The Long Day Closes [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Terence Davies Terence Davies

Overview

Terence Davies' blissful, evocative and non-narrative follow-up to his Distant Voices, Still Lives follows a few months in the life of 12-year-old Bud (Leigh McCormack), in impressionistic snatches of his everyday existence growing up in the Liverpool of 1956. Bud's world is influenced by his mother (Marjorie Yates), his older sister Helen (Ayse Owens), and his older brothers John (Nicholas Lamont) and Kevin (Anthony Watson). Bud is a lonely and quiet child whose moments of solace occur when he sits in rapture at the local cinema, watching towering and iconic figures on the movie screen. The movies give Bud the strength to get through another day as he deals with his oppressive school environment and his burgeoning homosexuality.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/28/2014
UPC:	0715515112611
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:25:00
Sales rank:	11,690

Special Features

New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray.

Audio commentary by director Terence Davies and director of photography Michael Coulter.

Episode from 1992 of the British television series The South Bank Show with Davies, featuring on-set footage from The Long Day Closes and interviews with cast and crew.

New interviews with executive producer Colin MacCabe and production designer Christopher Hobbs.

Trailer

One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats.

PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Koresky.

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Leigh McCormack	Bud
Marjorie Yates	Mother
Anthony Watson	Kevin
Nicholas Lamont	John
Ayse Owens	Helen
Tina Malone	Edna
Jimmy Wilde	Curly
Robin Polley	Mr. Nicholls
Peter Ivatts	Mr. Bushell
Joy Blakeman	Frances
Denise Thomas	Jean
Patricia Morrison	Amy
Gavin Mawdsley	Billy
Kirk McLaughlin	Laborer/Christ
Marcus Heath	Black Man
Victoria Davies	Nun
Brenda Peters	Nurse
Karl Skeggs	Albie
Lee Blennerhassett	1st Bully
Peter Hollier	2nd Bully
Jason Jevons	3rd Bully
James Wilder	Actor
Robert Lockhart	Composer
Bob Last	Composer

Technical Credits

Terence Davies

Terence Davies	Director,Screenwriter
Olivia Stewart	Producer
Ben Gibson	Executive Producer
Colin MacCabe	Executive Producer
William Diver	Producer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Long Day Closes
1. Opening Credits [6:23]
2. The Pictures [6:14]
3. Daydreams [3:20]
4. At the Fair [6:42]
5. Christmas [7:31]
6. Secondary School [4:58]
7. Going Out [4:31]
8. Lice [8:59]
9. Erosion [3:32]
10. Left Out [8:38]
11. A Celebration [8:10]
12. Bud's World [4:42]
13. A Gradual Decay [11:38]
1. Color Bars [:20]
1. Discovering the Cinema [6:21]
2. Childhood Traumas: Paternal Abuse, School Bullying, and Catholicism [9:11]
3. The Terence Davies Trilogy and the BFI Production Board [9:05]
4. Distant Voices, Still Lives and Critical Success [2:58]
5. The Long Day Closes, Tracking Shots, and the Denial of Geography [6:25]
6. Filming: the Script, Set, and Actors [13:19]

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Long Day Closes
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
   Commentary
      Recorded in 2007, This Audio Commentary Features Director Terence Davies and Cinematographer Michael Coulter. To Listen to the Commentary While Viewing this Movie, Press the Audio Key on your Remote at any Time
         Commentary: On
         Commentary: Off
   Supplements
      The South Bank Show
         Play
         Index
      Colin MacCabe
         Play
      Christopher Hobbs
         Play
      Trailer

Editorial Reviews

Writer-director Terence Davies followed up his acclaimed Distant Voices, Still Lives with this similarly impressionistic memory piece about a young boy growing up in working-class Liverpool in the 1950s. Young Leigh McCormack portrays the passive Bud, who survives parochial school oppression by retreating to his nurturing mother and the town cinema. Though the material covers well-trod ground, Davies eschews nostalgia in favor of a more complex, ironic kind of recollection. The static pauses between scenes, the rich sepia tone of the film stock, and the rigorous, symmetrical framing of shots suggest family portraits brought to motion. At times, only the most tenuous connections can be made between sequences; the soundtrack of period pop songs is as important to the film's coherence as the images, as are the snippets of dialogue borrowed from The Magnificent Ambersons and Great Expectations.

All Movie Guide - Michael Hastings