The death of Terence Davies, director of Distant Voices, and Emily Dickinson

Terence Davies, who directed films such as Distant Voices, The Deep Blue Sea, Emily Dickinson, A Quiet Passion and Siegfried’s Diaries, is no more.

The information about his disappearance was spread on the official page of Instagram (Variety): “It is with deep sadness that we announce today, October 7, 2023, the passing of Terence Davies, who passed away peacefully at home after a short illness.“

The filmmaker admired his period films, as well as his first autobiographical trilogy about his childhood in Liverpool. “Being in the past makes me feel safe because I understand this world“, he told the Guardian in 2022.

Although his films were widely acclaimed, they did not win many awards, which he viewed more philosophically. “It would be nice if BAFTA introduced us. Then again, there’s a part of me that thinks: Isn’t this just vanity? If a movie comes alive every time it’s shown, that’s the real reward. I think I achieved what I set out to achieve.“

An overview of his career

Born in Liverpool and from a large family (ten children) from the working class of Great Britain. Terence Davies He left school at the age of sixteen and worked as an accountant for twelve years, devoting his free time to writing and acting in the theater. It was at Coventry School of Drama, where he enrolled in 1972, that he wrote The Children (released in 1976), the first medium-length film and part of a trilogy depicting the life of Robert Tucker. After going to National Television and Film School, he went on to complete Madonna and Child in 1980 and The Death and Transfiguration in 1983, the story of his alter ego, an accountant in Liverpool. Collected in 1984, these films were presented and awarded at festivals in Europe and the United States of America under the name Terence Davis’ trilogy.

It was only his first feature film, Distant voices (1988) that the director finally achieved international recognition, the film won, among other things, the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival and was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where it received the International Critics’ Prize. He then signed The Long Day Closes (1992), his fourth autobiographical film, which was also presented at Cannes, but this time in Official Competition and was named Best Film at the Birmingham Film Festival. Followed by The Neon Bible (again in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995) and Among the Happy People of the World (2000), two adaptations of novels, one by John Kennedy Tully, the other by Edith Wharton.

Best known for his work as a film director, Terence Davies Also starred in many series in the 70s and appeared in Colin Brown’s documentary Father and Son (1992). In 2008, he wrote and directed his own documentary Time and the City, an ode to Liverpool, which, like most of his films, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, but out of competition for this film. mixing past/present and abandoning the clarity of linear plot and narrative, Terence Davies Emphasizes the idea of ​​cinema as an art practiced with small budgets and modest intentions.

In 2002, he prepared his fifth work, Sunset Song, an adaptation of the novel by Louise Grassick Gibson, but the project was blocked in 2005, the necessary funds were refused, despite the presence of Kirsten Dunst in the lead role. The project returned to the fore in 2012, so that the actor was not attached to it. Meanwhile, Terence Davies It turned out deep blue sea (2012), a passionate love story set in the 1950s between two characters played by Rachel Weisz and rising British film star Tom Hiddleston.

Terence Davies next directed by Cynthia Nixon in biopic Emily Dickinson, A Quiet Passion which is released in 2017. his last film Siegfried’s notebooks, is presented at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2021. The popular project earned its stars Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldis a Scottish BAFTA nomination, as well as a Best Screenplay nomination for its director-writer at the British Independent Film Awards. The feature film, which has not yet been released in France, should see the light of day on our screens on March 6, 2024.