On the Channel: Dissolves and Memory in THE LONG DAY CLOSES

British master Terence Davies makes evocative use of dissolves to create a slippery narrative structure driven by emotion and memory.

[vittoriostoraro]

RIP Mr. Davies. I was shocked to hear that you died today. I will never forget meeting you in NY back in 1995. You were a unique master.

[ricardocantoral]

There are few films that touch me as deeply as The Long Day Closes. I find it impossible to think of this film without crying.

[tonylovesotis]

This film will stay with me forever. Thank you Mr Davies, RIP.

[renzo]

When people sit down to watch a film, they have a certain type of experience in mind : a fairly standard narrative approach with occasional stylistic variations like flash-backs or dream sequences etc.
So, if a film goes too far afield from this structure, they feel betrayed. It is as if they expected to see a realistic painting of a seascape but were shown one by J.M.W Turner. It is as if they sat down to read a short story but found, instead, a poem.
The Long Day Closes is a poem, a series of impressionistic moments that sharply evoke a past time and place, Catholic Liverpool in the 1950's as it was experienced by a lonely 11 year old boy on the threshold of budding sexuality. A difficult time at best but one made more-so since this young fellow has feelings for men at a time and in a place where such feelings could never be expressed or spoken of safely.

And like some poems, this film is peppered with references and allusions that a typical modern American viewer might not pick up on. References to English radio and film shows and their personalities. Old songs and place names. Lines from old films get inserted into and between the dialog. Films like Great Expectations, The Magnificent Ambersons and the old Ealing comedies.
Then there is the accent which can be very difficult to understand. Declarative statements will have the same lilting rise at the end which Americans use when asking questions. There are a number of obstacles in the way to understanding what's happening. But even if some is missed, much comes through ....not on a cognitive level but on an intuitive one.

Look, I could never convince you that this is a worthy film if such a film is not to your taste. But I was overcome by such strong waves of emotion as I watched it . It conjured up an atmosphere of a long- ago time that felt palpable and that touched me in a way that most conventionally told stories never do.

[imajeepster]

This is how we remember things, jumping back and forth in time.

[knottybogeye]

That's my mate leigh I've known him since we were kids

[pmcg]

Terence Davies was born in Kensington, Liverpool 👍😎