Of Time and the City

EastyBoy

I watched this again recently and really changed my opinion about it. The first time I liked some of it, but was left slightly disappointed. On rewatch however I found it mesmerisingly beautiful. A superb combination of image, music and voice.

Weaving Wave

Considering how easily I succumb to old footage, poetic|contemplative documentaries and always ready to be influenced by music, this one was magically ineffective and bland.

Brotherdeacon

(3 & a half) Sharp, sarcastic, mordant, vicious; and yet heartfelt and personal, not unlike an old man tearfully re-telling the low-points of a 50 year marriage to keep himself from being torn apart by longing and sorrow now that his spouse has died. Terence Davies asks "asleep or dead?"--I don't know, but certainly not forgotten.

Matthew Martens

A languid, lugubrious lope down memory lane, Of Time and the City is neither particularly probing about Liverpool's post-war history nor notably revealing about Davies' own overlapping story as it played out there. The voice-over, moreover, can wax ponderously florid. But as a hazy dream of a tone poem, it works. The tenor of tender bafflement and gentle regret in the face of inexorable change holds true to the end.

Christopher R. Smith

Terence Davies' documentary portrait of his native Liverpool manages a strange hypnotic quality through its blending of archival footage, personal anecdote, and overly-poetic narration. It's not without its overwrought moments, but it manages to stay compelling throughout and has a number of inspired images.

El Biffo

Stunning poetry. Deeply reverent, and at the same time, shockingly irreverent. Magnificent.

Victor Bruno

I couldn't care less about this disgusting, self-indulgent and ridiculous naftalina-smelling atrocity. Every - and I mean every - minute I noticed it kept insisting in exist I wanted to die.

Shazad

Through meticulously selected imagery and narratives, Davies crafts a timeless cinematic language that captures his voice, memories and subconscious. If only other filmmakers had such a brilliant capacity.