Of Time and the City (2008)

Directed by

Terence Davies

Genre

documentary film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 14m

Rated

12A

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 39 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Director Terence Davies narrates a collage of archival footage from his childhood in Liverpool during the 1950s and 1960s. He combines newsreels and documentaries with classical music to reflect on his own past and the city's history.

nostalgicreflectivepoeticmelancholicpersonalelegiacobservationalwitty

What happens

Of Time and the City is a 2008 British documentary collage film directed by Terence Davies. The film has Davies recalling his life growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s and 1960s, using newsreel and documentary footage supplemented by his own commentary voiceover and contemporaneous and classical music soundtracks. The film premiered as part of the Special Screenings selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it received rave reviews. Time Out said "The one truly great movie to emerge so far (from Cannes)..... this film is as personal, as universal in its relevance, and as gloriously cinematic as anything he has done" and The Guardian called it "a British masterpiece, a brilliant assemblage of images that illuminate our past. Not only does it tug the heart-strings but it's also savagely funny." BBC TV film critic Mark Kermode nominated it as the best overall film of 2008 on his "Kermode Awards" section of The Culture Show. In 2018 Kermode placed the film at number one in a list of his favourite films of the previous ten years (2008-2018). Duane Byrge from The Hollywood Reporter lauded the film as "poetically composed" and a "masterwork". Of Time and the City won Best Documentary in the Australian Film Critics Association awards for 2009. Following the success of the film, in 2010 the website People’s Stories: Liverpool Lives was launched with Heritage Lottery funding, created for Of Time and the City by producer Sol Papadopoulos and transmedia creator Krishna Stott. For the launch of the site the actors Jonathan Pryce, Alexei Sayle and Joe McGann contributed their own memories of the city. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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