The Long Day Closes cover art

The Long Day Closes Details

1992 Certificate PG
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 518 members

The beautiful, multi-layered opening scene of Terence Davies's follow-up to DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES is a perfect illustration of how Davies uses his directorial craft to realise his autobiographical themes. Accompanied by snippets of dialogue from films like THE LADYKILLERS, along with 20th Century Fox's triumphant theme .. Read more

Starring Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormack, James Wilder
Director Terence Davies
Genres Drama

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The Long Day Closes cover art

The Long Day Closes

The beautiful, multi-layered opening scene of Terence Davies's follow-up to DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES is a perfect illustration of how Davies uses his directorial craft to realise his autobiographical themes. Accompanied by snippets of dialogue from films like THE LADYKILLERS, along with 20th Century Fox's triumphant theme music, and Nat King Cole crooning 'Stardust', Davies's camera glides down a rain-drenched Liverpool street, its houses now in ruin, with a peeling poster of THE ROBE hanging on a wall. Davies then fades to a sunny, sepia-toned 1955 where in one such house 11-year-old Bud begs to go to a picture show. Unlike in Davies's previous work, Bud's home is happy and safe, complete with joyful holiday tableaux, and numerous movie outings. His Catholic school, however, is a harsh world where teachers administer lashings, and he is bullied and friendless. Bud is a wistful observer in life--both at the cinema and at home--watching his much older siblings and neighbourhood kids from the window. Davies again creates a lovely, dreamlike montage of memories, with gliding tracking shots and an artful layering of film dialogue (THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS), pop songs, and religious music.

Starring Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormack, James Wilder
Director Terence Davies
Studio BFI VIDEO
Run time DVD: 1 hr 25 mins
Certificate Certificate PG
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Hearing-impaired English
Released DVD: 28 Jul 2008
Production year: 1992
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (6) of The Long Day Closes

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  • THE LONG DAY CLOSES has the shapeliness and emotional richness of a musical suite....And with its sharply stylized and surreal imagery, it looks the way the past looks in our dreams

    • Chicago Sun
    • Posted 10 May 2008

  • It makes do, very well, with images and emotions set to popular music and films of the period. It is a memory book as songbook

    • Film Comment
    • Posted 10 May 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of The Long Day Closes

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  • 10 out of 11 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    For the love of cinema.

    Simply the best movie I have ever seen about growing up.

      • A customer from Northern Ireland
      • Posted 09 Apr 2005 04:50

  • Most recent members' review of The Long Day Closes

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    the long day closes

    a film about terrence davies growing up in Liverpool - a film about childhood and family.

  • News and features

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    Of Time And The City

    Of Time and the City

    • 27 Oct 2008

    The city is Liverpool. The time is the past. In particular, the past recalled by filmmaker Terence Davies, who was born there in 1945 and lived there for the next 28 years. This is not exactly uncharted territory for Davies, whose feature films Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992) are also autobiographical evocations of his childhood, growing up the youngest of ten in a working class Roman Catholic family. (His short films, known collectively as “The Terence... Read more

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518 Member ratings
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88
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35
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  • 70
89
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69
  • 50
43
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32
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11
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27
  • 10
17

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      • The beautiful, multi-layered opening scene of Terence Davies's follow-up to DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES is a perfect illustration of how Davies uses his directorial craft to realise his ...