Of Time and the City

Of Time and the City is Davies’ first film in eight years. In the 1980s, he made Children, Madonna and Child and Death and Transfiguration. Together, these later became known as the Terence Davies Trilogy, in which he describes his disconsolate life in Liverpool through his alter ego Robert Tucker. Of Time and the City is a documentary addition, largely in black & white, to this trilogy. The film was commissioned by the City of Liverpool to mark the fact that the city was Cultural Capital in 2008. Davies was an obvious choice because all his films (Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes) are set there. He turned this one into a very personal film.
Of Time and the City is a sentimental journey. At first sight the film is made up of a series of black-and-white images of people with old-fashioned glasses and old-fashioned habits. The venom is in Terence Davies’ commentary. With his very idiosyncratic voice, he transcends melancholy griping. He regards the deprived situation of workers in endless damp slums with sympathy, and pictures of Queen Elizabeth with straightforward sarcasm. Davies makes it abundantly clear that not everything was better in the old days. Homosexuality, class society, Protestants versus Catholics, post-war aftermath: they are all examined. Very personal yet with a universal value. (GT)