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Of Time and the City

2008 film by Terence Davies From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of Time and the City
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Of Time and the City is a 2008 British documentary collage film directed by Terence Davies. The film has Davies recalling his life growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s and 1960s, using newsreel and documentary footage supplemented by his own commentary voiceover and contemporaneous and classical music soundtracks.

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The film premiered as part of the Special Screenings selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it received rave reviews.[1] Time Out said "The one truly great movie to emerge so far (from Cannes)..... this film is as personal, as universal in its relevance, and as gloriously cinematic as anything he has done"[1] and The Guardian called it "a British masterpiece, a brilliant assemblage of images that illuminate our past. Not only does it tug the heart-strings but it's also savagely funny."[1] BBC TV film critic Mark Kermode nominated it as the best overall film of 2008 on his "Kermode Awards" section of The Culture Show. In 2018 Kermode placed the film at number one in a list of his favourite films of the previous ten years (2008-2018).[2] Duane Byrge from The Hollywood Reporter lauded the film as "poetically composed" and a "masterwork".[3]

Of Time and the City won Best Documentary in the Australian Film Critics Association awards for 2009. Following the success of the film, in 2010 the website People’s Stories: Liverpool Lives was launched with Heritage Lottery funding, created for Of Time and the City by producer Sol Papadopoulos and transmedia creator Krishna Stott. For the launch of the site the actors Jonathan Pryce, Alexei Sayle and Joe McGann contributed their own memories of the city.[4][5]

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References within the film

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Poetry and literature

Music

Films

Fashion

Landmarks

Nearby locales

Regular events

Sports

Celebrities

Scholars

Radio programmes

Laws

Religious leaders

Historical figures

Contemporary

[9]

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Reception

The film was widely acclaimed,[10] with praise mostly focusing on its warmth and heartfelt approach. It holds a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 critics’ reviews.[11] On Metacritic, it holds an 81% critical score based on nine reviews.[12]

It has been described as "a mesmerizing and eloquent essay" by Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader,[13] "a warm and extremely thoughtful journey, with a deliberately bare-bones narrative" by Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle,[14] "a distinct pleasure to experience" by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times,[15] "mesmerizing, visceral and heartfelt" by Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star,[16] "a short, beautiful, characteristically sublime memory piece" by Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly,[17] "a wistful, funny, satirical, angry and forgiving portrait" by Sean Axmaker of Parallax View,[18] and "a visual poem" by Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews.[19] In 2018, Mark Kermode chose it as his favourite film of the last ten years.[20]

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People’s Stories - Liverpool’s social history website

In 2010 - 'in response' to the film - the website People’s Stories: Liverpool Lives was launched.[5] With Heritage Lottery funding, the website was created for Of Time and the City producer Sol Papadopoulos by transmedia creator Krishna Stott.[21] Stott described the project as 'a community-based site of user generated content for Liverpudlians and the scouse diaspora'.[4] Actors Jonathan Pryce, Alexei Sayle and Joe McGann contributed their own memories of the city as part of the launch. The site was a place for members of the public to upload and share their stories, films, or photographs. Papadopoulos commented: 'We had Liverpudlians from all over the world wanting to tell their story, inspired by the way Terence had told his'.[5]

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