Award-winning director Terence Davies dies aged 77
The award-winning filmmaker Terence Davies, the mind behind Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Deep Blue Sea and The Long Day Closes, has died aged 77.
The news of Davies’ death was shared on his official Instagram page. The short statement reads: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Terence Davies, who died peacefully at home after a short illness, today on 7th October 2023.”
The message also adds the Latin phrase, “Pulvis et Umbra Sumus” (We are but dust and shadows), by the Roman poet Horace, and an extract from Christina Rossetti’s poem, When I Am Dead, My Dearest. It reads: “And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget.”
Davies was born in Liverpool on November 10th, 1945, as the youngest of ten children of working-class Catholic parents. He worked as a clerk in a shipping office and bookkeeper at an accountant’s office before enrolling at the Coventry Drama School in 1973, which changed the course of his life.
Beginning with 1978’s short Children – an autobiographical film – Davies established himself as one of the UK’s most exciting auteurs. He followed this up with 1980’s short Madonna and Child and another one, Death And Transfiguration, in 1983. He then moved into the world of feature films with 1988’s period drama Distant Voices, Still Lives. The project starred Freda Dowie opposite Pete Postlethwaite and was drawn upon his own family experiences of working-class life in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool.
The movie won the ‘Film of the Year’ at the London Film Critics Circle and ‘FIPRESCI Prize’ at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Later movies by Davies include 1992’s The Long Day Closes and 2011’s The Deep Blue Sea, which stars Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston.
His most recent feature was the 2021 Netflix biographical romantic drama Benediction, which was written and directed by Davies. Starring Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi, and the late Julian Sands, it was based on the life of the influential English poet Siegfried Sassoon.
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