Terence Davies

[MichaelB]

Someone also brought up Of Time and the City - I didn't realize this, but a ton of SD material is in that film, meaning there'd be a limited improvement to the existing DVD. With that in mind I went ahead and bought a used BFI DVD I found online - bargains should be easy to find.

The entire film was produced in SD, something the BFI only realised after they'd prematurely announced a BD - which is why it was cancelled and only the DVD went ahead.

I imagine there'd have been a huge budgetary difference between doing it in SD and doing it in HD because at the time of production there'd have been plenty of off-the-shelf Digibetas of archive materials to work from, but precious little extant HD material, so scanning costs alone would have pushed the budget way up. And at the time of production nobody predicted it would make as big a splash as it did.

[hearthesilence]

Someone also brought up Of Time and the City - I didn't realize this, but a ton of SD material is in that film, meaning there'd be a limited improvement to the existing DVD. With that in mind I went ahead and bought a used BFI DVD I found online - bargains should be easy to find.

The entire film was produced in SD, something the BFI only realised after they'd prematurely announced a BD - which is why it was cancelled and only the DVD went ahead.

I imagine there'd have been a huge budgetary difference between doing it in SD and doing it in HD because at the time of production there'd have been plenty of off-the-shelf Digibetas of archive materials to work from, but precious little extant HD material, so scanning costs alone would have pushed the budget way up. And at the time of production nobody predicted it would make as big a splash as it did.

Yeah, that makes sense. I suppose it's technically possible to re-do the whole film in HD or even 4K, as long as the original archival material still exists, but for a film like this, that's going to be a losing investment or a generous act of philanthropy.

[hearthesilence]

A Chicago Reader interview with Davies when he was promoting A Quiet Passion, I was especially struck by this:

"Yes. When I’m writing, I write every track, pan, dissolve, every bit of music, every bit of copyrighted material, everything. I’ve always done it like that. The reason I started doing it like that is because I can’t draw, so I’ve never done a storyboard in my life. I also do that so I can say to producers, 'This is exactly what we’re going to shoot; you’ve got to find enough money to shoot it.' You can say specifically on this day I need a crane, on that day I need 25 extras. You can husband your resources that way."

[hearthesilence]

Producer Mike Elliott posted a heartwarming tribute to Davies on IG, recounting his final days when he delivered the script for what was to be his next film (which they had begun casting) and it became clear he wouldn't be able to direct it. (Post has three different slides, but the link should take you to the last one which deals with his next film.)

And also from his official IG account:

Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming outpouring of love and appreciation for our dear friend, Terence Davies. As we begin to confront our loss, our thoughts return to the project that Terence was still working on and thinking about just days before he died - FIREFLY.

FIREFLY, inspired by the novel of the same name by Janette Jenkins @jenkins.janette, is set over the last five days of the life of Noël Coward at his hide-away home in Jamaica.

FIREFLY is one of Terence’s most personal scripts. Threading together imagined dreams and memories from Coward’s extraordinary life, Terence explores the nature of fame and success, the pleasures and struggles of being gay, the value of artistic endeavour, and his own impending mortality.

FIREFLY dips into some of Coward’s greatest creations, including Brief Encounter (1945) - one of Terence’s favourite British films, the play Private Lives (1930), and songs such as Mad About the Boy (1932) as well as Coward’s own home movies.

FIREFLY is being produced by EMU Films (Benediction, 2021) and developed with Curzon Films.

[knives]

Sounds amazing. Wonder who they’ll get to be the Preminger to his Lubitsch?

[im_online]

The Film Desk is re-releasing Davies's novel Hallelujah Now with a new intro by Michael Koresky. Out in September LINK

The BFI is releasing Davies's screenplays in two volumes. Volume 1: Autobiography and Biography out in October and Volume 2: Adaptations out in Jan 2026. Links to Bloomsbury since the BFI shop is down.

These books would look pretty neat next to a box set of his unreleased on blu movies.

[hearthesilence]

A complete Terence Davies retrospective will play at the Museum of the Moving Image, Sep. 12 through 21, per Richard Brody.

[Drucker]

Second time they've done this in the last decade, no?

[hearthesilence]

Not sure, but I know BAM had a complete retrospective when The Deep Blue Sea came out. Davies and Weisz appeared for a Q&A, and it was also when I discovered that Paul Dano was a huge fan because he was sitting in the audience and made a beeline for the green room after it was over, presumably to talk with Davies. (Years later he moderated a post-discussion chat with Davies after a screening for another film, which I didn't know about it until the following day.)

Please note, The Neon Bible is listed as a 16mm print. I'm guessing no 35mm print exists because at the last minute, BAM made their screening free because they couldn't get any kind of film print and had to show a craptacular projection of either a DVD or a VHS tape. A damn shame because you can tell this is a film that needs to be seen in a good 35mm print, with some beautiful high contrast images (easily seen if you search for film stills).

[bearcuborg]

A complete retrospective with a unseen early short film, family letters, and remaster of The House of Mirth at BFI Southbank

Looking forward to returning to London for this event!