BAMcinématek: The Terence Davies Trilogy

Part of the BAMcinématek series Terence Davies

Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm

Directed by Terence Davies
With Terry O’Sullivan, Wilfrid Brambell, Philip Mawdsley

(1983) 102min, 35mm

“...a strangely stirring account of human dignity triumphing over emotional and spiritual confusion...a rich, resonant tapestry of impressionistic detail.” —Time Out London

Davies’ directorial coming out—three short films made over the course of seven years—heralded the arrival of a born master, baldly displaying the obsessions that would haunt much of his work: memory, time, internal and external repression, childhood, religion, and alienation. Robert Tucker—raised in a working-class home blighted by an abusive father, the yoke of Catholicism, harsh teachers, and brutal bullies—matures into middle age, doting on his elderly mother while suffering through tortured late-night trysts with strangers in the Liverpool streets. In the astonishing final chapter of Davies’ lyrical work, an elderly Robert lies speechless in a hospital, waiting to meet his maker while re-experiencing moments from his past. As is so often the case in Davies’ world, memories are integral to the present—plaguing us but also providing moments of transcendence. The Terence Davies Trilogy includesChildren (1976), Madonna and Child (1980), and Death and Transfiguration (1983).