Review of “Of Time and the City”
This personal and poetic meditation on England’s portside city of Liverpool will appeal to documentary fans and anyone with a connection to post-war Britain. It’s a nostalgic journey through archival footage of the 1950’s ‘60’s and ‘70’s accompanied by an eclectic collection of lyrical ramblings by writer/director Terence Davies.
The film opens slowly with a long architectural montage before building steadily in interest as it muses on what Davies calls “England’s genius for creating the dismal.” There’s a focus on black and white footage of the rows of terrace houses of the kind where Davies grew up, along with the towering council flats that replaced them in the mid-1960’s in an attempt to modernise the city. Post-war life here for Davies seems as dull and gritty as any third world nation at it’s worst, punctuated only by trips to see Hollywood movies or strange wrestling bouts. Then, as with Distant Voices, Still Lives that was segmented as two stories, Davies picks up the energy and introduces colour footage as he moves us into the era of growth in the British economy. Liverpudlians in their thousands take the ferry across the Mersey to the resort town of New Brighton and its seaside attractions of fairground and deckchairs, and Davies gives us a brief glimpse at the impact that The Beatles and rock music had on life. Not for long though, as this is a personal memory, and Davies –as he reminds us – was more influenced at the time by the music of Mahler and Sibelius.
Davies – who grew up in a working class Catholic family in Liverpool – is best known for his film Distant Voices, Still Lives, which contains many of the same themes as this documentary style work. The youngest of ten children, Davies – notoriously uncompromising as a filmmaker – has been obsessed with his own past in all his work and frequently explores memory and ideas of nationhood and religion. Mostly emotionally muted, he rants at one moment during Of Time and the City about the frivolous excesses of what he calls ‘the Betty Windsor Show’ (The 1953 Coronation of Elizabeth II), and his clear hatred of royalty and the class system bursts through the otherwise subdued poetry.
The film premiered at Cannes last year and relies heavily on the strength of its carefully edited archival footage and the supporting soundtrack, including songs by Peggy Lee, The Hollies and the Ewan MacColl classic Dirty Old Town. You can’t help but feel that Davies is still weighed down by the dreary experience of his childhood.
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