THE LONG DAY CLOSES

UK, 1992, 85 minutes, Colour.
Marjorie Yates, Leigh Mc Cormack.
Directed by Terence Davies.

British writer-director, Terence Davies, had made autobiographical films, especially the excellent Distant Voices, Still Lives. This beautifully crafted film focuses on Davies’ life as a young schoolboy in Liverpool, 1955 to 1956.

We are taken back into the period, poor homes and workplaces, Catholic church and its devotions (a strong influence on Davies) and the picture shows (as strong an influence on him).

There is a melancholic air about the story, the warmth and love coming from family, Davies is a portrait painter, not an action director and uses music to advantage.

It is a very moving still-life portrait of the artist, as a young teenager, coming to become aware of his struggles for sexual identity.

1. An autobiographical film? In connection with Distant Voices, Still Lives? The portrait of the young boy? The portrait of his family? The audience being immersed in the picture of the boy’s childhood, the mid-1950s?

2. The visual style of the film: a photo album, inviting audiences to gaze, look at the aspects of the still lives, tracking quietly with the characters? Framing them and contemplating them? The sound, the musical score, the insertion of the popular songs? Editing and pace for contemplation? The credits, the flowers, the sky? The end?

3. The title, Sullivan? Bud and his life?

4. The musical score, the songs, the English songs, the classics, Doris Day, Berlin, Carousel? The songs illustrating the characters and their lives and their attitudes?

5. The opening, the fox, the contrast? Liverpool, the rain – so much? The Liverpool streets? The house, upstairs and downstairs, the yard? Bud and his going to the cinema, the look of the 50s cinemas? Bud at school? At church? The colour tones, light and shadow?

6. The portrait of Bud, his age, the strength of the little boy who performed this role? The frequent focus on his face? His interior life? The pace of his life? His relationship with his mother, love for her, working at home, the washing, the meals? His sister? Going to school, the brothers? Going to the pictures? The rain? At school, the bullying, bleeding, the nun? At mass, Soul of My Saviour, Tantum Ergo? His praying, before the crucifix, the end of the Rosary? The sexual implications of his prayer and contemplation, Jesus on the cross? The latent homosexuality? The lice, the class and the cuts? The teacher and geography? Being late, the principal? The assemblies, marching? The boys and the jokes? His friend and the films? The movies, the kind of films that he liked? Meals at home celebrations, Christmas? Performing songs with his mother, A Couple of Swells? The silence of the house? His room, watching the building site, his gaze at the builder, the builder’s response – and his appearing as Jesus on the cross in Bud’s fantasy? The carnival and the experience?

7. Bud’s age, change, pre-puberty? The influence of his family, school, religion, faith, cinema – and his lack of awareness of sexuality yet its importance in shaping his life?

8. The portrait of Bud’s mother, a good woman, her singing the popular songs, relating to people, the style of the 1950s, the new year, the background of her wedding, at home with the meals, her treatment of Bud?

9. The brothers and their style, work, washing, the back, the girls, the 50s, the dances? The racist background and implications?

10. The teachers and their style? Geography? Religion?

11. The religious background of the film, Terence Davies and his attitude towards Catholicism? His admiration for the icons, the crucifix, the words of prayer, the pious gestures, the hymn-singing, Bud and his kneeling before the crucifix in the church, his pious hands, gestures? A boy of faith?

12. Cinema, Alec Guiness and The Ladykillers? Judy Garland? Peter Sellers? The influence of the films of this period on Davies himself and his film-making?

13. The melancholy aspects of the film, Bud’s loneliness? The importance of love and family? The movie as a tribute to his childhood and his mother? The album of photos, the album of memories and the accumulation of memories?