Terence Davies is somewhat of an anomaly. Straight out of the gate, the British filmmaker directed three short autobiographical films that would become the gorgeous “The Terence Davies Trilogy” and the signal of a great new talent. What followed was certainly no let down, with the excellent “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” coming over the next decade. From there he produced one good film after another (with a dreadfully long intermission between 2000’s “The House Of Mirth” and 2008’s “Of Time And The City”). Davies, though, is an anomaly because it took 40 years from the beginning of his career for him to have his first real misfire: this year’s “A Quiet Passion” — and even that film is nowhere near bad (at least according to our review).
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The tragedy of Davies is that in the span of this 40 year career, he has only produced eight films. But even with just eight films, there’s room to run down a top five. And Kermode and Mayo have a new video that does just that. “Kermode Uncut: My Top Five Terence Davies Films” navigates the obvious choices, though maybe not in the obvious order, but, in this writer’s humble opinion, leaves one glaring omission: ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives.’
The good news is, even if “A Quiet Passion” is subpar Davies, the director has produced three films in the past five years alone, a prodigious rate for him. Even better, this week sees the release of his latest, “Sunset Song,” which we absolutely adored at TIFF last fall. In the meantime, check out Kermode’s top five above and weigh in with your top five in the comments.
