Of Time and the City

Name: Of Time and the City
Genre: Biography, History, Documentary
Released: January 21, 2009
Duration: 74 min
Rating: 81

2009

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Ratings

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6.0

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6.0	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Ratings

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Of Time And The City

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Movie Details & Credits

Strand Releasing | Release Date: January 21, 2009

Summary: From the original voice of the great British auteur, Terence Davies, comes a visual poem which draws upon the first 28 years of the director's life in Liverpool until he left in 1973. "Cut it as if it were fiction," Davies says, with "images which speak" and a layered sound track of popular and classical music, voices, radio clips and aFrom the original voice of the great British auteur, Terence Davies, comes a visual poem which draws upon the first 28 years of the director's life in Liverpool until he left in 1973. "Cut it as if it were fiction," Davies says, with "images which speak" and a layered sound track of popular and classical music, voices, radio clips and a powerful, poignant voiceover by Mr. Davies. Of Time and The City is a very personal portrait of Liverpool, beyond its Beatles and its football clubs, the home of the writer’s birth, where youth and inspiration weave his own story into the recent history of the City with fascinating found footage and counterpointed sound. (Strand Releasing)… Expand

Director: Terence Davies

Genre(s): Biography, History, Documentary

Runtime: 74 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Lisa Schwarzbaum

''Documentary'' is too impersonal a word and ''visual poem'' is too mushy a phrase to describe Of Time and the City, a short, beautiful, characteristically sublime memory piece by the great British auteur Terence Davies. Read full review

A.O. Scott

It is a deeply personal piece of art that never descends into the confessional or the therapeutic, and a work of social and literary criticism that never lectures or hectors, but rather, with melancholy, tenderness and wit, manages to sing. Read full review

Duane Byrge

Poetically composed, with marvelous lumps of wit and perspective, Of Times and The City is a masterwork. Read full review

Scott Tobias

A caustic, witty, regretful elegy for a place so transformed that it's virtually unrecognizable. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

The film is made up chiefly of found footage and therefore lacks the mise en scene of its predecessors, but it has the added benefit of Davies's voice-over narration, which, thanks to his training and experience as an actor, is enormously powerful. Read full review

Leslie Felperin

Result is by turns moving, droll and charming, and niftily assembled, but not necessarily that profound. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Terence Davies revisits his youth to decidedly mixed effect. Read full review

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User Reviews

GeorgeK

Jun 14, 2009

A sentimental, pompous ode to a city and time which are of little importance, not to mention long gone. It's basically an old homsexual romanticizing about his youth and the way things were once upon a time. If you enjoy watching gray paint dry,you'll love this movie.

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JohnM

May 14, 2009

Very disappointed given the reviews I'd heard. To me, Terence Davies' delivery didn't work. Liverpool should have been the star of the show and too often was not allowed to be.

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