Mr. Davies died on 7 October aged 77. He was a critically highly regarded but little known director. who struggled to get financing. This, his first feature, is regarded as his best, and features in the BFI's Top 100 list (no.82)
In a way it's as unconventional as Song to Song, but works - individual scenes, moments from lives, predominantly people singing, build up a Big Picture. The camera tracks politely, often filming face on. The story revealed in part one is of a Liverpool family from the 1940s and a long-suffering mother Freda Dowie and the abusive husband, played by Peter Postlethwaite and three children - it's sadly autobiographical, to the extent that the filming upset Davies to the point where he would be found 'sitting on Postlethwaite's lap, being comforted by his on-screen father' ('The Week' obit). Part two, which is slightly different stylistically, often featuring fades to white, no longer dwells on the father but on the now grown up and married three children, who carry some of the emotional weight.
Overall it's very beautiful, realistic, well acted and paints a vivid picture. It's slow moving but rich and deeply rewarding. Some of the father's outbursts are terrifying, and two workers falling off a scaffold is utterly dazzling and original.
Rest of cast: Angela Walsh, Dean Williams, Lorraine Ashbourne (I Used to be Famous, Sherwood) as the children, and Sally Davies, Nathan Walsh and Susan Flanagan as them as kids. Plus Michael Starke (Brookside's Sinbad), Antonia Mallen, Debi Jones (the vivacious friend), Chris Darwin, Marie Jelliman, Andrew Schofield and Pauline Quirke.
Images above from William Diver (who also edited) and Patrick Duval.
I liked the soldiers' song which included the stanza:
It takes a worried man
To sing a worried song
I may be worried now
But I won't be worried long
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