Review of Of Time and the City (2008) by Mike M — 28 Oct 2008
An absolute treat... the enunciation of certain phrases ("Queen of the South", "pomegranate", "curling tongs") would be worth the price of admission on their own; coupled to the director's gift for evoking past worlds through words - Bakelite radios "as small and brown as Hovis", gobstoppers that "would last you until your middle age" - it's enough to have made even this viewer (b.
1978) nostalgic. Davies also knows when to keep schtum, and to let the images do the talking for him: I doubt there'll be any montage this year more moving and lyrical than that showing soldiers marching off to war to the strains of The Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" - except, possibly, the later montage of Liverpudlian tower-block dwellers set to Peggy Lee's "The Folks Who Live On The Hill".
By this point, the film has conjured its peculiar, universalising magic: it's no longer just the story of one Liverpudlian, of one city even, but all our histories, wherever (and whenever) we grew up.
"Do you remember?," speaks that voice on the soundtrack, then again, as though to emphasise: "Do you remember? Can you forget?".
This review of Of Time and the City (2008) was written by Mike M on 28 Oct 2008.
Of Time and the City has generally received positive reviews.
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