Terence Davies, C/D. S/D

Watched this w/her and she says only one of the three Gibbon bks were filmed.

Anyway this was a disappointment. Slow-cinema over-used (especially in the switchover to WWI France sequence, but also the one in the church), Deyn stretched at some points but that face has potential. I think its equally true the film stretched the material and everybody involved.

Looked great but one for ppl who recognise all the themes - working-class life and song, the woman's lot, brutal patriarchs, and I liked Davies' re-use of these themes in a new setting.

I remain apprehensive of Sunset Song, mainly cus of its regional relevance to me, I went to The Other primary school but I have slept with eh Persons from Redmyre school, which is across the main road from me, and is where the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Centre is (no thread on him? For shame...) I think they filmed parts of the 70's TV version in this village, slightly before I was borned, the old dudes still talk of the dirt they laid up the High Street for it. I heard they got the accents all wrong, no Doric? Still, I will no doubt catch this eventually, on DVD or whatever. But really I'm just looking for reassuarance that this isn't a travesty, cus I love Terrence Davies, albeit from a 2 generation remove from Liverpool, which may make all the difference. But (in the absence of a LGG thread) y'all should read A Scot's Quair. That's as close as my people come to A Great Work Of Literature, and objectively I think it may be. It's like Ulysses to us, and while the ILB people (who intimidate me) might find that comparison offensive I'll throw down for that.

i feel pretty confident that this movie will be a travesty. davies just seems plum out of inspriation and has fallen back on the 'heritage cinema' model. none of films since 'long day closes' have had more than a fraction of the power of that or the ones before it. 'the neon bible,' which davies considers a complete failure, at least retained his unusual, striking, planimetric composition sense. 'the house of mirth' was, by contrast, just a middling --and greivously (sp?) miscast--prestige literary adaptation.

We'll have to disagree really HOM.

That's as close as my people come to A Great Work Of Literature, and objectively I think it may be. It's like Ulysses to us, and while the ILB people (who intimidate me) might find that comparison offensive I'll throw down for that.

― Jonathan Hellion Mumble

I would contend that there are a number of Scottish works that rank highly in the history of letters but of course I would.

The best Scottish comparison to Ulysses is a A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle by Hugh McDiarmid imo.

-Thread derail ends-

Absence of Doric consistent with the book in a way surely? Seem to remember Grassic-Gibbon mainly renders the dialogue in Standard English orthography. Though I may be mistaken.

"HOM"?

Autocorrect, "Re: The House of Mirth", I guess.

I like the House of Mirth. think it has a few amazing moments and is v interestingly cast, fwiw.

i didn't think Gillian Anderson was as miscast as a Wharton 'heroine' as Michelle Pfeiffer was in Age of Innocence... still, it didn't quite work. Deep Blue Sea is the best one since '92 imho.

anderson wasn't the worst bit of casting in that film by any means. actually, i think she was fine. it was the secondary and tertiary parts that were dreadfully miscast: eric stoltz, dan aykroyd (!)... even anthony lapaglia and laura linney seemed off (i'm not a huge linney fan anyhow). i think jodhi may in her brief role probably came across most convincingly.

Selden is a callow lawyer, and Stolz is a callow actor, so

didn't mind Linney; she's good at assholery (and she wasn't in it long enough to bother me). Akyroyd though stumbles out of a Carol Burnett skit.

hm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI5HhhpidD8

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/berlinale-2016/quiet-passion-first-look?utm_content=bufferaafbc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Arguably Terence Davies’ most profoundly personal film since Of Time and the City

:-|

since the film he made two films ago.

which is terrible.

I would honestly love this to be good but that clip...

And that review!

"...tableaux-like compositions (at times reminiscent of American painting)"

Sunset Song feels too long and foreshortened at the same time. I preferred the squalor and rural violence of the first act, although New Film Boy Crush Kevin Guthrie is adorable and believable as Chris' husband in the second.

xyzzzz otm more or less

New Film Boy Crush Kevin Guthrie

hands off!

old bastard has made his best film in 25 years, i think!

a pleasant antidote to US Memorial Day

pleasant in quotes, of course

did not recognize Peter Mullan as the nightmare dad (which was TD's way in to the story i suppose)

yes, especially when he sings

This is the sort of film whose annoyances may recede when recollecting the thing in tranquility in December. I have no problem with his wanting to adapt works of lit when they're this lived in; on this one he chewed on the project too long.

Disagree strongly, fastest 135 minutes in eons. Loved the use of the trad Scot songs since he couldn't use any movie clips...

omg Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson is imminent

this left his Wharton & Toole adaps in the dust.

I wasn't bored and it didn't drag but the film had an erratic rhythm. Chris went from independent mistress to married woman awfully quickly, and Ewan is hustled off the screen just as quickly so he can SPOILER disappear into mud and hymns.

Nothing wrong with keeping it moving... Working in 2.35:1, I thought you could see the influence of '50s Wyler, Ford, Stevens etc on Davies but he made it his own (even Bergmanesque with the first 45 mins' horrors).

For what it's worth.

btw bowlegged hottie Guthrie is up soon in a remake of Whisky Galore!, which sounds like a terrible idea.

he's a nice bit o' arable land, isn't he

Bowlegged? Could I like this guy any more?

I haven't seen this btw

whisky galore is a fucking hilarious movie.

once i saw it i remembering thinking, "aha! now i know where bill forsyth comes from."

Rewatched The Long Day Closes on CC Blu-ray... It has a good "South Bank Show" from '92 with on-set footage and Davies musing on his life and art. He says when the Trilogy first screened some critic scoffed that "it makes Bergman look like Jerry Lewis." "And it's true!" TD laughs.

Some great supps on the production design and lighting of TLDC too.

i watched distant voices, still lives last night, superb. admit that going into it i didn't expect to see an action movie running-away-from-explosions scene

Wait why is Whisky Galore mentioned on this thread? Oh, I see.

early Dickinson review roundup

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2016-terence-daviess-a-quiet-passion

seeing on the 16th at NYFF

Looks like he's Chanelling Cries and Whispers, a film he's talked about, passionately, before. I hope it's good. The trailer... Well I dunno. I might like the whole thing but I don't really like the trailer.

But, in a sense, I "taught" myself to like The House of Mirth.

i hope not, C&W is one of my least fave Bergmans

xp

I'm seeing Sunset Song tomorrow! Quite excited. Saw Distant Voices, Still Lives yesterday to prepare, and that's probably the best film I've seen in a loooong time. Also saw Of Time and the City, but honestly didn't like it as much as I'd hoped.

so weird-- terence davies came up (in a very apposite way!) on the blue nile thread just yesterday

Sunset Song is so underrated on critical aggregation sites (81% on RT, 72 on metacritic). I know these things don't really matter, but were a majority of critics really so not raving about a great TD movie?

uh those are majorities

aggregator site scores do not measure raves well

I know I am pissing in the wind here, but just 2% better than Eddie The Eagle :p

Sunset Song uses harvest-time almost as much as Terence Malick uses dust. Oh, okay, now it's harvest again, I suppose... I liked it, was a tad slow in the beginning, but when things start happening it's brutal, and the last half hour or so - from the people seem to wander ghost-like over the corn fields - of course ripe and ready for harvest - - it becomes quite surreal in an upsetting way.

Shame that that the Emily Dickinson biopic might be long. Nevertheless I am looking fwd to it.