The Long Day Closes

The evocative non-narrative sequel to Distant Voices, Still Lives presents scenes from the everyday life of 11-year-old Bud, who is growing up in Liverpool in 1955-1956. Bud’s world centers on his mother, his older sister Ellen and his older brothers John and Kevin. He is a quiet and solitary boy who finds solace in the local cinema, watching the giant, emblematic figures on the big screen. The films give Bud the strength he needs to face up to his oppressive school-life and nascent homosexuality.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Script: Terence Davies
Cinematography: Michael Coulter
Editing: William Diver
Music: Music Supervisor: Bob Last. Music Director: Robert Lockhart
Actors: Marjorie Yates (mother), Leigh McCormack (Bud), AnthonyWatson (Kevin), Nicholas Lamont (John), Ayse Owens (Helen)
Production: Film Four International
Producers: Olivia Stewart
Co-production: British Film Institute
Art Direction: Kate Naylon
Costumes: Monica Howe
Production Design: Christopher Hobbs
Format: 35mm Color
Production Country: UK
Production Year: 1992
Duration: 85

Terence Davies

He was born in Liverpool in 1945. He began his career under the auspices of the British Film Institute with a first short already showing autobiographical traits, Children. At the National Film School he made Madonna and Child, continued in his third short, Death and Transfiguration. These three works were brought together in what was to constitute The Terence Davies. Distant Voices, Still Lives, a masterpiece on post-war Britain, was his international revelation, winning among others the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes IFF, the Golden Leopard at the Locarno FF and the Critics’ Awards at both Los Angeles and Toronto. With The Neon Bible, Davies gave his career something of a new direction on adapting a novel by writer John Kennedy Toole and shooting the movie in the USA. His most recent film Of Time and the City, which was premiered in Cannes IFF 2008, reveals amasterly use of archivematerial in constructing an emotional and critical discourse on urban evolution in Liverpool over the last 50 years.

Filmography

1976-1983 The Terence Davies Trilogy:
Children(1976), Madonna and Child(1980), Death and Transfiguration(1983)
1988 Distant Voices, Still Lives
1992 The Long Day Closes
1995 The Neon Bible
2000 The House of Mirth
2008 Of Time and the City