Sunset Song.

Based on the classic 1932 novel Sunset Song by the writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century a novel rooted in the landscape of Aberdeenshire. It was the first part of a trilogy A Scots Quair all of which have been adapted for BBC TV. The central character of the trilogy is the boyishly attractive Chris Guthrie who in this adaptation is brought wonderfully to life by Agyness Deyn who you may remember had the lead role in 2013’s Electricity.

 

The hard slog just to stay above the poverty line.

Set in the fictional estate of Kinraddie in The Mearns, Kincardineshire at the start of the 20^th century and taking in the Great War, Sunset Song (2015) tackles the hardship of rural Scottish crofting life where people toil the land just to stay above poverty level and how most woman had a subservient role in society being at their husbands beck and call to keep house, have sex and rear children. Family life in the Guthrie household is dominated by her brutal father John (a chilling Peter Mullan) a religious bigot who seems to get his enjoyment from taking the belt to his son Will (Jack Greenlees) and bullying his wife Jean (Daniela Nardini). It’s the young and intelligent Chris Guthrie who hopes for more from life - but tragic circumstances intercede.

 

Will Chris exchange one type of servitude for another?

Soon after directing The House of Mirth (2000) Liverpool born master filmmaker Terence Davies along with others planned an adaptation of Grassic Gibbon’s novel but because of problems raising the necessary finance did not start production on the film until 2014, Davies had first fallen in love with the story in 1971 when it was shown on the BBC and starred EastEnders actress Vivian Heilbron as Chris.  During this hiatus Davies made two films, the first a documentary commissioned to mark Liverpool’s year as European City of Culture and recalling Davies’s life growing up in Liverpool in the 1950’s and 60’s. Of Time and the City (2008) used newsreel and documentary footage with a voice over from the director. After this he adapted Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play of the same name The Deep Blue Sea (2011).

 

We must stop meeting like this!

Although imbedded with typical Terence Davies trademarks and the socialist heart found in his earlier work’s Distant Voice, Still Lives (1988) and to a slightly lesser extent in The Long Day Closes (1992), which both included snapshots of ‘real’ life family experiences, births, marriage and death all blighted by a sadistic patriarch and of course the required sing along, but it’s the slow pacing of Sunset Song that blights the later part of the film. People familiar with the great mans work will know that Davies characteristically does not rush his direction allowing us to saviour his scripts but in this case it seems just a wee bit too prolonged. But please don’t think this is bad movie, quite the contrary, it’s an excellent film, beautifully shot and a worthy addition to the directors oeuvre.

The Deep Blue Sea

Hester reflects.

Terence Davies latest film returns to the period of two of his two best-known movies. The first of which was his debut feature film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) This film focused on the real life experiences of Davies mother, sisters and brother whose lives were blighted by their brutal sadistic father. It’s a portrait of working class life in the 1940’s and 50’s Liverpool. Davies followed this up with The Long Day Closes (1992) another film that evokes the 1950’s, set in the Liverpool of his childhood. This autobiographical story display’s a montage of memories of the eleven-year-old boy. His latest film moves the location to North London but maintains the same post war timeframe. Davies was approached on behalf of the Sir Terence Rattigan Charitable Trust by producer Sean O’Connor to make The Deep Blue Sea (2011) as part of the writer’s centenary celebrations.

Hester loves Freddie but does Freddie really love Hester?

Davies free adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s 1952 stage play imparts the story of a 40ish married woman who leaves a 50ish loving husband and a comfortable life style for passion and sexual love an unusual thing for a women at that time. The film opens with an attempted suicide in front of an unlit gas fire that’s thwarted by the landlady and other tenants of the shabby boarding house in North London where Hester Collyer now lives with her lover the hard drinking Freddie Page a former RAF pilot who’s never recovered from the heightened experience’s of the Battle of Britain. We discover through flashbacks that Hester had left her kind and adoring husband, the High Court Judge Sir William Collyer in an attempt to find a passionate love affair with the emotionally immature Freddie. The movie very quickly demonstrates that all has not succeeded quite as planned.

This emotional triangle features some beautifully controlled acting from all three main protagonists. Rachel Weisz exposes the barely repressed sexuality of Hester, with Tom Hiddleston as the alluring Freddie, while Simon Russell Beale does a wonderfully restrained portrayal of Sir William. The casting of all three is exquisite each one totally convincingly at depicting the pain and anguish involved in this three-way relationship.

The hurt is obvious in Sir Williams eyes!

Terence Davies is probably one of cinema’s most underrated filmmakers, something I’ve never been able to comprehend. All of his films are exquisitely composed pieces of work. His trademark use of colour and composition of the lighting coupled with softness of focus and fluency of its camera work, this time by German DP Florian Hoffmeister, coupled with innovative use of music that always forms part of the narrative including the requisite communal sing-alongs. Davies is a director that always original and leaves a lasting impression on all connoisseurs of good film.

Coincidently part of the film was shot in Granville Square London WC1 just around the corner from where I first went to school, I had school friends living in the Square at the same time as this wonderfully composed drama was set!