Distant Voices, Still Lives

Terence Davies’ lacerating memory film of “his” mid-century Liverpool is one of the defining films of late 20th-century British cinema

Felt rather than narrated, this rich fusion of postwar American and British popular culture (particularly its music, often sung a cappella by the film’s characters) is one of the great evocations of the relationship between the personal and the communal, the lived past and memory, cultural artefacts and their often-haunting everyday use.

With Pete Postlethwaite.

Distant Voices, Still Lives screened at ACMI in 2019 as part of Melbourne Cinematheque.  These are the original notes from that program.