Quick take: Of Time and the City

Last year I heard Terence Davies narrating Distant Voices, Still Lives at PFA. It was an autobiographical film to start with, and he took it the extra step and just talked over it, explaining the references and telling additional anecdotes. His latest film, Of Time and the City, is just like that. He's dispensed with the art of using "fictional" characters, and actors, and sets, and just about anything new. He just talks over old found footage and borrowed music.

Terence Davies is an old codger. He's also a genius, and Of Time and the City is a deeply moving film. It's about Liverpool in the mid-20th century, as well as aging, generations, urban planning, England, life, death, and countless other things. Somehow it made me pine for my own youth and remember things I'd forgotten for years (well, they were things about England). A deep and gorgeous movie.