s, he tells simon hattenstone .
there are lighting changes that signal the passage of time (a carpet pattern seen at different times of day) and transitions into and out of bud’s daydreams. (seated at his desk in the center of a classroom, lit by a spotlight, he looks out the window and sees a huge ship sailing past, gets sprayed with wind and rain, then is seen dry as the other boys in the surrounding desks become visible again .) there are recurring architectural motifs — windows are as important here as doors were in distant voices, still lives — and recurring postures. (looking out various windows in his house, bud often kneels on the floor, which recalls his prayers in church and his rapt leaning against the parapet in a movie theater balcony. )
the association accounted for variables like cohabitation, chronic physical and mental disorders, depressive symptoms, and emotional - social support. worries emanating from close relationships like partners or kids were more strongly related to mortality than worries from those more distant. but still, even if you are not overtly trying to kill your neighbor, it would seem that a duplicitous relationship could be ravaging you both .
with his next two films, davies continued to excavate his past, breaking up time in even more radical ways .
distant voices, still lives
( 1988) and
the long day closes
( 1992), companion pieces of a sort, and the works on which the director’s reputation largely lies, are woven tapestries of sounds and images, dreams and desires of a specifically working - class milieu that both evoke and fly in the face of the british school of realism that defined davies’s national cinema, from john grierson and humphrey jennings’s groundbreaking experiments in documentary in the 1930s and 1940s to the “kitchen - sink dramas” of the 1950s and 1960s to the “heritage” and new - realist films of the 1980s and 1990s, typified by merchant - ivory and mike leigh, respectively .
the film feels no need to shy away from the issues that were simply impossible to be put on screen during the 1940s and even the early 1960s but does use music to in some way account for the presence of darker themes. everett (2004, p. 177) puts this down to a need to break the nostalgia: “davies allows nostalgia to develop and then to be destroyed from within. ” this is the main point on which we disagree. though great attention is paid to the music in her writings on both distant voices, still lives and the director’s general use of it, it seems that the visual narrative has won over the writer rather than its sound - world which only breaks from nostalgia properly for one segment, even though the film has more than one unpleasant scene .
in contrast to this elusive editing, the visuals provide concrete, tangible textures. dvsl has a supremely unique look and feel to it; davies said it was due a bleach process in film development that desaturated the color, creating slightly washed - out tones. davies calibrated this to the range of browns and sepia colors, creating a film that looks like old - photographs without ever being obvious or one - dimensional. the art design and lighting adds to this, and it’s certainly one of those films where you can almost feel the tactile quality of the surfaces, from the stones to the wood to the wallpaper. as the distant voices section gives way to the still lives section, davies consciously warms up the tone. even though it’s still desaturated, there’s now more angled, diffused, glowing light. the grays and blacks of the former give way to the golden reds of the latter. this is especially potent during davies’ repeated fades to white, which envelop his characters in an angelic glow .
there is something indescribable about the very real pleasures of terence davies’ breakthrough film, distant voices, still lives. it is a slippery, intangible work and its most beautiful moments (of which there are many) emerge from a combination of evocative sounds, more particularly music, the exactness of composition, and the vicissitudes of camera movement. most descriptions of the film and even the title itself suggest it embodies a kind of anti - cinema that is defined by notions of stillness, isolated sound and enclosed tableaux and yet this says little about the film’s atmosphere or explicit textuality (which are both self - conscious and felt). a film which can, in turns, effectively evoke the cinema of michael powell and emeric pressburger, bill douglas, yasujiro ozu, and the mgm musical must be considered in terms that respect its cinematic specificity .
an impressionistic view of a working - class family in 1940s and 1950s liverpool, based on davies' s own family. the first part, distant voices, opens with grown siblings eileen, maisie, and tony, and their mother arranged in mourning clothes before the photograph of their smiling father. soon after, the family poses in a similar tableau, but for a happier occasion - - eileen' s wedding. while relatives sing at her reception, eileen hysterically grieves for her dad, and recalls happy times of her youth. tony and maisie' s memories, however, are more troubled... . in still lives, set (and filmed) two years later, the siblings are settled in life, but not all happily. for eileen, relief from her drab existence comes only when singing at the pub .
commissioned as part of liverpool’s 800th birthday celebrations in 2007, the british premiere of of time and the city (terence davies, 2008) in the city’s philharmonic hall in 2008 was celebrated as a major european capital of culture event. hailed at cannes as a distinctly ‘terence davies’ film, of time and the city is a personal triumph for davies, returning after an eightyear absence from film making to the place of his birth and the memories that inspired his acclaimed semi - autobiographical films distant voices, still lives (1988) and the long day closes (1992). a bitter - sweet love song to his native city composed of 85 per cent archive footage, most of it shot in liverpool between the 1940s and the early 1970s, of time and the city traces the exterior spaces and places of childhood and adolescence evoked but never seen in these earlier films .
not the least among its achievements, terence davies’s wondrous distant voices, still lives offers a crystallization of the appeal of the musical. an odd linkage, to be sure, since the genre’s trademark studio boisterousness would seem a world away from the kitchen - sink dreariness of the director’s mood piece about his years growing up with his working - class family in post - wwii liverpool, dominated by his abusive ogre of a father. yet davies transcends the facile trap of misery - porn by tapping into the basic notion that could make musicals so enlivening—music as direct expression, music as emotion felt. cinema is the most unashamedly emotional of arts, and the musical feeds in no small part on repressed, frustrated sensations, the better to explode them with bursts of melodious bravura; what are musical numbers, after all, if not lyrically stylized declarations of feelings that could not be expressed any other way ?
but then i thought well, you can' t, you know, you still can' t go be an actor. i mean people from warrington don' t go and be actors, really. so i decided to carry on - i' d teach for a couple years and then see what happened after that and if i still fancied it after that i' d follow - i' d go and do it .
if you combined the personalized art therapy of ingmar bergman with the formal ellipticism and familial focus of hou hsiao - hsien and the theme of an elusive, fractured, and free - association memory of tarkovsky’s zerkalo you’d have a perfect, if difficult, description of terence davies’ aesthetic. davies had begun his career with his trilogy, three short, black & white films made between ’76 and ’84. poetically fractal and challenging in their own right, the trilogy chronicled davies maturation as a filmmaker, beginning with the rawness of children, to the more studied and transitional madonna and child, and concluding with the masterful death and transfiguration. but if the trilogy was the herald, then distant voices, still lives (dvsl) is the second coming—the ultimate testament of the greatest of post - war british filmmakers. this film retains all of the emotional and aesthetic power of its predecessors, while offering a sophisticatedly refined form and style to match .
distant voices, still lives delves into the mechanics of memory (which it never conceives of as mechanical at all) and the mechanics and possibility of representing this memory in cinema. in the process it investigates the capacity of fictional cinema to act as memory book or family album. the film illustrates an important tension between evocative, realistic and tellingly detailed portrayal and the inaccessibility of the material portrayed to us (which can only be represented, distanced, voiced, stilled). essentially what it offers is an emotionally charged self - conscious cinema throughout which we can sense the presence of the camera as it isolates an empty stairwell, cranes up from a sea of umbrellas, lingers over a composition, or perfectly frames and situates character within space. in the end davies’ film shows us duration, emotion, memory, the constructedness of space, and their interconnectedness. in the process it provides a heartfelt lesson in the nature, specificity and beauty of cinema itself .
dvsl also contains a more ostensible link to its predecessors due to the fact its narrative is rooted in davies’ autobiographical past. in the trilogy, davis had focused on his own life (and imagined death), but dvsl removes davies the character from the equation. here, the canvas is much broader, trading the isolated suffering of the trilogy for a more communal one. what emerges is an impressionistic take of a working class family in england during the 40s and 50s. as the trilogy was made up of three, thematically connected short films, dvsl is made up of two, half - feature - length films itself. distant voices traces the sense - memory associations of davies’ family’s life through the period up until their father’s death, capturing that life in brief snatches of scenes that flow into others like tributaries into lakes. still lives, however, takes us outside the oppressive home environment to focus on the marriages of davies’ older sisters and brother, and the birth, christening, and party for the first child of the siblings .
the second film in terence davies' s autobiographical series (' trilogy',' the long day closes') is an impressionistic view of a working - class family in 1940s and 1950s liverpool, based on davies' s own family. the first part,' distant voices', opens with grown siblings eileen (angela walsh), maisie (lorraine ashbourne) and tony (dean williams), and their mother (freda dowie) arranged in mourning clothes before the photograph of their smiling father (pete postlethwaite). soon after, the family poses in a similar tableau, but for a happier occasion - eileen' s wedding. while relatives sing at her reception, eileen hysterically grieves for her dad, and recalls happy times of her youth. tony and maisie' s memories, however, are more troubled. davies intermingles and contrasts scenes like the family peacefully lighting candles in church with the brutal man beating his wife and terrorizing his young children. in' still lives', set (and filmed) two years later, the siblings are settled in life, ...
the story is divided into two parts, just like the title. distant voices is the frightening memory of the alcoholic and violent father, played brilliantly by the british actor pete postlethwaite, dictator in his family, where he seeks his revenge on a gray life, all set in a leaden and popular liverpool before the beatles era, in the' 40s and early the following decade, a city photographed so impressionistic by patrick duval. the other part of the film, still lives, focuses on the attempt to turn the page of the family, after the death of the father, and the whole story revolves around the marriage of his son, the protagonist of the film, symbolic moment of a new beginning. a new beginning that the film shows us to be nevertheless always within the same mechanisms, as if the characters were been forced to repeat the mistakes which have been affected themselves, and to repeat in their family, the family of origin. to mark the difference, the fragments of memories are separate by black screens in the first part, and by screens white and full of light, in the second one .
the pebbles are the moments outside time, the shards of memory at the heart of the movement. these “timeless moments” are positioned quite literally outside the flow of time by being depicted as still or frozen poses which disrupt the temporal and spatial movement of the film itself. 36
just three floors below the impact zone, not a thing budged in steve mcintyre' s office. not the slate paperweight shaped like a sailing ship. not the family snapshots propped up on a bookcase. mcintyre found himself in front of a computer that was still on .
it is not often that british films win prizes at international film festivals. truffaut, despite his penchant for hitchcock, and satyajit ray have both remarked that the british are more or less temperamentally incapable of holding movie cameras. a low - budget, bfi - financed account of a working - class childhood in post - war liverpool hardly seems likely to set the continental critics alight. nonetheless, distant voices, still lives received the international critics prize at the cannes festival, and also shared the golden leopard at the locarno festival. perhaps as a result of its european reception, the film was apotheosized by british critics, who, while lavishing extravagant praise, insisted on writing about it as if it were a remake of a room with a view, as if it were yet another piece of cosy, edwardian nostalgia: terence davies, the
proletarian proust ,
had, we were told ,
wrenched high art from the lower depths of his deprived liverpool childhood .
his film was like
coronation street by bresson .
( it is ironic that a film which recreates an era largely through its popular culture should be treated as a piece of
art house
cinema. )
distant voices , still lives is a 1988 british film directed and written by terence davies . it evokes working-class family life in liverpool during the 1940s and early 1950s , paying particular attention to the role of popular music , hollywood cinema , light entertainment , and the public house within this tight-knit community . the film is made up of two separate films , shot two years apart , but with the same cast and crew . the first section , ' distant voices ' , chronicles the early life of a working-class catholic family living under a domineering father . the second section , ' still lives ' , sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s britain , only a few years from rock and roll and the beatles , yet somehow still a lifetime away . the film won the grand prix of the belgian film critics association . in 2007 the british film institute re-printed and distributed the film across some of britain 's most high-profile independent cinemas , prompting the guardian newspaper to describe distant voices , still lives as " britain 's forgotten cinematic masterpiece " . in a 2011 poll carried out by time out of the 100 greatest british films of all time , distant voices , still lives was ranked third . 
distant voices, still lives is a 1988 british film directed and written by terence davies. it evokes working-class family life in liverpool during the 1940s and early 1950s, paying particular attention to the role of popular music, hollywood cinema, light entertainment, and the public house within this tight-knit community. the film is made up of two separate films, shot two years apart, but with the same cast and crew. the first section,' distant voices', chronicles the early life of a working-class catholic family living under a domineering father. the second section,' still lives', sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s britain, only a few years from rock and roll and the beatles, yet somehow still a lifetime away. the film won the grand prix of the belgian film critics association. in 2007 the british film institute re-printed and distributed the film across some of britain's most high-profile independent cinemas, prompting the guardian newspaper to describe distant voices, still lives as " britain's forgotten cinematic masterpiece ". in a 2011 poll carried out by time out of the 100 greatest british films of all time, distant voices, still lives was ranked third.
distant voices, still lives is a 1988 british film directed and written by terence davies. it evokes working-class family life in liverpool during the 1940s and early 1950s, paying particular attention to the role of popular music, hollywood cinema, light entertainment, and the public house within this tight-knit community. the film is made up of two separate films, shot two years apart, but with the same cast and crew. the first section,' distant voices', chronicles the early life of a working-class catholic family living under a domineering father. the second section,' still lives', sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s britain, only a few years from rock and roll and the beatles, yet somehow still a lifetime away. the film won the grand prix of the belgian film critics association. in 2007 the british film institute re-printed and distributed the film across some of britain's most high-profile independent cinemas, prompting the guardian newspaper to describe distant voices, still lives as " britain's forgotten cinematic masterpiece ". in a 2011 poll carried out by time out of the 100 greatest british films of all time, distant voices, still lives was ranked third.