The Long Day Closes

NEW 35mm PRINT! ► The second feature by Terence Davies, one of the great poets of British cinema (and director of the new Deep Blue Sea, scheduled to be released this month) is a gorgeous, visually elaborate paean to his sometimes difficult boyhood in 1950s Liverpool — and to the transcendent, transporting power of cinema and popular music. The impressionistic drama concerns 11-year-old Bud, a dreamy, sensitive boy growing up in a loving, working-class Catholic family. Occasionally bullied at his new school, Bud finds refuge in the local movie house. “Davies’s autobiographical film rings wholly true, due to the richness and the rightness of the allusions he makes through sets, costumes, dialogue, music, radio and cinema itself. Such is Davies’s artistry that he shapes his material into a poignant vision of a paradise lost... It’s primarily about the small, innocent but very real joys of being alive, recreated with great skill and never smothered by sentimentality. The stately camera movements; the tableaux-like compositions; the evocative use of music and movie dialogue; the dreamy dissolves and lighting — all make this a movie which takes place in its young protagonist's mind ... The film dazzles with its stylistic confidence, emotional honesty, terrific wit and all-round audacity” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out). Colour, 35mm. 85 mins.