Terence Davies

  • Terence Davies – The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

    Terence Davies2011-2020DramaRomanceUSA
    The Deep Blue Sea (2011)
    The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

    Quote:
    With The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Davies selectively transforms a lesser-known Terence Rattigan play into a broody rumination on emotional freedom and frustrated desire. Davies abandons Rattigan’s linear narrative and compressed timeline in favor of a more free-form structure, one that underlines the ebb and flow of memory as it shuttles between past and present. At the same time, The Deep Blue Sea confirms Davies’s continued engagement with the period melodrama—in this case, the variety of “woman’s picture” exemplified by the doomed romanticism of David Lean’s Brief Encounter, a touchstone that The Deep Blue Sea on several occasions blatantly references. Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Britain, a dowdy period of rationing and reconstruction, The Deep Blue Sea hinges on the seemingly irresolvable predicament of its heroine, Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz). Trapped within the confines of a passionless marriage to older, well-to-do Sir William (Simon Russell Beale), Hester vainly seeks satisfaction in an ardent affair with young, impulsive Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston). Absorbed in memories of his carefree pre-war days, Freddie ultimately cannot return Hester’s affection, and their relationship soon degenerates into noisy rows and mutual recriminations.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – The House of Mirth (2000)

    Terence Davies1991-2000DramaRomanceUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth is a tragic love story set against a background of wealth and social hypocrisy in turn of the century New York. Lily Bart is a ravishing socialite at the height of her success who quickly discovers the precariousness of her position when her beauty and charm start attracting unwelcome interest and jealousy. Torn between her heart and her head, Lily always seems to do the right thing at the wrong time. She seeks a wealthy husband and in trying to conform to social expectations, she misses her chance for real love with Lawrence Selden.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – Of Time and the City (2008)

    2001-2010DocumentaryTerence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    The streets of our cities are haunted by the ghosts of those who were young here long ago. In memory we recall our own past happiness and pain. Terence Davies, whose subject has often been his own life, now turns to his city, Liverpool, England, and regrets not so much the joys of his youth as those he did not have. Central to these are the sexual experiences forbidden by the Catholic Church to which he was most devoted.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – The Long Day Closes (1992)

    1991-2000DramaTerence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    A lyrical reverie about a young Liverpool boy coming of age in the 1950s among his loving family and the austere Catholic Church as he enters the rigors of school, nurtures a bedazzled love of the movies and longs for companionship.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – A Quiet Passion (2016)

    Drama2011-2020Terence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) maintains close ties with her family while becoming a prolific poet whose work becomes recognized after her death in 1886.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – Sunset Song (2015)

    2011-2020DramaTerence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    AN EPIC STORY OF LOVE, LOSS AND THE LAND THAT INSPIRED IT ALL.
    The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaQueer Cinema(s)Terence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    The film, depicting life in working-class Liverpool from the 1940s into the 50s, is already a modern classic.

    Now that Eileen, Maisie, and Tony are adults, their childhood memories – and in particular those associated with their father – are inconsistent. While Eileen clings to happier times, her siblings remember his brutal violent nature, which has been a major influence on their growth and development. This troubled family must deal with the day-to-day alongside their past. Terence Davies creates a loving portrait with this partly autobiographical tale (shot in two sections), and it was voted one of the greatest British films by Sight & Sound.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – The Terence Davies Trilogy (1984)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaTerence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    Description from IMDb
    Davies’ film is divided into three segments enitled “Children”, “Madonna and Child”, and “Death and Transfiguartion”. The segments tell the life of Robert Tucker. The first segment looks at his birth and formative years in school, an austere boy’s school. The bleak environment is not aided by loveless, violent homelife he experiences. Nonetheless, his father’s death is a major impact to him. In the second segment, he is a closeted homosexual working in a grim office and still living at home with his daunting mother. In the final segment, he deals with his mother’s death and then faces his own impending doom. As his death approaches he flashes back to his life’s events.Read More »

  • Terence Davies – The Neon Bible (1996)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaTerence DaviesUnited Kingdom

    Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
    After showing himself a master at juggling autobiographical material in Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, both dealing with his childhood in Liverpool during the 50s, Terence Davies adapts a novel by John Kennedy Toole about growing up in the rural deep south in the late 30s and 40s—and it’s remarkable how persuasively he handles this milieu while making it wholly his own. Two substantial assists are provided by Gena Rowlands (starring as the narrator-hero’s disreputable aunt, a onetime torch singer) and the ‘Scope format, both of which boost some of the mythological possibilities in the material.Read More »

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