Watch the trailer for Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
UK-West Germany 1988
Directed by Terence Davies
With Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, Lorraine Ashbourne
83min
Digital 4K
15
“A masterpiece” — Mark Kermode
“A visual tour de force unmatched in British cinema” — Guardian
Thirty years after its initial release, one of the most acclaimed films in British cinema history returns to the big screen in a new 4K digital print restored by the BFI National Archive from the original camera negative.
Terence Davies’ partly autobiographical tale evokes his upbringing in Liverpool after the war in a working-class home dominated by the violence of his father, fearsomely played by then newcomer Pete Postlethwaite. Using dynamic lighting, a superb soundtrack and a fragmented structure, Davies constructs a distinctive drama suffused with both beauty and horror. The film was voted the third greatest British film of all-time in a 2011 Time Out poll.
Venues
December
10 December
Andover Film Club
From 10 December
Watershed, Bristol