Terence Davies
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You may recall similarly formative moviegoing scenes from John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory” or Terence Davies’ “The Long Day Closes,” with their early glimpses of a future steeped in the pictures.
It may seem like having a child protagonist might restrict the themes and subject matter that you would explore, but just take a quick look through an array of films of this kind to see the depth that’s possible: Louis Malle’s Au Revoir Les Enfants (a favorite of Branagh’s) handles the shame and complicity of bystanders during the Holocaust, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn celebrates a Brooklyn childhood without once losing perspective of race and class, Terrence Davies’ The Long Day Closes is a blossoming poem to the childhood memories that we carry with us for life, Abbas Kiarostami’s Where is the Friends House?
Thematically, it also has much in common with Terence Davies’ 1992 classic The Long Day Closes, which considers the influence of movies, family, and home on a young boy’s life.
This technique, used to perfection by Terence Davies in The Long Day Closes, also risks the ridiculous in what turns out to be the emotional highlight of the film: a reenactment of a moment from High Noon, replete with Tex Ritter’s famous “Do Not Forsake Me” ballad coming over the soundtrack.
Belfast doesn’t come close to relaying personal experiences in the way that enhanced Terence Davies’s The Long Day Closes , John Boorman’s Hope and Glory , and Jim Sheridan’s In America , just to name three Irish-ethnic movies where the directors’ own lives prompted deep responses universally.
The Tree of Life (2011)
Directed by Terrence Malick
influenced by The Long Day Closes (1992), Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
Visuals Themes
More specifically, through Jack’s childhood memories so that like Terence Davies’s Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, the recollections are segmented and combined with small non-naturalistic moments to reflect what impressions remained with Jack into his adult life.
I thought about Davies’ Distant Voices, Still Lives while watching Malick’s more expansive movie.
Overall, the visual and tonal sobriety find the depth in the book, and give or take a few years, the film brings Alcott’s world close to that of Edith Wharton’s novels, placing it in the same social universe as The House of Mirth or The Age of Innocence .
Though Granik’s approach is reminiscent of the sensitive, stripped-down style of Kelly Reichardt’s work (“Wendy and Lucy,” “Certain Women”), by reteaming with Scottish cinematographer Michael McDonough (who shot not only “Winter’s Bone,” but also Terence Davies’ radiant “Sunset Song” and the gritty prison drama “Starred Up”), she creates a richer visual environment in which to dwell.
What prevents it from becoming a chore, besides the engulfing, unshowy vistas lensed by cinematographer Michael McDonough (“Sunset Song”), is an unspoken tension between the characters.
Shot by Michael McDonough (“Sunset Song”), these opening scenes establish the film as one that beautifully straddles the line between the realistic and the lyrical.
Moments in "Moonlight" bring a whole range of disparate films to mind, its poetic involvement with day-to-day black life, for instance, recalling Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep" while its counterpointing of strong, often violent emotion with evocative music (Nicholas Britell did the score) echoing Terence Davies' "Distant Voices, Still Lives" to mind.
Films such as Cinema Paradiso and The Long Day Closes highlight the magic of filmmaking through the eyes of consumers seeking escapism.
The always reliable Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan," "Bringing Out the Dead") delivers a decent take as an airfield mechanic, but the rest of the performers, including Ewen Bremner ("Snatch," "Julien Donkey-Boy") and James King ("Blow," "Happy Campers") as young lovers, Dan Aykroyd ("The House of Mirth," "1941") as a Navy cryptologist and Mako ("Tucker: The Man and His Dreams," "The Sand Pebbles") as the Japanese admiral, don't get enough time or attention to stand out.