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.
The film premiered as part of the Special Screenings selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it received rave reviews. 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" 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." 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). Duane Byrge from The Hollywood Reporter lauded the film as "poetically composed" and a "masterwork".
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.
References within the film
Poetry and literature A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman (opening narration, with the line "the land of lost content") "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley Felician Myrbach ("If Liverpool did not exist, it would have to be invented.") Ulysses by James Joyce ("As you are now we once were.") King James Bible - Psalm 107 ("They that go down to the sea in ships..."), Psalm 137 ("By the waters of Babylon, where we sat down..."), etc. The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels ("Removed from the sight of happier classes, poverty may struggle along as it can.") "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark!") "The Untold Want" by Walt Whitman ("Now voyager go forth to seek and find.") Willem de Kooning ("The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time...") Alexander Chekhov ("The golden moments pass and leave no trace.") Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, especially "East Coker" and "Little Gidding". Cicero ("O tempora, O mores.") "Poem 301" by Emily Dickinson. "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich ("All manner of things will be well...") Hamlet by William Shakespeare ("Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies...")
Music Franz Liszt The Protecting Veil by John Tavener "Hooray for Hollywood", song from the film Hollywood Hotel "Dirty Old Town" performed by The Spinners "Keep The Home Fires Burning" (song) "Still I Love Him" (traditional) (sung by a young girl) "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" recorded by The Hollies used over images of the Korean War "I was glad", heard during Elizabeth II's coronation ("Vivat Regina, Vivat Regina Elizabetha. Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!") "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" performed by Peggy Lee whilst showing images of the newly erected tower blocks The Beatles "Hippy Hippy Shake" performed by The Swinging Blue Jeans Elvis Presley Merseybeat Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson Alma Cogan Lita Roza Dickie Valentine Anton Bruckner Gustav Mahler Dmitri Shostakovich Jean Sibelius Jussi Björling Wilhelm Furtwängler Aleksandr Gauk Otto Klemperer Hans Knappertsbusch Robert Merrill Gheorghe Popescu Branesti Charles Munch Anneliese Rothenberger Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Amy Shuard The Pearl Fishers, opera by Georges Bizet Victor Sylvester "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam", Christian hymn
Films Singin' in the Rain Victim Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Young at Heart All That Heaven Allows
Fashion Coco Chanel Elsa Schiaparelli
Landmarks Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Aintree Racecourse Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King St. George's Hall, Liverpool Sefton Park Liverpool Stadium River Mersey Liverpool Exchange railway station New Brighton Tower Royal Liver Building Cunard Building Port of Liverpool Building Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm
Nearby locales Salford, Greater Manchester New Brighton, Merseyside
Regular events Guy Fawkes Night The Twelfth May Day
Sports Accrington Stanley Sheffield Hamilton Academical Queen of the South Preston North End Blackpool Everton West Ham United Leicester City Leeds United Manchester United Grand National
Celebrities Kenneth Horne Gene Kelly Dirk BogardeAV Club Bob Danvers-Walker Michael O'Hehir Peter O'Sullevan Bebe Daniels Ben Lyon Gregory Peck Greta Kukkonen Valerie Hobson John McCallum Margaret Lockwood Peter Sellers Lord Mayor of Birkenhead, Alderman Griffith Davies Petula Clark Lisa Daniely Christine Norden Richard Todd Jack Hawkins Paul Carpenter
Scholars Carl Jung Friedrich Engels
Radio programmes Julian and Sandy
Laws Sexual Offences Act 1956
Religious leaders John, Cardinal Heenan Pope Pius XII Pope John XXIII
Historical figures William III of England
Contemporary Hovis bread Bakelite radio
Reception The film was widely acclaimed,BFI with praise mostly focusing on its warmth and heartfelt approach. It holds a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 critics’ reviews. On Metacritic, it holds an 81% critical score based on nine reviews.
It has been described as "a mesmerizing and eloquent essay" by Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader, "a warm and extremely thoughtful journey, with a deliberately bare-bones narrative" by Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle, "a distinct pleasure to experience" by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, "mesmerizing, visceral and heartfelt" by Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star, "a short, beautiful, characteristically sublime memory piece" by Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, "a wistful, funny, satirical, angry and forgiving portrait" by Sean Axmaker of Parallax View, and "a visual poem" by Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews. In 2018, Mark Kermode chose it as his favourite film of the last ten years.
People’s Stories - Liverpool’s social history website In 2010 - 'in response' to the film - the website People’s Stories: Liverpool Lives was launched. With Heritage Lottery funding, the website was created for Of Time and the City producer Sol Papadopoulos by transmedia creator Krishna Stott. Stott described the project as 'a community-based site of user generated content for Liverpudlians and the scouse diaspora'. 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'.
See also The Memories of Angels, a similarly constructed film about Montreal
References
External links Official website
Full transcript at Oftimeandthecity.com