Set in a world before Elvis, a Liverpool before the Beatles, Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory. These companion pieces, shot two years apart on tight budgets with BFI support, evoke 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.
Davies achieves the rare feat of nostalgia without sentimentality, using dynamic lighting, a superb soundtrack and a fragmented structure to construct a distinctive drama suffused with both beauty and horror. From the home to the pub, the cinema to the beach, each locale suggests both charm and stifling limitation in a film that’s as concerned with the operation of memory as with its material setting.
