Distant Voices, Still Lives
Encyclopedia
Distant Voices, Still Lives is a 1988 British film directed and written by Terence Davies. It evokes working-class family life in Liverpool
during the 1940s and early 1950s, paying particular attention to the role of popular music, Hollywood cinema, light entertainment, and the public house within this tight-knit community.
The film is made up of two separate films, shot two years apart (but with the same cast and crew). The first section, 'Distant Voices', chronicles the early life of a working-class Catholic
family living under a domineering patriarchal regime. The second section, 'Still Lives', sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s Britain, only a few years from rock 'n' roll and The Beatles
, yet somehow still a lifetime away.
In 2007 the British Film Institute
re-printed and distributed the film across some of Britain's most high-profile Independent Cinemas, prompting The Guardian
newspaper to describe Distant Voices, Still Lives as 'Britain's forgotten cinematic masterpiece".
In a poll carried out by Time Out Magazine in 2007 of the greatest british films of all time, Distant Voices, Still Lives was 3rd, a sign of the influence it has had.
's British Film Institute
Modern Classics book on Distant Voices, Still Lives, Terence Davies describes how they chose the location for filming:
Kensington Street, Liverpool, L7 8XD
This small street of Victorian terraced houses to the north of Kensington was the childhood home to Terence Davies and his family. The Victorian houses in Kensington Sreet were demolished in 1961 and replaced at a later date by a low-rise Council estate and two industrial units. However, houses very similar to those in Kensington Street remain to the south of Kensington in streets such as Albany Road, L7 8RG and Saxony Road, L7 8RU.
47 Whistler Street, London, N5 1NJ:
The central location for the filming of Distant Voices, Still Lives was chosen for its architectural similarity to Davies's childhood home in Kensington Street, Liverpool. 47 Whistler Street is a small terraced house in row of similar Victorian houses located in north London on the edge of Highbury Fields. The street can be accessed from the park via a small alleyway, or from Drayton Park, the main road behind the street. The houses on the west side of Whistler Street are bay-fronted and were chosen to depict the actual family home. The houses on the east side are flat-fronted and therefore rarely shown in the film sequences. However, a house on the eastern side of the street is used in the final scene where the group leave Tony's wedding celebration and walk into the darkness.
The Futurist, Lime Street, Liverpool:
The Futurist was the location which inspired the film's (arguably) most artistic sequence in which the two sisters, Eileen and Maisie, attend a screening of Love is a Many Splendored Thing
whilst unknown to them, their brother and Maisie's husband, George, have a serious accident. The Futurist was Liverpool's first purpose-built and longest-surviving cinema, opening in 1912. A very upmarket city centre cinema with a tiled Edwardian facade and 1,029 seats in the stalls and circle auditorium which was richly decorated with plasterwork in the French Renaissance style. The cinema lasted nearly 70 years and closed its doors for the final time in 1982.
Jubilee Drive, Liverpool, L7 8SL
A Victorian street in the Kensington Fields area of east Liverpool, this was the street where Monica (Micky) lived and begged Eileen to come and visit. "So don't be a stranger - otherwise we'll not see you till next Preston Guild. We're only in Jubilee Drive."
Formby Sands
Monica, Jingles and Eileen pitch their tent at Formby sands - a scene which is used to remind Eileen of the free and happy life she lived before her marriage to Dave.
Pwllheli
Although more famous in later years for the Butlins
holiday parks, in the 1940s this Welsh seaside town was an upmarket location with high-quality hotels. Teenagers from Liverpool and Manchester would work in these hotels in the summer season. In the film, Eileen, Monica and Jingles are seen working as waitresses in the breakfast hall of an (un-named) large hotel.
Modern Classics book, Paul Farley describes the inspiration that Terence Davies used for the biographical backbone of the film:
In fact, Terence Davies's real-life father can be seen in a photograph which hangs on the wall in one of the film's central sequences when the mother and her three children, Tony, Eileen and Maisie, each walk out of the frame to reveal a tired and bleached photograph of their father.
Many of the songs were sung by the cast, including Debi Jones's light rendition of Buttons and Bows
and Angela Walsh's heart-breaking rendition of Johnny Mercer's I Wanna Be Around
. The film also features a juxtaposition of Ella Fitzgerald
singing Taking a Chance on Love
and a scene of brutal domestic violence.
, 'A Pale Ale and Lime' and 'A Rum and Pep'.
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
during the 1940s and early 1950s, paying particular attention to the role of popular music, Hollywood cinema, light entertainment, and the public house within this tight-knit community.
The film is made up of two separate films, shot two years apart (but with the same cast and crew). The first section, 'Distant Voices', chronicles the early life of a working-class Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
family living under a domineering patriarchal regime. The second section, 'Still Lives', sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s Britain, only a few years from rock 'n' roll and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, yet somehow still a lifetime away.
In 2007 the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
re-printed and distributed the film across some of Britain's most high-profile Independent Cinemas, prompting The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper to describe Distant Voices, Still Lives as 'Britain's forgotten cinematic masterpiece".
In a poll carried out by Time Out Magazine in 2007 of the greatest british films of all time, Distant Voices, Still Lives was 3rd, a sign of the influence it has had.
Location
In Paul FarleyPaul Farley
Paul Farley is an award-winning English poet. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria...
's British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
Modern Classics book on Distant Voices, Still Lives, Terence Davies describes how they chose the location for filming:
Kensington Street, Liverpool, L7 8XD
This small street of Victorian terraced houses to the north of Kensington was the childhood home to Terence Davies and his family. The Victorian houses in Kensington Sreet were demolished in 1961 and replaced at a later date by a low-rise Council estate and two industrial units. However, houses very similar to those in Kensington Street remain to the south of Kensington in streets such as Albany Road, L7 8RG and Saxony Road, L7 8RU.
47 Whistler Street, London, N5 1NJ:
The central location for the filming of Distant Voices, Still Lives was chosen for its architectural similarity to Davies's childhood home in Kensington Street, Liverpool. 47 Whistler Street is a small terraced house in row of similar Victorian houses located in north London on the edge of Highbury Fields. The street can be accessed from the park via a small alleyway, or from Drayton Park, the main road behind the street. The houses on the west side of Whistler Street are bay-fronted and were chosen to depict the actual family home. The houses on the east side are flat-fronted and therefore rarely shown in the film sequences. However, a house on the eastern side of the street is used in the final scene where the group leave Tony's wedding celebration and walk into the darkness.
The Futurist, Lime Street, Liverpool:
The Futurist was the location which inspired the film's (arguably) most artistic sequence in which the two sisters, Eileen and Maisie, attend a screening of Love is a Many Splendored Thing
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from September 18, 1967 to March 23, 1973. The series was created by Irna Phillips, who served as the first head writer. She was replaced by Jane Avery and Ira Avery in 1968, who were followed by Don Ettlinger,...
whilst unknown to them, their brother and Maisie's husband, George, have a serious accident. The Futurist was Liverpool's first purpose-built and longest-surviving cinema, opening in 1912. A very upmarket city centre cinema with a tiled Edwardian facade and 1,029 seats in the stalls and circle auditorium which was richly decorated with plasterwork in the French Renaissance style. The cinema lasted nearly 70 years and closed its doors for the final time in 1982.
Jubilee Drive, Liverpool, L7 8SL
A Victorian street in the Kensington Fields area of east Liverpool, this was the street where Monica (Micky) lived and begged Eileen to come and visit. "So don't be a stranger - otherwise we'll not see you till next Preston Guild. We're only in Jubilee Drive."
Formby Sands
Monica, Jingles and Eileen pitch their tent at Formby sands - a scene which is used to remind Eileen of the free and happy life she lived before her marriage to Dave.
Pwllheli
Although more famous in later years for the Butlins
Butlins
Butlins is a chain of large holiday camps in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families....
holiday parks, in the 1940s this Welsh seaside town was an upmarket location with high-quality hotels. Teenagers from Liverpool and Manchester would work in these hotels in the summer season. In the film, Eileen, Monica and Jingles are seen working as waitresses in the breakfast hall of an (un-named) large hotel.
Autobiographical References
In his British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
Modern Classics book, Paul Farley describes the inspiration that Terence Davies used for the biographical backbone of the film:
Davies was the youngest of ten children, the baby boomer, born into a working-class Catholic household in post-war Liverpool. His father died when he was six-and-a-half, though memories of him as a powerful, domineering, violent man are vivid and, together with the love and support of his mother, form a huge tension in Distant Voices, Still Lives
In fact, Terence Davies's real-life father can be seen in a photograph which hangs on the wall in one of the film's central sequences when the mother and her three children, Tony, Eileen and Maisie, each walk out of the frame to reveal a tired and bleached photograph of their father.
Songs
Music is the central core of Distant Voices, Still Lives and is a device which binds the characters and helps to give them a voice beyond their otherwise repressed lives. In Paul Farley's BFI book, Terence Davies describes the process in which music came alive in the shooting of the film.Many of the songs were sung by the cast, including Debi Jones's light rendition of Buttons and Bows
Buttons and Bows
"Buttons and Bows" is a popular song. The music was written by Jay Livingston with lyric by Ray Evans. The song was published in 1947. The song appeared in the Bob Hope and Jane Russell film, The Paleface, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song...
and Angela Walsh's heart-breaking rendition of Johnny Mercer's I Wanna Be Around
I Wanna Be Around
"I Wanna Be Around" is a popular song. In the lyrics, the singer declares that he "wants to be around" when the woman who spurned him inevitably gets her heart broken....
. The film also features a juxtaposition of Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
singing Taking a Chance on Love
Taking a Chance on Love
"Taking a Chance on Love" is a popular song by Vernon Duke with lyrics by John Latouche and Ted Fetter, published in 1940 , which has become a standard recorded by many artists. It was introduced in the 1940 show Cabin in the Sky, a ground-breaking Broadway musical with an all black cast, where it...
and a scene of brutal domestic violence.
- There's a Man Goin' Round Takin' Names Jessye NormanJessye NormanJessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
- I Get the Blues When it Rains Marcy Klauber
- Oh, Mein Papa Eddie Calvert
- Roll out the Barrel (Beer Barrel Polka) Jaromír VejvodaJaromír VejvodaJaromír Vejvoda was a Czech composer and the author of the "Beer Barrel Polka".-Life and work:...
- A Hymn to the Virgin Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
- Pastoral Symphony No.3 Vaughan Williams
- Love is a Many Splendored Thing MantovaniMantovaniAnnunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....
- Up the Lazy River Hoagy CarmichaelHoagy CarmichaelHoward Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
- Galway Bay Tommy Riley
- Taking a Chance on Love Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
- Finger of Suspicion Dicky Valentine
- My Yiddishe Momma Anne Shelton
- Brown Skin Girl King Radio
- Back in the Old Routine Wilson Stone
- I Love the Ladies (Traditional)
- Buttons and Bows Jay LivingstonJay LivingstonJay Livingston was an American composer and singer best known as half of a songwriting duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote the music and Evans the lyrics....
Ray EvansRay EvansRaymond Bernard Evans was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films... - If You Knew Suzie Joseph Meyer & Stephen W. Ballantine, George Buddy De Sylva
- I Wanna Be Around Johnny MercerJohnny MercerJohn Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
- sung in the 1950s by Julie LondonJulie LondonJulie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years... - O Waly, Waly Peter PearsPeter PearsSir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
- The melody Isle of InnisfreeIsle of InnisfreeThe Isle of Innisfree is a song composed by Dick Farrelly , born Richard Farrelly, who wrote both the music and lyrics. Dick got the inspiration for "Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered, while on a bus journey from his native Kells, County Meath to Dublin...
by Irish songwriter Dick FarrellyDick FarrellyDick Farrelly born Richard Farrelly was an Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, composer of "The Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered. His parents were publicans and when Dick was twenty-three he left Kells, County Meath for Dublin to join the Irish Police Force...
is also used in the film's soundtrack, played beautifully on the harmonica; it's also the main theme of the 1952 film, The Quiet ManThe Quiet ManThe Quiet Man is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic comedy-drama film. It was directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh...
.
Alcohol
Many of the film's most illuminating sequences were filmed in public houses. In one scene Tony orders a round of drinks from the bar and lists a number of drinks that would have been staple drinks for 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, but barely heard of now. These include 'Mackies', Black and TanBlack and Tan
Black and Tan is a drink made from a blend of pale ale, usually Bass Pale Ale, and a dark beer such as a stout or porter, most often Guinness. Sometimes a pale lager is used instead of ale; this is usually called a half and half. Contrary to popular belief, however, Black and Tan as a mixture of...
, 'A Pale Ale and Lime' and 'A Rum and Pep'.
Cast
- Pete PostlethwaitePete PostlethwaitePeter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE, was an English stage, film and television actor.After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr...
- Father - Freda DowieFreda DowieFreda Dowie is an English actress.Her television credits include: Dixon of Dock Green, Doomwatch, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, Upstairs, Downstairs, The Carnforth Practice, I, Claudius, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Pickwick Papers, Lillie, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Our Friends in the North and...
- Mother - Lorraine Ashbourne - Maisie
- Angela Walsh - Eileen
- Dean Williams - Tony
- Jean BohtJean BohtJean Boht is an English actress.She is most famous for the role of Nellie Boswell in Carla Lane's comedy Bread....
- Aunty Nell - Michael Starke - Dave
- Andrew SchofieldAndrew Schofield-Early life:Born in Kirkby, Merseyside, Schofield attended St Kevin's RC Comprehensive School. At 15 he was cast in Willy Russell's first Play for Today, Death of a Young, Young Man.-Stage:...
- Les - Debi Jones - Micky
- Chris Darwin - Red
- Vincent Maguire - George
- Pauline QuirkePauline QuirkePauline Perpetua Quirke is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Sharon in the comedy series Birds of a Feather, alongside her lifelong friend and frequent acting partner Linda Robson...
- Doreen - Antonia Mallen - Rose