Of Time and The City

Finally saw Terence Davies' film Of Time and The City, his hommage (elegy?) to his hometown of Liverpool. Had tried to see it at Cinematheque at the AGO on Feb 1st but got there and it was sold out so I went shopping (still a productive afternoon).

Seeing it with Hardish at the Bloor Cinema last Wednesday was interesting. Critics raved about it at TIFF 2008 so I'm glad I got it out of my system but I'm not sending you all out to it right away. It's not a documentary as much as a tone poem, which is how I like to think of Marathon Women (a haiku about running). Except for a long, slow 4-minute pan from the downtown to the docks (for which they credit a DOP), the film is fully 72 minutes of stock archival footage from British Pathe and other sources. Davies narrates in his booming bass voice - think Boris Karloff of The Grinch, only tune up the cynicism, say, to ELEVEN. Every word is drenched with arrogance and disdain, with the faintest touch of longing only when he mentions his mother. To say he pokes fun at the monarchy is weak - he really resents them and the Catholic church and effectively contrasts "Betty Windsor's" lavish coronation ceremony with footage of poor Liverpudlians amidst their rowhouses.

A contemporary of Peter Greenaway, Davies has also made The House of Mirth (with Gillian Anderson) and Distant Voices, Still Lives. He talks about falling in love with cinema, being gay and leaving Liverpool. As the Beatles rise, he rejects rock and roll in favour of classical music and scores the movie with his favourite tracks. When the fireworks appear for Liverpool's 2008 celebration as European City of Culture, it's over. Don't see this unless you've had a large coffee and can adjust the volume levels with a remote. They just laid down the tracks with no consistent level throughout the film and at one point I had to close my ears it was so deafening. This from the woman married audiophile. MMm out of five for the archival effort.