more review links in the Mubi post up top
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 March 2012 19:45 (twelve years ago) link
Good interview with a local critic.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 March 2012 11:16 (twelve years ago) link
he appears to have been swallowed by The Hunger Games. (alas just like at the b.o.)
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 26 March 2012 11:43 (twelve years ago) link
i interviewed him a few years ago about of time and the city: http://www.montrealmirror.com/2009/032609/film1.html (that first photo caption appears to be a hilarious mistake.)
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Monday, 26 March 2012 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
The actress who plays the big-boned, jokey friend of the older sister in DV,SL is brilliant, yet she seems to have no other film credits.
In that film, the BAM audience laughed in semi-astonishment at the pub singalong of "Stone Cold Dead in the Market," a song w/ which I am very familiar from WFMU airplay over the years. A pointed inclusion in a film w/ wifebeating tho.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 26 March 2012 14:03 (twelve years ago) link
yes, she is fantastic in the film. so much of this has entered my consciousness. e.g. the moment where the girls reunite and they sing "they tried to sell us egg foo-yung" to the tune of the old nat king cole song "too young". a beautiful moment that says so much about the shared language of friendship.
― jed_, Monday, 26 March 2012 18:09 (twelve years ago) link
also
-"How much do you love me, Mam?"-"A pound of sugar."
― jed_, Monday, 26 March 2012 18:12 (twelve years ago) link
song is usually called "brownskin gal" btw
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 26 March 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
love the banter between big-boned girl and her short husband. they constantly insult each other, yet clearly love each other as much as anyone in the movie.
sounds to me like they were doing a medley of "Brownskin Gal" and this one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Cold_Dead_in_the_Market_(He_Had_It_Coming)
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 26 March 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
The music almost belted me out of the theater, and boy, he loves the chiaroscuro but this was quite moving in places. I'd no problem with Hiddleston and Weisz, although I often wondered what she was supposed to project. I also didn't think Hester's husband was queer; he looked honestly besotted with her, if confused about where to put it in.
The creakiness of Rattigan's theater devices is amusing now: the inconveniently found letter, the husband stumbling into the phone call, the dowager mom getting laughs from scowling.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 March 2012 01:38 (twelve years ago) link
oh, I breezed through the text recently, you'd love the landlady and neighbors providing the entire backstory in Act I.
But um, the phone call stumble and the mother's two scenes are entirely Davies' invention.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 30 March 2012 01:55 (twelve years ago) link
Damn.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 March 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago) link
Brand new creakiness!
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 30 March 2012 02:04 (twelve years ago) link
He said at BAM two weeks ago of the mother scenes "I was pressured to cut them" and I thought, at least one, damn right.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 30 March 2012 02:06 (twelve years ago) link
xxxxp that big-boned, jokey girl mentioned above who was in DV,SL quit acting to become er.. one of this lot; http://www.yournextmp.com/candidates/debi_jones
― piscesx, Friday, 30 March 2012 06:49 (twelve years ago) link
!!!!
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 30 March 2012 06:53 (twelve years ago) link
i know!
― piscesx, Friday, 30 March 2012 08:29 (twelve years ago) link
wow. well she's truly amazing in DV,SL. i can even forgive her conservatism.
― jed_, Friday, 30 March 2012 09:33 (twelve years ago) link
saw The Long Day Closes for the first time in 20 years last week... funny how he blatantly remakes bits of the trilogy & DVSL, incl Debi Jones and the clowning hubby (w/ diff actors)!
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 5 April 2012 19:27 (twelve years ago) link
Terence Davies has signed up Sex and the City‘s Cynthia Nixon to play Amherst poet Emily Dickinson in a biopic. Davies has written the script to A Quiet Passion, which, I’m told, bursts with wit and one-liners, like a Noël Coward play…. Davies is preparing for one of the busiest spells of his long, not always busy, career. He begins shooting Scottish drama Sunset Song (with Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn) this summer and may then go straight into the Dickinson film.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/19/trailer-trash-cannes-marine-vacth-pele
― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Monday, 20 May 2013 19:25 (ten years ago) link
i have to say i don't think he'll ever make a film nearly as good a distant voices/long day closes again. he seems to be on shakier ground when he's not writing about his own life (or some version thereof). i think deep blue sea was his best since those days (though the sharks looked kind fake IMO), and i was not impressed with the formless documentary about liverpool.
the sunset song thing is something he's been trying to get funding for since (at least) the early 1990s, so I'm glad he's making it. i guess i'll just have to trust him on the dickinson biopic which looks horrible on paper.
anyway this dude still made one of the two or three best british movies ever so he's got a lifetime of good will from me.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 20 May 2013 22:03 (ten years ago) link
house of mirth had a lot of amazing stuff but i would point to it as an example of the dangers of miscasting. anderson was fine, but the rest of the cast was kind of a mess.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 20 May 2013 22:04 (ten years ago) link
i thought eric stotz was good although not exactly sheldon as i see him but anderson is not the lily bart i see either, or that anyone saw other than davis.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Monday, 20 May 2013 23:18 (ten years ago) link
Dan Akroyd threw me out of the movie when he talked like his character in My Stepmother is an Alien.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 May 2013 23:20 (ten years ago) link
The Long Day Closes is coming out on Criterion
http://www.criterion.com/films/27984-the-long-day-closes
good to see that the 1992 episode of The South Bank Show is included in this. hopefully Distant Voices, Still Lives will be next.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 19:01 (ten years ago) link
FINALLY
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 19:02 (ten years ago) link
and he very likely has 2 new films coming out in the next 2 years....
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link
excerpt from Michael Koresky's imminent book:
“Being gay has ruined my life. I hate it. I’ll go to my grave hating it.”
http://brooklynrail.org/2014/09/film/queerness-and-melancholia-an-excerpt-from-terence-davies
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:21 (nine years ago) link
you can watch TLDC on YouTube for those who can't wait:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w12UaW6sqI
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:53 (nine years ago) link
don't do it!
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:00 (nine years ago) link
Its his best film.
The appearance of the book explains why this is being shown at the ICA, with a Q&A too:
https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/long-day-closes-qa
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 8 September 2014 21:03 (nine years ago) link
signing w/ DV,SL in NY on Sept 28
http://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2014/09/28/detail/distant-voices-still-lives
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 15 September 2014 17:55 (nine years ago) link
That's Debi Jones, she's a bit of a local celeb in Liverpool, had a radio show, column for the local paper, does a bit of panto. Oh and stood as a Conservative candidate in a local election. I had a moment of cognitive dissonance when I saw her in the film.
― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 15 September 2014 19:48 (nine years ago) link
wasn't she in brookie for a good while though?
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Monday, 15 September 2014 20:40 (nine years ago) link
Honestly don't remember her on It? Wasn't an avid fan tbf, only watched it round my nan's, my dad wouldn't have it on in ours.
― ewar woowar (or something), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:06 (nine years ago) link
well a quick google says i'm wrong. could have sworn...
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:11 (nine years ago) link
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/toronto-2015/sunset-song-first-look
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 13:48 (eight years ago) link
cautiously optimistic
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 18:55 (eight years ago) link
Same. He's the director whose star has fallen furthest I think. Actually it's fallen so far that it makes me wonder if the towering greatness of DV,SL (all time top 5, for me) was an accident.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:36 (eight years ago) link
Nah. I watched The Long Day Closes Blu-ray a few months ago and fell in love again.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:38 (eight years ago) link
last one was his best in awhile
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:41 (eight years ago) link
So was the documentary, in which that querulous voice craps on pop culture since the Beatles.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I've seen them both. I've seen everything.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:49 (eight years ago) link
makes me wonder if the towering greatness of DV,SL (all time top 5, for me) was an accident.
Bcz he followed it with The Long Day Closes its no accident, and Deep Blue Sea had its moments.
Following Deyn with Weisz is pretty exciting.
Friend of mine read that book by Lewis Grassic Gibbon earlier this year. She hasn't been doing great and I really hope to take her to this.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 22:28 (eight years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 December 2015 23:34 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 16:45 (eight years ago) link
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.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Friday, 29 January 2016 22:39 (eight years ago) link
We'll have to disagree really HOM.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:32 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Cornelius Pardew (jim in glasgow), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:36 (eight years ago) link
i still think about my favorite professor showing us distant voices, still lives at byu. did he know the queer, closeted kids in the class needed to see it? was he somewhat queer himself? probably a little bit of yes to both. it was all so unspoken though.
― ꙮ (map), Saturday, 7 October 2023 21:12 (six months ago) link
Loved this bit from Michael Koresky:
At the conclusion of that deeply nurturing conversation, as I was nervously pressing stop on my audio recorder, Davies then looked up at me with a warm smile and asked, “So… what is your book about?” Concerned and amazed, I responded: “You! The book is about you.” Davies’ face turned red and lit up like a child, delighted but also humbled beyond belief.
“Me?!” It was an expression of unbelievable modesty coming from a man many agree was England’s greatest filmmaker of the last quarter century, but also evidence that Davies, never a commercially successful director in all the boring ways we measure such things, was always on the edge of being forgotten. It’s impossible to imagine, however, that Davies’ cinema will ever be forgotten by anyone who has seen a frame of it; his monumental films held candles as vigils to the form itself, and now without him, we will – we must – keep that flame burning.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/terence-davies-obituary
― birdistheword, Sunday, 8 October 2023 05:18 (six months ago) link
MK is living the life I wish I was. He’s the perfect person to pay homage to this particular director
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Sunday, 8 October 2023 06:18 (six months ago) link
I'll watch his last couple of films. Really hope Davies is not forgotten :-(
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 8 October 2023 08:33 (six months ago) link
My obt for him.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 October 2023 17:05 (six months ago) link
Some nice memories here:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/11/terence-davies-tom-hiddleston-rachel-weisz-jennifer-ehle-peter-capaldi?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1bF7DkZskET2ghvSB4za-cE6oQhHuC1GwtlA7_lK1zMJTfmIozv3MRDaQ
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:19 (six months ago) link
So lovely - the Capaldi contribution particularly.
― Piedie Gimbel, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:29 (six months ago) link
Yes, that was great, thanks!
― Dose of Thunderwords (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:44 (six months ago) link
I'm getting the Koresky book from the library, this aspect of the description sounded really intriguing:
focusing on four paradoxes within the director's oeuvre: films that are autobiographical yet fictional; melancholy yet elating; conservative in tone and theme yet radically constructed; and obsessed with the passing of time yet frozen in time and space.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:51 (six months ago) link
Koresky's good.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:59 (six months ago) link
I have a mega critic-crush on him
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 17:23 (six months ago) link
I don’t know from him, just heard about him now on this thread. His book Films of Endearment has a cheesy title but maybe it’s good?
― Dose of Thunderwords (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 17:39 (six months ago) link
I loved it, but as I said above ...
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 17:49 (six months ago) link
Glancing at it. Looks good. Had a shock for a minute when he said his mother went to Newton High and I misread it as Newtown High.
― Dose of Thunderwords (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 18:10 (six months ago) link