Of Time and the City Of Time and the City

That lavish pageant — “the Betty Windsor show,” in Mr. Davies’s sarcastic formulation — took place at a time when many of Her Majesty’s subjects were still reeling from the trauma of war and economic hardship.

Of Time and The City is both a love song and a eulogy to the directors birthplace of Liverpool. It is also a response to memory, reflection and the experience of losing a sense of place as the skyline changes and time takes it toll. The visual content of “Of Time and the City” consists largely of archival clips of Liverpool from the 1940s to the ’60s, their nostalgic charm darkened by accompanying music and by the counterpoint of Mr. Davies’s dry, at times dyspeptic voice-over narration. His voice thickens with emotion as he recalls the delights of juvenile moviegoing or the ritual of a holiday trip to New Brighton, and hardens with contempt when he turns his gaze on the hoopla surrounding Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.

Terence Davies

foreign history documentary

74 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • Adam Redman

    Review by Adam Redman ★★★★

    Gorgeously personal documentary about the fading of our cities, assembled by one of our greatest living directors. Terence Davies narrates the film with wit, intelligence and warmth, his voice occasionally trembling with fury or emotion. A very funny and very sad piece (often within the same ten seconds), only the brief snippets of the modern age fail to add anything. Surely one of the greatest documentaries about twentieth century life to be made yet.

  • Martin Teller

    Review by Martin Teller ★★½

    You could call this Terence Davies’s love letter to Liverpool. That is, you could, if there was any love in it. Davies comes off like a pompous, cranky curmudgeon in his narration. In stark contrast to the bittersweet nostalgia of Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, in this film he takes out all the sweet and leaves only bitter, waxing acidic over archival footage of the city of his youth. At times it’s almost comical as he seems to nearly choke on his own bile as he spits out some angry remembrance or sarcastic observation. Not even The Beatles are safe from his widespread disdain.

    The film is at its best when Davies gets personal instead of…

  • Christopher Knudsen

    Review by Christopher Knudsen ★★

    Of Time and The City while has a couple of nice jabs here and there, it feels like a quick weekend video essay that Terrance Davies made so he can just add another title to his filmography. It relies too heavily on quotes instead of own thoughts and if you walk into the room while it is on, you might think someone was just watching a Youtube music video of found footage that has comments like "I LOVE THIS SONG!" and "I made so much money at home it is crazy, click on this for a good job http//poopmonster.com."

  • Tyler

    Review by Tyler ★★★★½

    A beautiful, elegaic, characteristic essay film from Terence Davies that reminded me of the visuals of Chantal Akerman's News from Home and the audio of Derek Jarman's Blue. Davies talks at length about his home city of Liverpool as we see wonderful, beautifully shot images of the metropolis throughout the ages. Slow but mesmerizing and excellently constructed, it is an emotional, wondrous picture that reminded me yet again why I love the essay film genre.

  • TheMovieVampire

    Review by TheMovieVampire ½

    ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…. Oh is it over now? Good, because I hated every minute of it. This is not a film and this is not a documentary. What this is, is a random compiling of stock footage compiled by a filmmaker named Terence Davies for the purpose of chronicling his impressions of the city of Liverpool where he grew up. None of this footage is inherently interesting and the only other element of the movie is a fairly standard score and Davies’ narration which never really amounts to much more than a geezer rambling about how things were nicer in the “good old days.” Because this rambling attempts to take the form of college student grade poetry that has pretentious literary references sprinkled within some critics have mistake this hodgepodge for art, but don’t be fooled, this is boring bullshit.

  • Pat

    Review by Pat ★★★★★

    Joins movies like F for Fake and The Gleaners and I as great essay films. In this movie, you can see the world out of which some of Davies' best movies, like The Trilogy, The Long Day Closes, and Distant Voices, Still Lives, grew. Sometimes hilarious, sometime vitriolic, sometimes nostalgic, always gorgeous.

  • David Valkenet

    Review by David Valkenet ★★★½

    No doubt at all that this is a fine film and very well made, in fact perhaps one of the best compilation-of-stock-footage style documentaries I may ever have seen, however I have no personal interest in or passion for Liverpool having never been there, and as such the film was a little un-engaging.

  • Jason Coyle

    Review by Jason Coyle ★★★★

    A beautiful, lyrical and sardonic love letter to the Liverpool of his youth, Davis's film beguiles from the beginning. Some amazing footage to accompany the anecdotes of biography by the director whose own voiceover is by turns hilarious and mournful. A serious triumph.

  • nicksav

    Review by nicksav ★★★★★

    One of the most captivating pieces of film about nostalgia ever.