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!

Not a ton of people here

Slowing piling in

Your posts llately are like the first 30 minutes of a Tsai film.

The film broke and the lights are up!

Still up! But we were told it would resume shortly

We got another ten minutes and it stopped again:(

ARGH, hope they manage to get through to the end!

Yes. Finally got to the end. On the bus home with my neighbors.

Missed Koresky in person, but just read him here: https://reverseshot.org/archive/entry/638/20_house_mirth

House of Mirth got robbed

If you can dig up some of the press coverage leading up to its theatrical release, it apparently seemed like a likely Oscar nominee, definitely for Anderson, but instead it was shut out of the Oscars altogether with nominations going to the smarmy mediocrities of Lasse Hallstrom and Stephen Daldry. That pretty much doomed the film to failure - the marketing campaign depended on awards that didn't materialize and it wound up being a flop, barely grossing more than half its modest budget. Its "failure" was a big reason why Davies wasn't able to finance a narrative film for over a decade.

Sony Pictures Classics did a horrible job of marketing it.

The Neon Bible looks absolutely magnificent, and it deserves a reappraisal

Gillian Anderson did well with the Nat'l Society of Film Critics and the film, I remember, was a Film Comment cover story. A result of poor marketing.

Y'all should listen to the This Had Oscar Buzz episode: https://fightinginthewarroom.com/THOB/2021/08/23/159-the-house-of-mirth/

Thanks!

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.