1988
PG-13
Avenue Pictures
1 h 24 m

1988
PG-13
Avenue Pictures
1 h 24 m

Summary The second film in Terence Davies's autobiographical series ('Trilogy', 'The Long Day Closes') is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on Davies's own family. The first part, 'Distant Voices', opens with grown siblings Eileen (Angela Walsh), Maisie (Lorraine Ashbourne) and Tony (Dean Willi...

Directed By: Terence Davies

Written By: Terence Davies

1988
PG-13
Avenue Pictures
1 h 24 m

1988
PG-13
Avenue Pictures
1 h 24 m

Distant Voices, Still Lives

Name: Distant Voices, Still Lives
Genre: Drama, Music
Released: 1988-09-11
Duration: 1 min 24 s
Rating: 86
Cast: Pete Postlethwaite, Freda Dowie, Angela Walsh, Dean Williams, Lorraine Ashbourne

Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews

User Score Generally Favorable Based on 6 User Ratings

7.7

My Score

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Where to Watch

Directed By: Terence Davies

Written By: Terence Davies

Where to Watch

Critic Reviews

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Metascore

Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews

90% Positive
19 Reviews

10% Mixed
2 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore

Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews

90% Positive
19 Reviews

10% Mixed
2 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

100

Village Voice

This combination of intimacy and remove — the startling emotional jolt of seeing a family in mourning stare toward you in silence, an image of the felled patriarch hanging on the wall behind them — characterizes Davies’s enthralling thirty-year-old debut feature, an autobiographically informed but hardly event-reliant memory piece.

By Danny King FULL REVIEW

100

Los Angeles Times

Terence Davies' mesmerizing memory film, Distant Voices, Still Lives, becomes its own kind of poetry: taut, referential, inward, brilliant. Although it is set among the unremarkable flats of Liverpool, the place is stamped by Davies' profoundly original vision and sounds; its framing is painterly and deliberate. And just as you think you have its moves all doped out, a scene of such shocking beauty flashes before you that it takes your breath away.

By Sheila Benson FULL REVIEW

Time

Davies recalls all these sights and sounds -- so horrifying, so beautiful -- and, with his unflinching style, turns anecdote into artistry. The distant voices still live.

By Richard Corliss FULL REVIEW

Rolling Stone

When a forty-four-year-old man makes a movie about his family and friends sitting around singing old tunes, you certainly don't expect an unforgettable amalgam of humor and heartbreak. But that is precisely what Terence Davies delivers.

By Peter Travers FULL REVIEW

Variety

The film is full of singing, as the characters break into familiar songs at family gatherings or in the local pub. This isn’t a film based on nostalgia, though; its very special qualities stem from the beautiful simplicity of direction, writing and playing, and the accuracy of the incidents depicted.

FULL REVIEW

Washington Post

Ultimately, Davies' choices have a powerful cumulative effect. In the latter section, he achieves a transporting poignancy of feeling. What he manages to convey are the debilitating contradictions that exist, side by side, within every family; the ways in which families nurture as they destroy, and love and despair act as equal partners.

By Hal Hinson FULL REVIEW

The New York Times

One of those dimly realized personal statements that ultimately says a lot less than the written program notes that accompany it.

FULL REVIEW

See All 21 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 6 User Ratings

7.7

83% Positive
5 Ratings

17% Mixed
1 Rating

0% Negative
0 Ratings

User Reviews

View All

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 6 User Ratings

7.7

83% Positive
5 Ratings

17% Mixed
1 Rating

0% Negative
0 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

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Production Company British Film Institute (BFI), Channel Four Films, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Release Date Sep 11, 1988

Duration 1 h 24 m

Rating PG-13

Genres

Tagline In memory, everything happens to music.

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Awards

European Film Awards

• 5 Nominations

London Critics Circle Film Awards

• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations

Valladolid International Film Festival

• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations

Distant Voices, Still Lives

Where to Watch

Where to Watch

Top Cast

Pete Postlethwaite

Father

Freda Dowie

Mother

Angela Walsh

Eileen

Dean Williams

Tony

Lorraine Ashbourne

Maisie

Sally Davies

Eileen as a Child

Nathan Walsh

Tony as a Child

Susan Flanagan

Maisie as a Child

Michael Starke

Dave

Vincent Maguire

George

Antonia Mallen

Rose

Debi Jones

Micky

Chris Darwin

Red

Marie Jelliman

Jingles

Andrew Schofield

Les

Anne Dyson

Granny

Jean Boht

Aunty Nell

Alan Bird

Baptism Priest

Pauline Quirke

Doreen

Matthew Long

Mr Spaull

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

Details

Details

Awards

Awards

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