“With an unfailing eye for place, décor, costume, and gesture, the director glides his camera through tangles of memories to evoke joys and horrors with a similar sense of wonder.” - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Just as you think you have its moves all doped out, a scene of such shocking beauty flashes before you that it takes your breath away.” - Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times
“This film is a masterpiece.” - Andrew Pulver, Guardian
Saturday, February 15, 6:00 p.m. & Monday, February 17, 6:00 p.m. | Loosely based on the late Terence Davies’ (A QUIET PASSION) own upbringing, this marvelous reminiscence (and extraordinarily, Davies’ feature debut) is rightly considered a triumph of British cinema. Adult siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen’s wedding. The joyous reunion evokes flashbacks that illustrate that the family was not always happy, living under the monstrous rule of their abusive father (Pete Postlethwaite, in a career best performance). Structured in two parts, Davies explores the dark corners of memory, using music as connective tissue to recount the beauty and heartbreak of a family in this shatteringly beautiful, but never sentimental film. Restoration courtesy of the British Film Institute.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Golden Leopard, Locarno Film Festival
Winner - FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes Film Festival
Winner - International Critics' Award, Toronto International Film Festival
Nominee - Best Film of the European Community, César Awards
Nominee - Best Foreign Film, Film Independent Spirit Awards
Persistence of Memory: Ten films (poetically, all quite memorable) that explore recollection, unreliable narrators and amnesiatic protagonists, ghosts real and imagined, the way others remember us (ouch), and the coming to terms with that, as much as we try to hold on to them, as time passes our memories shift and slip away. Read more
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu