10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cinematic painting., April 24, 2005
This review is from: Long Day Closes [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The counter to all the American trash of violence and action films we are flooded with week after week what a relief!!! I love this film I suppose because it remindes me so much of my own life and childhood in the 1950s growing up in America and turning to motion pictures for my friends, since I had so few growing up. I have one close male friend at one time but I lost him after a terrible fight. I turned to film and music and a fantasy world to help me cope with my feelings. I could never really express my feelings only movies allowed me to express them or fantasize about another world. The images and music in the film are like nothing I have seen. This film is a work of art. An expression of a child's inner secret mind through the medium of film. I do not know if this film will stand the test of time but as all so called classics; what is a classic in one era is not in another. I hope this little gem of art stands the test of time.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What erodes at our childhood will form us for life, March 17, 2008
This review is from: Long Day Closes [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Entering puberty is Hell! Do you remember? Do you recall the last days of your innocent years before the conflicted feelings hit? "The Long Day Closes" is a tender and intimate portrait of the long last year in the life of 11-year old, Bud, before "the long day closes" on his formative years and he enters that new time in life. It is 1955, and Bud lives in his modest Kensington townhome. He has a loving Mam,two virile older brothers and an older sister. It is never explained where Dad is; he just simply is not.
Like the rest of Terence Davies written and directed films, we are allowed to feel and experience Bud's last year of childhood through a stream of song, movie clips, bullying at school, intense religious training, beatings by schoolteachers, and the tenderness of women. While in school one day, the teacher's lesson is "Erosion." This lesson sums up the entire film; our time here is a series of momentary flicks and experiences and each of these flicks erodes at our being to form us into who we are. Though Bud is surrounded by lots of people, because of his age, he is basically an observer of everything and everyone around him, and he craves the cinema for his pleasure and release. The films form his world and he compares them to the harsh realities that he actually experiences. Films tell him that there is someone special out there for him, but all he experiences is the intense ostracizing that he feels: he is curious about his older, very handsome brothers; he watches them work and share tender moments with their girlfriends; he spends time alone with his Mam who seems to accept her life, but he observes her longings and sadness. He is trained to view his sinfulness and unworthiness in life through the teachings of the Catholic School. All of this "erodes" at his childhood and his longing for connection with someone becomes sadly unbearable. He has no "special someone" in his life. He essentially is alone in the midst of a world teeming with life. The film concludes with Bud and that "special someone" viewing the sun setting as a men's chorale sings the famous hymn 'The Long Day Closes', and now Bud starts the next chapter in life.
Man is this heavy and yet so intensely and poignantly beautiful. As only Terence Davies can do through little dialog and an endless stream of music of the day and seamless shifting of tableaux-like scenes, brings us the confusing and lonely time of pre-puberty childhood. Again, with the steady hand of cinematographer Michael Coulter, "The Long Day Closes" evokes sad and nostalgic feelings of home and hearth. Anyone , but especially someone who has been raised as essentially "an only child" or has felt the intense loneliness of childhood will be more than moved by this film. It is intensely personal and is open to much interpretation, just as the conflicted feelings of puberty are! Davies gives no conclusive answers to this dilemma; he simply presents things as they are and allows them to be. We are the observers who can take from it what we will. Absolutely stunning and real in all respects. A real work of art.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving Pictures, December 30, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Long Day Closes [VHS] (VHS Tape)
It is as though someone breathed life into a painting. This gorgeous film is what Angela's Ashes wanted to be.
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