Another lyrical and deeply personal film from Davies, this centring on the life of a boy, played by Leigh McCormack, in what is clearly an autobiographical tale, set in Liverpool in 1956. It looks at his family life, particularly fondly at his mother, Marjorie Yates; and Anthony Watson, Nicholas Lamont and Ayse Owens. With Tina Malone, Jimmy Wilde, Robin Polley, Peter Ivatts.
My favourite moment remain the light and rain shadows on the walls and carpet, but there's an awesome shot at the end of the clouds scudding over the moon which last several minutes.
We look at the boy's interactions at brutal school, at home, church, a fair, and visiting the cinema, where he finds refuge from loneliness and outsider status (the film is peppered with sound from contemporary films like Private's Progress and The Ladykillers). Displaced sound, complex fades, scenes turning into something different, all add up to a most impressive though languid film. Like its predecessor, very handsomely filmed, by Michael Coulter, in an odd aspect ratio of what looks like 1.57:1 (certainly not 1.85:1 as claimed on IMDB). Edited by William Diver.
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| In this strange sequence it looks like family Christmas dinner is taking place in the street outside the house |
No. 72 in Time Out's Top British films 2018. Davies was a man who turned his own life into art.
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