14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Different Kind Of 'Musical', March 2, 2003
This review is from: Distant Voices Still Lives [VHS] (VHS Tape)
For those not familiar with his work, Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes, Neon Bible) is more of a painter than a filmmaker, he just happens to use movies as his paint medium! So, in 'Distant Voices/Still Lives' we have a 'painterly' representation of a working-class family in Liverpool circa 1960. The story is told through the thoughts and memories of the various family members, all with different perspectives.
In my subject line, I call this movie a musical. That's because there are many scenes of the characters in pubs or at home, bursting into song, and usually the choice of song reflects the person's feelings at that moment. But these are not sequences like those you see in Musicals. There's no instrumental backing, the people are just singing out loud for their own entertainment & to offset the grim 'kitchen sink' reality of their family life.
I'd like to add that although Freda Dowie is listed as the star (and she IS a standout as the Mum), another actor who may be more familiar is the father, played by Pete Postlethwaite (Romeo + Juliet, Brassed Off). Although his character is frighteningly unsympathetic, it is a wonderful performance.
So, all in all, probably not everyone's cup of tea, but worth the effort if you want a riveting artistic & emotional experience.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure art and music to tell a different kind of story, March 18, 2008
This review is from: Distant Voices Still Lives [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The British Film Institute has produced the wonderful and completely visionary films of writer/director Terence Davies. These films are so beautifully unique, that to try to categorize them is really impossible. "Distant Voices,Still Lives" is another of the artistic masterpieces that flow from Davies heart. This time, through song and his usual superb camera work and editing, allows us to peak into the world of the Davis family, Mum,Da and the three children. The time period covers from the early 1940's to the 1960's, and we look at each individual life and experience the highs and lows of each. There actually is very little dialog in Davies' films, because he is able to capture in the inner sanctum of the soul through the right combination of song and camera shots. Again, Davies seems to "paint" his films, and everything is so exact and done to perfection, that one simply has to sit back and behold.
Davies other two films
The Neon Bible and
Long Day Closes both concern similar themes of familial ties, use of song to convey inner thought, and are autobiographical of the memories that Davies has. There is an undeniable tenderness and respect that Davies has for all of his characters, but he never shies away from brutal honesty about what he remembers, both the pleasant and not so pleasant; Davies shows us life with all of it's warts, joys, and foibles. His characters are real people and each story is completely and thoroughly conveyed.
Terence Davies Trilogy is Davies' earliest works, that lay the groundwork for all of his later films. As a complete set, all of these films are treasured masterpieces that the truest of film lovers can enjoy over and over again. There is perfection in every single little detail of his films. Everything has it's purpose, and one needs to view his films as if examining a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece is too slight a word, January 30, 2010
This review is from: Distant Voices Still Lives [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I first saw Terence Davies' first (and probably still best) feature in August, 1989, on it's premiere run in Chicago, at the Music Box theater - the perfect venue for this film, if you know the film and theater. You probably don't, so let's just say that feeling is everything, in the film itself and in my own perception of it, and the old Deco movie palace built in the 1920s adds to the emotional pull, particularly when we're watching characters onscreen emote during LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING in their own Liverpool movie palace in the early 1950s near the end of the film.
I think I saw it twice more - the Music Box in those days used to regularly do adventurous double features, and I believe that I saw this once alongside DAYS OF HEAVEN, and another time paired with WINGS OF DESIRE. While those two films are visually masterful and strikingly crafted films, neither matches for me to the greatness that lies in Davies' film. An "autobiographical memory film" it's been called - whether by the director or by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum I can't recall now, and this is as good a shorthand as any. Proceeding in a stream-of-consciousness manner - but smoothly and with transactions that are edited as elegantly and musically as the awesome soundtrack, the film is divided into two parts, filmed two years apart.
Part 1, "Distant Voices" is dominated by the brutal Father (Pete Postlethwaite in a role that should have made him a star and earned him a ton of awards) who rules over Mother (Freda Dowie, just as impressive) and their kids Eileen, Tony and Maisie with a quick temper and quicker fists and boots. But his brutality, like that of many bullies, is tempered often by a softer side, and in a moment made all the more striking on a second viewing, Eileen weeps and longs for him after death at her wedding - as Maisie calls him on his brutality and it's clear that most agree entirely with the negative assessment. It's Father's sickness and death, and Eileen's wedding that form the centers around which the other memories - beatings and dances, songs in pubs and services in churches - pivot.
Part 2, "Still Lives" shows the kids all grown up and marrying - and the males of the younger generation for the most part showing behavior sadly similar to that of the dead Father. On the whole this second half is a little "lighter" in tone, largely because the widowed Mother, now free of her tyrant, has gained some measure of happiness, and because there are moments that show some hope for the future for most of the younger generation; some of the women are a little more assertive, there are cracks appearing both in the patriarchy and, subtly, in the power of the church. A larger chunk of "Still Lives" is set in pubs and the songs are generally brighter and more poppy, less bluesy and mournful; at the same time, the threat of violence and the seemingly natural domineering attitude of most of the men is never far away. A brief scene involving the daughters' friend Jingles, who has married an angry and probably abusive man who won't let her have more than a minute's time with her mates, is particularly telling.
Then there are the songs. The film is wrapped up in music, ranging from English folk song to early 50s pop songs, Hollywood musical numbers - sung by the cast members - to Ella Fitzgerald and in the powerfully elegiac fadeout at the end, Peter Pears singing "O Waly Waly". The music isn't for the most part used ironically, though I suppose certain juxtapositions (Ella's "Taking a Chance On Love" appearing while Mother is recounting why she married Father - he was a good dancer - and then continuing while he savagely beats her and leaves her crying on the floor) might seem so. Rather, it's through the songs and the feelings expressed in them that these poor people who have very little material wealth - and often little emotional support - get through life, and it's especially poignant and moving I think that even most of the tyrannical men seem moved in their souls by song. When Father is singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" while grooming a horse, it's hard not to feel that he's not altogether lost.
All of this adds up to a powerful emotional document of family and community ties, of a time and a place that clearly still overpower the director - who hasn't lived in his hometown for decades but has made 4 of his 6 films about his life there. I'd like to say more about the striking photography, in particular Davies' use of subtle earthy colors and the palpable textures of the rooms and streets, and the mastery he has over filtering light - through curtains, glass, pints of beer, etc - but unfortunately, in watching this old VHS, not much of the visual splendor of the film came through. I still feel like I can remember how it looked on 35mm, and I've looked at stills, but the American VHS release of this just doesn't do any justice to the film at all. As there's no telling when or if this will ever get released here on DVD, I guess I really have to go for the BFI R2 issue of it, which I probably will soon. I won't be waiting years to see it again.
The film then is in my opinion one of the very greatest of all time, and one of my two or three favorite English films. Terence Davies is perhaps the most consistently great director working - he hasn't yet made a film that I wouldn't call a masterpiece - and I sure wish he was better known and found an easier time in making films. As I've said, the visual and aural splendors of this great work don't really come off well on the VHS, but I'm giving this a top rating anyway. If you have a local brick-and-mortar store that has this for rent, or you want to get a cheap used copy here, I think it's still worth it for the virtues of the film that survive even in this poor transfer. And there is talk of Criterion releasing this film, or a Davies collection, in the near future. But if you've got a multiregion DVD player and want a better copy now, the BFI edition is almost certainly worth shelling out for.
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