Watch Distant Voices, Still Lives

Distant Voices, Still Lives is a powerful film from director Terence Davies that chronicles the lives of a working-class family in Liverpool during the 1940s and 1950s. The movie is a profound exploration of memory, loss, and the passage of time, featuring stunning cinematography and powerful performances from its ensemble cast. The film opens with a 1940s Christmas celebration, during which we are introduced to the various members of the Morrison family. Led by the brutal patriarch, an abusive father, and husband, the family is dominated by a sense of fear and hardship, with the mother struggling to keep her head above water in the face of immense hardship. Over the course of the movie, we witness a series of glimpses into their lives, through experiences both big and small.

The movie is composed of a series of vignettes that are each vignettes In which scenes are fastened together by a series of blackouts, and are accompanied by a gorgeous, haunting soundtrack featuring songs from the era. Each scene tells a story, often focusing on a particular family member or a particular moment in time. There is the joy of a wedding celebration, the sorrow of a funeral, the memory of a first kiss or a holiday spent by the sea.

The performances in the movie are all excellent, with particular standouts being Pete Postlethwaite as the father, Freda Dowie as the mother, and Angela Walsh as the young daughter. Davies' direction is also note-worthy, with the film featuring long takes that allow the emotional weight of the moments to sink in.

And while the film can be very difficult to watch at times, owing to the severity of the emotional and physical violence that is constantly present, there is also a beautiful sense of tenderness that underlies everything. The movie is a meditation on the importance of family, the power of memory, and the beauty that can be found in even the most difficult of situations.

Overall, Distant Voices, Still Lives is a beautiful and moving cinematic experience. It's a stirring portrait of a family struggling to survive in the face of immense adversity, told with a deep sense of empathy and humanity. If you're a fan of emotionally resonant dramas, this is definitely a movie worth checking out.

Distant Voices, Still Lives is a 1988 drama with a runtime of 1 hour and 25 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.4 and a MetaScore of 86.