Of Time and the City

A documentary built around Liverpool. The director was born there. Born in 1945, he knows the city from the postwar years to the 1970s. The film consists of archive footage. Streets, docks, terraces, demolitions, children's games, football matches and royal visits. The director's own voice is laid over it. This is not the narrating voice of a documentary; it is personal, sardonic, and at times angry. He quotes poetry. He describes his own memories, describes the church, and says how he lost his faith. From there the film becomes a reckoning. The director describes the Catholic world he grew up in, his own sexuality, and what that meant at the time. The demolition of the city is inside the narrative. The old neighbourhoods are pulled down, tower blocks put up in their place, and he tells it as a loss. He is hard on the royal family. His commentary over footage of a coronation is the film's most discussed passage. What the narrative is interested in is not history but the one remembering: the film describes not Liverpool itself but the director's relationship with it, and does not hide that. The choice of music builds a layer. Classical pieces, popular songs and folk music are used so as to contradict the archive image. This is the first film Terence Davies made after a long absence. It was shown at Cannes. Terence Davies wrote, directed and narrates. Who it is for: anyone who likes essay documentaries and personal narration. Who it is not for: anyone looking for information; the film gives no facts about Liverpool and requires listening to one voice for seventy minutes.