The Long Day Closes

Synopsis: The Long Day Closes is the story of eleven-year-old "Bud." A sad and lonely boy, Bud struggles through his days. With cinema as his main source of solace, he haunts the local movie-house. All the while, his family looms large in our peripheral vision as do the menacing bullies of his school, but Bud is the center of attention both from the camera's angle and from his doting family. With a gray background, the film fuses clips and audio from classic movies into Bud's dreary childhood and brings it to life with an elegance Bach would bring to your home movies. The overall effect is a montage of memory which seems to ignite flashes of recognition in the viewer.
Genre: Biography, Drama
Director(s): Terence Davies
Production: The Film Desk
  2 wins & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
85
Rotten Tomatoes:
83%
PG
Year:
1992
85 min
367 Views


[ Minuet From Boccherini's "String Quintet In E" ]

[ Ends ]

[ Gong Crashing ]

[ Woman In Film ]

A tap, Gossage. I said a tap.

You're not introducing a film.

[ 20th Century Fox Theme ]

[ Ends ]

[ Man In Film, Singsong ] Louis

Louis

[ "Stardust" ]

[ Nat King Cole ]

And now the purple dusk of twilight time

Steals across the meadows of my heart

High up in the sky

The little stars climb

Always reminding me

That we're apart

You wander down the lane and far away

Leaving me a song

That will not die

Love is now the stardust

Of yesterday

The music

Of the years

Gone by

[ Man In Film ]

Mrs. Wilberforce...

I understand you have rooms to let.

[ Boy ]

Mam!

Mam!

Can I go to the pictures, Mam?

- Mam?

- Yeah?

- I've got a penny.

- So?

If you give me 11 pence, I'd have a shilling.

[ Chuckling ]

You're not soft, are you?

Mam?

Oh, go on, Mam.

Our Titchie said she'd take me.

Oh, go on, Mam.

Eh, Bud, get me those nets...

out of the lads' bedroom, will you?

Okay, Mam.

[ Men Laughing ]

[ Man ] Pass us a few bricks, will ya?

[ Boards Thudding ]

Oh, come on, lad.

Where's those nets?

I want to wash them.

[ Bud Laughs ]

That's before he'll bring them down.

You little bugger!

[ Men Laughing ]

[ Boards Continue Thudding ]

[ Mother ] If you were the only girl in the world

And I was the only boy

Nothing else would matter

In this world today

We would go on loving

In the same old way

A Garden of Eden

Just meant for two

With nothing to mar our joy

I would say

Such wonderful things to you

There would be

Such wonderful things to do

[ Metal Utensils Scraping ]

If you were the only girl

In the world

And I was the only boy

Go on. Get me purse.

Oh, thanks, Mam!

[ Humming ]

Today

We would go on living

- [ Water Splashing ]

- [ Humming ]

- Your tea's ready, Kev.

- Okay, Mam.

[ Scraping Continues ]

[ Humming Continues ]

All right, Mam.

Hiya, Mam.

[ Woman ] Hey, John, will you get

the flatirons out for me?

Yeah, okay, Titch.

Where's our Bud, Mam?

The pictures. Where else?

[ Big Band, Jaunty ]

[ Doris Day ] Every little breeze

is sighin' of love undyin'

At sundown

Every little bird is resting

feather-nesting

At sundown

Each little rosebud

- Is sleepin'

- Will you take us in, mister?

While shadows

Are creepin'

In a little cottage cozy the world seems rosy

At sundown

- Where a lovin' smile will greet me

- Will you take us in, please?

Always meet me at sundown

- I seem to sigh

- Will you take us in, mister?

I'm in heaven

- When the night is fallin'

- Thanks, mister!

Love is callin' me home

[ Instrumental Break ]

I seem to sigh

I'm in heaven

When the night is fallin'

Love's callin' me home

[ Ends ]

[ Young Man ] I'll get you, Mavis!

- [ Mother ] What are you running for?

- [ Bud ] Tiddle Hodge was chasing me.

- Why?

- I was skittin' him.

You be careful.

One day he'll catch you

and give you a right go-along.

Tiddle-iddle-iddle

Tiddle-iddle-iddle Hodge

[ People Chattering ]

[ Fireworks Whooshing ]

[ Chattering Continues ]

[ Man ] Ah, is this your daughter?

Got a boyfriend?

Got a boyfriend?

It's smashin' at the moment.

See that one there? Went right up

in the sky, and it hit me house.

- Ah, it's great.

- Some fire.

Hey, watch what you're doin' with them sparklers.

[ Woman, A Cappella ]

Blow the wind southerly

Southerly, southerly

Blow the wind south

O'er the bonny blue sea

Blow the wind southerly

Southerly, southerly

Blow, bonny breeze

My lover to me

They told me last night

There were ships in the offing

And I hurried down

To the deep rolling sea

But my eye could not see it

Wherever might be it

The barque that is bearing

My lover to me

Blow the wind southerly

- Southerly, southerly

- [ Wind Gusting ]

Blow, bonny breeze

- O'er the bonny blue sea

- [ Waves Crashing ]

Blow the wind southerly

Southerly, southerly

Blow, bonny breeze

And bring him to me

Is it not sweet

To hear the breeze singing

As lightly it comes

O'er the deep rolling sea

But sweeter and dearer

By far 'tis

When bringing the barque

Of my true love

In safety

To me

[ "Richard Rodgers's "The Carousel Waltz" ]

[ Continues ]

- There's our John and Kevin, Mam.

- John!

- Kevin!

- Kevin!

John! Kevin!

[ Continues ]

[ Air Rifles Firing ]

Oh, yeah. Round the end.

Nearly had the green one.

[ Clicking ]

[ Man, A Cappella ] She stepped away from me

And she went through the fair

And fondly

I watched her move here

And move there

And then she went homeward

With one star awake

As the swan in the evening

Moves over the lake

- Last night she came to me [Fades ]

- [ Mother ] Last night she came to me

She came softly in

So softly she came

- [ Clock Ticking ]

- That her feet made no din

And she laid her hand on me

And this she did say

It will not be long, love

Till our wedding day

[ Clock Continues Ticking ]

Me dad used to sing that.

Granddad O'Brien?

Yeah.

Lock up, will you, Kev?

Okay, Mam.

[ Whispers ] Mam.

Mam.

[ Male Voice Growling, Snarling ]

[ Screaming ]

It was a man!

It was a man!

It's all right.

You're all right.

[ George Butterworth's

"Rhapsody:
A Shropshire Lad" ]

[ Children Shouting ]

[ Child Giggling ]

[ Mother ] It's your last term

at Canon Kennedy's, isn't it, lad?

Are you looking forward to going up

to the big boys' school, Bud?

[ Bud ]

What am I gonna get for Christmas, Mam?

[ Mother ] Don't be so nosy.

[ Bells Jingling ]

[ Boy, A Cappella ]

Once in royal David's city

Stood a lowly cattle shed

Where a mother laid her baby

In a manger for his bed

Mary was

- That mother mild

- [ People Chattering ]

Jesus Christ her little child

[ Titch ] Makes your heart bleed, doesn't it?

Are you gonna help me with these things?

[ Kevin ] In the morning.

I've got to get a tree.

- No, we got that little tree of our own.

- [ John ] Have you got the tree?

- I think it's still in the attic.

- [ Titch Chuckling ]

[ John ]

You should give some of them decorations away.

- You've had them for years.

- No, I like these.

They've got a real history, haven't they?

[ Family Conversing, Indistinct ]

[ Mahler's "Symphony No. 10" ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

It's Christmas.

[ Conversing, Indistinct ]

Happy Christmas, lad.

Happy Christmas, Bud.

[ Chattering, Indistinct ]

[ Wind Gusting ]

[ Fades ]

[ Orson Welles In Film ] In those days

they had time for everything

time for sleigh rides and balls...

and assemblies and cotillions...

and open house on New Year's.

[ Crowd ]

Oh, the Cokey Cokey!

Oh, the Cokey Cokey!

Knees bend, arms stretch, rah, rah, rah!

[ Man ]

It's 12:
00!

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind

Should old acquaintance be forgot

For the sake of auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

For the sake of auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

For the sake of auld lang syne

- [ Cheering ]

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Terence Davies

Terence Davies (born 10 November 1945) is an English screenwriter, film director, novelist and actor. He is best known as the writer and director of Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992) as well the collage film Of Time and the City (2008). more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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