Terence Davies#Early short films
{{Short description|British film director and screenwriter (1945–2023)}}
{{about||the American basketball player|Terence Davis|other people with similar names|Terry Davies (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Terence Davies
| image = Publicity_Photo_of_Terence_Davies.jpg
| caption = Davies in 2021
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1945|11|10}}
| birth_place = Liverpool, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2023|10|07|1945|11|10}}
| death_place = Mistley, England
| years_active = 1976–2023
| occupation = Screenwriter, film director
| website = {{url|http://terencedavies.com}}
}}
Terence Davies (10 November 1945 – 7 October 2023) was a British screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films, including Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008), as well as the literary adaptations The Neon Bible (1995), The House of Mirth (2000), The Deep Blue Sea (2011) and Sunset Song (2015). His final two feature films were centered around the lives of influential literary figures, Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion (2016) and Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction (2021). Davies was considered by some critics as one of the great British directors of his period.{{cite news| last=Thorpe | first=Vanessa | title=Terence Davies, award-winning film-maker, dies at 77 |work=The Guardian | date=7 October 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/07/terence-davies-award-winning-filmmaker-dies-at-77 | access-date=8 October 2023}}
Early years
Terence Davies was born in Kensington, Liverpool, on 10 November 1945,{{Cite web|url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/d/1630/Terence+DAVIES.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214000052/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/d/1630/Terence+DAVIES.aspx|url-status=dead|title=Debrett's People of Today – Terence Davies Esq.|archive-date=14 December 2013|access-date=9 October 2023}} as the youngest of ten children of working-class Catholic parents.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Ellis|first=Jim|title=Davies, Terence|encyclopedia=An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture|date=11 November 2004|url=http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/davies_t_A.pdf|access-date=30 June 2017}} Though he was raised Catholic by his deeply religious mother, at the age of 22 he rejected religion and considered himself an atheist.{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/20/terence-davies-on-sex-death-and-benediction-siegfried-sassoon|title = 'I wish I was very good-looking and very stupid': Terence Davies on sex, death and Benediction|last = Gilbey|first = Ryan|date = 20 May 2022|access-date = 7 October 2023|newspaper = The Guardian}}[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s1kw9 Intensive Care], the autobiographical radio feature that Davies wrote and narrated for BBC Radio 3 (broadcast 17 April 2010) Davies's father, whom Davies remembered as "psychotic", died of cancer when Davies was seven years old. He recalled the period from then until he entered secondary school, at the age of 11, as the four happiest years of his life.
After leaving school at 16, Davies worked for ten years as a shipping office clerk and as an unqualified accountant, before leaving Liverpool in 1971 to attend Coventry Drama School.{{cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/10/08/terence-davies-films-distant-voices-long-day-obituary/|title = Terence Davies, acclaimed director of gritty but lyrical films of working-class life – obituary|newspaper = The Daily Telegraph|date = 8 October 2023|accessdate = 10 October 2023|url-access = subscription}}
Career
=Early short films=
While at Coventry, Davies wrote the screenplay for what became his first autobiographical short, Children (1976), filmed under the auspices of the BFI Production Board. After that introduction to filmmaking, Davies attended the National Film School, completing Madonna and Child (1980), a continuation of the story of his alter ego, Robert Tucker, covering his years as a clerk in Liverpool. He completed the trilogy with Death and Transfiguration (1983), in which he speculates about the circumstances of his death. Those works went on to be screened together at film festivals throughout Europe and North America as The Terence Davies Trilogy, winning numerous awards. Davies, who was gay, frequently explored gay themes in his films.{{cite news|last=Hattenstone|first=Simon|title=Bigmouth strikes again|work=The Guardian|date=20 October 2006|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1926090,00.html|access-date=8 August 2007|location=London}}
=First feature films=
Davies's first two features, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, are autobiographical films set in Liverpool in the 1940s and 1950s. In reviewing Distant Voices, Still Lives, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that "years from now, when practically all the other new movies currently playing are long forgotten, it will be remembered and treasured as one of the greatest of all English films".{{cite news|url=http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/?p=7531|title=Distant Voices, Still Lives|publisher=Chicago Reader|access-date=26 January 2013|location=Chicago|first=Jonathan|last=Rosenbaum|date=18 August 1989}} In 2002, critics polled for Sight & Sound ranked Distant Voices, Still Lives as the ninth-best film of the previous 25 years.{{cite news|url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/63|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704051044/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/63|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 July 2012|title=Modern Times|publisher=BFI's Sight & Sound|access-date=26 January 2013|location=London| first=Nick|last=James|date=2002}} Jean-Luc Godard, often dismissive of British cinema in general, singled out Distant Voices, Still Lives as an exception, calling it "magnificent". The Long Day Closes was also praised by J. Hoberman as "Davies'[s] most autobiographical and fully achieved work".{{cite news|url=http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/23/inner-light-terence-davies/|title=The Inner Light of Terence Davies|publisher=NYRblog|access-date=26 January 2013|location=New York|first=Jim|last=Hoberman|date=23 March 2012}}
Davies's next two features, The Neon Bible and The House of Mirth, were adaptations of novels by John Kennedy Toole and Edith Wharton respectively. The House of Mirth received favourable reviews, with Film Comment naming it one of the ten best films of 2000. Gillian Anderson won Best Performance in the Second Annual Village Voice Film Critics' Poll and the film was named the third best film of 2000 in the same poll.{{cite news|url=http://www.preciomania.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=110319302/force_view=mobile/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130216162233/http://www.preciomania.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=110319302/force_view=mobile/|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 February 2013|title=Village Voice Critics Poll|publisher=The Village Voice|access-date=26 January 2013|location=New York|date=2000}}
=Radio projects and ''Of Time and the City''=
After completing The House of Mirth, Davies intended to make an adaptation of Sunset Song, a novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon published in 1932, as his fifth feature, but financing proved difficult. Scottish and international backers left the project after the BBC, Channel 4 and the UK Film Council each rejected proposals for final funds. Davies apparently considered Kirsten Dunst for the lead role before the project was postponed.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/english-turn-a-deaf-ear-to-sunset-song-njx0wbq08z6|title=English turn a deaf ear to Sunset Song|publisher=Times.co.uk|access-date=19 October 2023|date=25 April 2005}} Afterwards, he wrote an original romantic comedy screenplay and an adaptation of Ed McBain's novel crime novel He Who Hesitates, neither of which were produced.{{cite news|url=http://www.philonfilm.net/2008/10/interview-terence-davies.html|title="Liverpool is completely alien to me now, I just don't know it anymore" - An interview with Terence Davies|access-date=31 October 2023|date=24 October 2008}}
In the interim, Davies produced two works for radio, A Walk to the Paradise Garden, an original radio play broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2001, and a two-part adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
The long interval between films ended with his only documentary, Of Time and the City, which was premiered out of competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The work uses vintage newsreel footage, contemporary popular music and Davies's narration in a paean to Liverpool. It received positive reviews on its premiere.{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article3965524.ece|title=Of Time and the City|publisher=Times.co.uk|access-date=20 May 2008|location=London|first=Wendy|last=Ide|date=20 May 2008}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
In 2010, after completing Of Time and the City, Davies produced a third radio project, Intensive Care, a personal recollection of his youth and his relationship with his mother.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s1kw9|title=Intensive Care|publisher=BBC Radio 3|access-date=23 April 2024}}
=Later films=
Davies's The Deep Blue Sea, based on the play by Terence Rattigan, was commissioned by the Rattigan Trust. The film was met with widespread acclaim, and Rachel Weisz won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and topped the Village Voice Film Critics' Poll for best lead female performance.{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/movies/the-deep-blue-sea-directed-by-terence-davies.html|title=The Deep Blue Sea|publisher=NYTimes|access-date=26 January 2013|location=New York|first=A.O.|last=Scott|date=22 March 2012}}
Davies finally found financing for Sunset Song in 2012, and it went into production in 2014.{{cite news|title=Terence Davies's Sunset Song gets green light at last |date=2012-02-17 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020002700/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/17/terence-davies-sunset-song |archive-date=2022-10-20 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/17/terence-davies-sunset-song}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/terence-davies-sunset-song-begins-699546/|title=Terence Davies' 'Sunset Song' Begins Scottish Shoot|first=Stuart|last=Kemp|website=Hollywoodreporter.com|date=29 April 2014|access-date=9 October 2023}} In October 2014 the film went into post-production.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hurricanefilms.net/2014/10/02/sunset-song-post-production/|title=Hurricane Films|website=Hurricanefilms.net|access-date=9 October 2023}} It was released in 2015. During this time, an attempted adaptation of Richard McCann's Mother of Sorrows did not come to fruition.{{Cite web|url=https://thefilmstage.com/terence-davies-adapting-richard-mccann-for-mother-of-sorrows/|title=Terence Davies Adapting Richard McCann for 'Mother of Sorrows'|date=29 February 2012 |access-date=31 October 2023}}
Davies's next film was A Quiet Passion, based on the life of the American poet Emily Dickinson.{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/10/09/terence-davies-dead/|title = Terence Davies, lyrical British filmmaker, dies at 77|last = Smith|first = Harrison|newspaper = The Washington Post|date = 9 October 2023|accessdate = 10 October 2023|url-access = limited}}
His last film, Benediction (2021), tells the story of the British war poet and memoirist Siegfried Sassoon.
In February 2023, it was announced that Davies was working on a film adaptation of Stefan Zweig's novel The Post Office Girl, though the project was subsequently abandoned due to a lack of funding. Davies said he was working on another script in September 2023, the month before he died.{{cite news|url = https://thefilmstage.com/terence-davies-on-bringing-poetry-to-life-directing-his-new-short-and-planning-his-next-feature/|title = Terence Davies on Bringing Poetry to Life, Directing His New Short, and Planning His Next Feature|last = Newman|first = Nick|work = The Film Stage|date = 19 September 2023|accessdate = 10 October 2023}} After his death, the script was revealed to be based on Janette Jenkins's novel Firefly, which focuses on the last five days in the life of playwright and composer Noël Coward.{{cite news|url = https://thefilmstage.com/details-emerge-on-terence-davies-planned-noel-coward-biopic-firefly/|title = Details Emerge on Terence Davies' Planned Noël Coward Biopic Firefly|last = Newman |first= Nick|work =The Film Stage|date = 14 October 2023|accessdate = 19 October 2023}}
Personal life
Davies lived in an 18th-century cottage in Mistley from the early 1990s until his death in 2023.{{cite news|url = https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/terence-davies-obituary|title = Terence Davies obituary: farewell to a British master of poetic cinema|last = Koresky|first = Michael|date = 7 October 2023|access-date = 7 October 2023|work = British Film Institute}}{{cite news|url = https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/director-terence-davies-returns-with-dazzling-of-time-and-the-city-jmb7df6fmg3|title = Director Terence Davies returns with dazzling Of Time and the City|last = Christopher|first = James|date = 11 October 2008|access-date = 8 October 2023|newspaper = The Times|url-access = subscription}} Davies was openly gay and often explored gay themes in his work, though he said his most serious relationship was with a woman in the late 1970s, and that he later went "on to the gay scene for a couple of months" before deciding he was also uninterested in relationships with men. In 2015, he told The Guardian that he had been celibate for most of his life, adding in another interview with the newspaper in 2022 that he would "prefer to be lonely and on [his] own" than to live a life he "couldn't justify" to himself.{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/19/terence-davies-religion-being-gay-sunset-song-interview|title = Terence Davies on religion, being gay and his life in film: 'Despair is awful because it's worse than any pain'|last = Pulver|first = Andrew|date = 19 November 2015|accessdate = 28 January 2025|work = The Guardian}}
Discussing the impact his childhood had on him, Davies described his father as a "psychotic" man who made him feel "terrified all the time", and that the years following his father's death were the happiest of his childhood. He explained, "The one thing I can't bear now is atmospheres. I can come into a room full of people and I can tell you who's had [an argument]. I always say: if I've upset you, just come out with it. If you cold-shoulder me, I instantly see [my father] sitting in the corner of the parlour and I'm a seven-year-old again."
On 7 October 2023, at the age of 77, Davies died of cancer at his home in Mistley.
Filmography
Source, unless specified:{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/08/terence-davies-obituary|title = Terence Davies obituary|last = Gilbey|first = Ryan|newspaper = The Guardian|date = 8 October 2023|accessdate = 10 October 2023}}
;Feature films
| class="wikitable sortable" | |
| Year
!width=150| Title | |
|---|---|
| 1988 | Distant Voices, Still Lives |
| 1992 | The Long Day Closes |
| 1995 | The Neon Bible |
| 2000 | The House of Mirth |
| 2011 | The Deep Blue Sea |
| 2015 | Sunset Song |
| 2016 | A Quiet Passion |
| 2021 | Benediction |
;Documentaries
| class="wikitable sortable" | |
| Year
!width=120| Title | |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Of Time and the City |
;Short films
| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
| Year
!width=150| Title !width=400| Notes | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Children | rowspan="3"|Also released in 1983 as part of the anthology film The Terence Davies Trilogy |
| 1980 | Madonna and Child | |
| 1983 | Death and Transfiguration | |
| 2021 | But Why?{{cite web|url = https://www.viennale.at/en/film/viennale-trailer-2021-why|title = Viennale-Trailer 2021: But Why?|date = 2021|website = Venice Film Festival}} | Ephemeral film produced for the Venice Film Festival |
| 2023 | Passing Time | Produced for the Film Fest Gent's 2x25 project |
Bibliography
| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
| Year
! Title ! Notes | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Hallelujah Now{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terence-Davies/e/B001HPEZ9Y/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911221336/https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terence-Davies/e/B001HPEZ9Y/|archive-date=11 September 2021|title=Amazon.co.uk: Terence Davies: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle|website=Amazon UK }} | novel |
| 1992 | A Modest Pageant | collected screenplays |
Awards and nominations
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2023}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://www.terencedavies.com/}}
- [http://www.theyshootpictures.com/daviesterence.htm Terence Davies entry] in film director database They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- {{Screenonline name|id=502509|name=Terence Davies biography and filmography}}
- {{IMDb name|0203993|Terence Davies}}
- [https://archive.today/20110604034335/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1584529,00.html Article on the collapse of "Sunset Song" project] from timesonline.co.uk
- [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/3751/terence-davies Terence Davies] at Virtual History
- {{discogs artist|Terence Davies}}
{{Terence Davies}}
{{British Film Institute Fellowship}}
{{London Film Critics Circle Award for Director of the Year}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Terence}}
Category:20th-century English novelists
Category:Alumni of the National Film and Television School
Category:British LGBTQ film directors
Category:Deaths from cancer in England
Category:English LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
Category:English LGBTQ screenwriters
Category:English film directors
Category:English male dramatists and playwrights
Category:English male screenwriters
Category:English people of Irish descent
Category:English radio writers
Category:Former Roman Catholics
Category:Gay dramatists and playwrights