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Dec 13, 2014Nursebob rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Writer/director Terence Davies presents us with a highly subjective hallucinatory slideshow of words and images as he recalls growing up gay, Catholic, and angry in post WWII Liverpool. Snapshots and snippets of video show a city of crushing poverty rubbing shoulders with Royal excesses and religious pomp while the common folk go about the business of simply living. Davie’s own recollections, written in muscular prose and spoken with all the solemnity of a high mass, describe a city both menacing and banal, robust and sadly vulnerable. Filling in the narrative gaps with quotes from the likes of Jung and Engels and smoothing it all over with an eclectic soundtrack of pop tunes, mournful arias and majestic choral pieces, Davies leaves us with an emotional collage of conflicting feelings which is a far cry from the working class fantasyland of The Long Day Closes. Piercing, sardonic, occasionally tender, yet always compelling, Of Time and the City makes for an unsettling piece of cinematic art.