The Terence Davies poll

What a catalog.

I really loved his last two movies, he started off a great director and there has been no decline imo

I have re-watched Benediction about half a dozen times now. Not making any claims it's best movie but I sure do like re-watching it!

the Ivor Novello of Benediction is one of the most impressive acid-tongued cads, but also you get a very real sense of the damage done. It's an amazing movie.

Not including the trilogy because they're short films? Still his best work, imho.

He can capture the passage of time better than most living directors.

Like all I've seen, from what I have.

Distant Voices is my favourite by some margin though. Maybe because it was the first I saw.

I only watched it for the first time a couple of days ago and I think its my favourite.

First film of his that I watched was The Long Day Closes. This scene is astounding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZjgrFNuzA

The House of Mirth is one of the sharpest of great novel adaptations.

I'll add to the Benediction praise: one of last year's top five. I didn't think he had interest in bitchy original dialogue.

Gillian Anderson was spectacular in House of Mirth.

May be the ultimate "all killer, no filler" director

“If you want fidelity, buy a pet,”

Oh yeah The Long Day Closes is just incredible too. The memory is going.

I havent seen either of these: The Neon Bible,Sunset Song

Sunset Song is the weakest film here, but even so.

Of the four I've seen, House of Mirth. The first two felt like the imagery and milieu were a little too private to connect to, but it was interesting to see someone take a filmic style as singular as Tarkovsky's and use it to his own ends.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

One of my very favorite directors, and I can't tell you how wonderful it's been to see his fortunes change over the past dozen years. When I first became aware of him, NONE of his films were readily available, not even The House of Mirth, and while it was exciting to hear that he was making his first documentary (which turned out to be great), it was kind of implied in all of his interviews that no one was interested in financing any of his scripts. Given his age at the time and the additional context of how and why he was getting passed over for funding, it really seemed like he was finished as a narrative filmmaker.

Distant Voices, Still Lives is my favorite, but I love all of them, even The Neon Bible which is probably the least of those films but it's still wonderfully made.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Devastated to hear he has passed away. Again the last decade has been a gift.

Oh no. RIP

Insane to me that The House of Mirth only exists in its original DVD form.

If you're near NYC, MoMI in Astoria, Queens is screening a 35mm print of The House of Mirth on the weekend of March 2 & 3

https://movingimage.org/event/the-house-of-mirth/2024-03-02/

(That was directed at everyone in general, I realize Alfred's in FL)

Thanks!

Had just been thinking of him because I had been revisiting Sunset Song, although not his version.

You're welcome! I liked his adaptation of that book - I actually met him at a screening for that at Film Forum. A wonderful gentleman, and just as he was completely unfamiliar with Gillian Anderson's work in the The X-Files prior to The House of Mirth, he had no familiarity with Agyness Deyn's work as a model (and neither did I for that matter) - he cast them both simply based on their auditions.

Wow, that’s a great story.

Wow, how did I not know that Kevin Guthrie of SS is a dirtbag?!

Wow, didn’t know either.

He played Ewan in that so…kind of on the nose as it where.

What did people think about the Emily Dickinson movie? I don’t feel like scrolling up or looking at the other threads right now

Scrolled up. One vote, so that’s something

Okay, I looked around, no need to respond

The Dickinson movie is a marvel -- and it's where he discovered his sense of humor.

I watched that and liked it a lot, but I have friends who I love who were really offended by it, that he portrayed her as mentally ill (even though it appears she probably was)

Will watch soon

On the contrary! It showed her as a woman who lived and died by her wit.

The Dickinson movie is great - it should've gotten more attention, but then again that's true of everything he's released.

And didn't really know anything about Kevin Guthrie outside of his appearance in Sunset Song - that's really awful. At least he was convicted, though he's apparently out of prison now.

And he was goddamn hot in it too -- Davies shoots the sex scene as if they're two virgins, and they probably are.

If you're near NYC, MoMI in Astoria, Queens is screening a 35mm print of The House of Mirth on the weekend of March 2 & 3

https://movingimage.org/event/the-house-of-mirth/2024-03-02/

― birdistheword, Sunday, January 28, 2024 9:34 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

saw this tonight, noiselessly gasped at multiple points (anderson's final monologue, the scene transition from the furniture covered in sheets to the rain denting the river to the sunlight playing over the water as if to say that the time and location have shifted but have they really???? god, fucking staggering)

Maybe I can go tomorrow. Wish I had remembered for today

i really recommend it, the print looks amazing

Bought a ticket for tomorrow.

Maybe I will watch another one tonight to get warmed up.

Was Koresky there yesterday to introduce?

idk who it was but there was a guy who gave a great intro

Surely it was he

Almost there!

The Neon Bible needs to be rescued, like NOW. There was a Terence Davies retrospective here in NYC that couldn't even get a film print, they had to project a shitty VHS tape (though in fairness they also made it free as a consolation). Excellent film, not one of my favorites from Davies but if you've never seen his work before, it'll probably knock you out anyway - it's so clearly the work of an amazing filmmaker.

Want to watch, even though these podcasters don’t seem to like it

Readers of this thread may appreciate the audiobook of the novel read by Eleanor Bron.

Of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH of course, which actually has its own thread started by Alfred.

Terence Davies' "The House of Mirth" - Classic or Dud?

That's right!

The Koresky book is really opening these films up for me, and his prose is a real pleasure to read; he never pushes.

Complete retrospective at MoMI:

TERENCE DAVIES: TIME PRESENT AND TIME PAST

Sep 12 — Sep 21, 2025

When Terence Davies passed away in the fall of 2023, the world lost one of its greatest, most uncompromising cinematic artists. The British director all but invented his own film language, using sound and image to radically and meaningfully plumb the depths of human desire and alienation, as well as the joys of family, of poetry, of music, and, of course, movies. From the unfathomably moving, aesthetically revelatory autobiographical masterworks Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, which transformed his memories of growing up in working-class Liverpool into nonlinear dreams that collapsed past and present, to his brilliant adaptations of classic novels (The House of Mirth, Sunset Song) to his galvanizing portrayals of poets Emily Dickinson and Siegfried Sassoon, Davies created movies as a true artist should, using the form for self-expression and as a means of working through complicated emotions: of wrestling with faith, with his homosexuality, with his familial traumas. Davies made every single moment of every film count, and his work always reflected his true self with honesty, courage, and visual command.

Join us in celebrating the life and career of Terence Davies with this complete retrospective, the first in the U.S. since his death.

Awesome!

There appears to be a particularly decent copy of The Neon Bible here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC911NSeabU

I met Terence and nervously got my BFI book signed by him, just two years before he died, at a screening of Distant Voices Still Lives in a Liverpool cinema only a couple of miles from where much of the film was shot. He was surrounded by various sisters. It was a dream come true tbh. I’m glad there is a festival of his films in the U.S. My whole family are from Liverpool and I can’t believe the best British film maker of my lifetime grew up where my family did and set so many of his films in the same city.

Going tonight

That was fun.

And again.

So far Korevsky has introduced every screening.

Koresky too

His Criterion colleague Imogen Sara Smith was there last night as well.

Again what? You saw The Neon Bible twice?

Again with the Pauline Kael-style zingers from Lord Sotosyn.

lol no I genuinely can't tell

what did you watch last night?

The Trilogy and the Distant Voices, Still Lives.

then

Neon Bible is today, in 16mm.

Before that is the documentary Of Time and the City and the last film of the day is Benediction.

Oh yeah, they showed another short before the trilogy which he wrote and the manager of his estate directed, called Home! Home!

Glad you were able to catch all of these James. The guests they lined up look impressive. Wish I could've gone, but I've actually seen nearly all of these on the big screen and have most of them on Blu-ray - after splurging on GA tickets for Pulp, I had to reel in my spending somewhere.

(FWIW, in the case of Of Time and the City, it's not available on Blu-ray, only DVD - the BFI even announced a Blu-ray but quickly cancelled it when they realized the film only exists as an SD digital master - it was basically created from SD digital footage to begin with.)

Distance Voices, Still Lives in 35mm at BAM is still one of my favorite memories of attending a film. I saw the trilogy, The House of Mirth and The Deep Blue Sea in 35mm there too, all gorgeous prints. 16mm obviously isn't ideal, but as I may have posted before, I don't think ANY 35mm print of The Neon Bible circulates and hasn't for many years, even when repertory bookings were still mostly 35mm back in 2011. At least the HD transfer that is currently streaming looks good and it's a lot better than the video projection I had to settle for when BAM couldn't locate a film print all those years ago.

Forgot, also saw The Long Day Closes in 35mm at BAM too (and how could I forget? It's a contender for his greatest work)...that and Distance Voices, Still Lives are probably the two I'd recommend first to newcomers. I love pretty much everything he's done but those two are my favorites.

Yeah.

Resting up for next weekend now.

Some good guests coming up

Guess I've seen everything once now.

Having some withdrawal symptoms right now

It's kind of sad Davies didn't get the opportunity to make more films - in a better world, he'd have at least twice as many, including many more shot on 35mm film. But the burst of activity he had in the last decade of his life is a godsend - we're very fortunate to have gotten it.

Yeah

Came to post:
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2019/cteq/hear-that-lonesome-whippoorwill-terence-davies-the-neon-bible-1995/

Debating whether to pony up for the more expensive ticket this evening

Charging like it's a 70mm presentation which ends up being over 2x what I usually pay with member discount.

Maybe because a reasonably big star is talking and they will be filming

It was well worth it!

It being the screening of A Quiet Passion.

Tonight was The House of Mirth, which I've now seen twice. Maybe I should finally listen to the podcast Alfred linked upthread.

Tonight is The Deep Blue Sea.

Rachel Weisz not coming to do a Q&A or intro though.

It's over. Feeling some withdrawal symptoms.

Which film inspired a reevaluation?

None. They're all as good or better than I thought they were the first time around, unless I hadn't seen them yet.

Came to say that Bob Last came in up in some intros and then in some docs I watched, as the guy who was able to clear the audio they used and keep it under budget: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/feb/09/cult-heroes-bob-last-subversive-scottish-post-punk-label-creator

I pivoted from Terence Davies to Peter Sellers.

Just found this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuVqrit9fkQ

Think I might go ahead and buy the novel that was just reissued