Of Time and the City

United Kingdom, 2008

Documentary

Synopsis

Director Terence Davies’ love song and eulogy to his birthplace of Liverpool. It is also a response to memory, reflection and watching as the skyline changes into something unrecognizable.

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Of Time and the City Directed by Terence Davies

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Awards & Festivals

Cannes Film Festival

2008

Toronto International Film Festival

2008

International Film Festival Rotterdam

2009

San Sebastián International Film Festival

2008

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Articles from the Notebook

Memory as Mise-en-scène: A Conversation with Terence Davies

An interview with the English auteur on his new film—his first fictional feature in eleven years—“The Deep Blue Sea”.

I Know A Place: Davies’ “Of Time and the City”

It’s both a first person historical essay and a visual poem. Combining archival and newsreel footage, it is layered with Davies’ intimate voiceover of readings from Eliot, Dickinson, and Chekhov, personal recollections, and his carefully curated musical accents. It is both warm and biting; a melancholy (farewell) love letter, which is also, like so much of Davies’ work, very funny.

Joanna Di Mattia

September 20, 2017

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AnOther

Terence Davies blends tender emotion with deliciously irreverent, savage wit in his highly personal and poetic documentary-collage of Liverpool.

Carmen Gray

February 09, 2016

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Are the Hills...

Upon a second viewing, my admiration for this film remains at a slight remove. Whether it’s the candid reflections on specifically Liverpoolian rites of passage, the sometimes too-florid (for my taste, at least) baritone narration of Davies himself, or the identity of the filmmaker as a homosexual working-class outcast (something only so much empathetic guesswork can account for), I’ve always felt a certain opaqueness here.

Carson Lund

November 27, 2013

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What are people saying?

EastyBoy's rating of the film 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.
August 12, 2011 23:46
- 1
- 0
Weaving Wave's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
January 24, 2019 16:32
- 2
- 0
Brotherdeacon's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
December 02, 2017 07:34
- 0
- 0
Matthew Martens's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
March 10, 2012 03:36
- 0
- 0
Christopher R. Smith's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
July 12, 2010 18:58
- 0
- 0
El Biffo's rating of the film Of Time and the City
El Biffo

Stunning poetry. Deeply reverent, and at the same time, shockingly irreverent. Magnificent.
February 22, 2014 03:06
- 5
- 0
Victor Bruno's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
January 24, 2019 17:15
- 3
- 1
Shazad's rating of the film Of Time and the City
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.
December 06, 2009 08:28
- 1
- 0