the past recaptured: the cinema of terence davies december 29, 2000 - january 4, 2001 photo: the long day closes

film descriptions and times To complement the release of his masterful adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, we’re paying tribute to Terence Davies and his exquisite cinema of memory. In each of his films, Davies has dug deep into the remembered past, either his own or those of Wharton or John Kennedy O’Toole. And each time, he’s brought it back to life through the rapturous flow of his images. The Village Voice’s J. Hoberman once wrote that Davies’ THE LONG DAY CLOSES was "a Proustian musical," and you could say that about each of his films, in which popular songs are portals to the past along with sidelong glances, wallpaper, falling rain, or a sky filled with stars. From his first shorts in the 1970s through the new all-star House of Mirth, Davies has stuck to his guns and crafted a body of work as personal and moving as any in modern movies. film descriptions and times: DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES Great Britain, 1988; 85m Two shorts merged into one heart-rending cinematic memory of growing up poor in Liverpool after the war. A wedding is about to take place, and the viewer is given a tour through family life, with all its joys and resentments. A riveting experience, as visually radiant as movies get, and beautifully nuanced acting, particularly from Pete Posthelwaite as the father. Fri Dec 29: 1, 5 & 9; Sun Dec 31: 4 Mon Jan 1: 2 & 6; Thurs Jan 4: 3:15

distant voices, still lives the terence davies trilogy the neon bible

THE TERENCE DAVIES TRILOGY Great Britain, 1984; 101m These three films tell the harrowing story of one man, Robert Tucker of Liverpool: Children is about his childhood, with its strict Catholic upbringing, constant bullying at school, and a violent and incapacitated father. Madonna and Child shows us Tucker in his thirties, a dutiful son and a conscientious worker by day whose nights, however, are spent searching for homosexual adventures: violence has now become erotic for him. In the last part, Death and Transfiguration, past and present merge, and Tucker, forever alienated, forever trapped in his neurotic childhood, is redeemed by the only person he ever really loved. Davies has said that his subject in these films was the conflict between Catholicism and sexuality, and he brings the conflict to painfully vivid life. Fri Dec 29: 3 & 7; Sat Dec 30: 4 Wed Jan 3: 2 & 6 THE LONG DAY CLOSES Great Britain, 1992; 82m Terence Davies followed up his acclaimed DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES with this similarly impressionistic memory piece about a young boy growing up in working-class Liverpool in the 1950s. Young Leigh McCormack portrays the passive Bud, who survives parochial school oppression by retreating to his nurturing mother and the town cinema. Though the material covers well-trod ground, Davies eschews nostalgia in favor of a more complex, ironic kind of recollection. The static pauses between scenes, the rich sepia tone of the film stock, and the rigorous, symmetrical framing of shots suggest family portraits brought to motion. At times, only the most tenuous connections can be made between sequences; the soundtrack of period pop songs is as important to the film's coherence as the images, as are the snippets of dialogue borrowed from The Magnificent Ambersons and Great Expectations. — Michael Hastings Sat Dec 30: 6 & 9:40; Sun Dec 31: 8 Mon Jan 1: 4 & 8; Thurs Jan 4: 1:30 & 5:15 THE NEON BIBLE Great Britain, 1995; 95m A postcard-colored, "CinemaScope" dream of a movie, which effortlessly floats through the moods and memories of its central character, THE NEON BIBLE calls up visions of a small Southern town in the 1930s and 40s. David (Jacob Tierney) is the young boy who feels there must be more to life; his gaudy, boozing, show-biz loving Aunt Mae (a resplendent Gena Rowlands) represents everything beyond his horizon. Although it’s adapted from John Kennedy O’Toole’s novel, the film feels just as personal for Davies as his previous work. With an unusual cast that includes Diana Scarwid and Denis Leary. Sat Dec 30: 7:45; Sun Dec 31:6 Wed Jan 3: 4 & 8