A very peculiar film, one of the only film that manages to tell a story in fragments and associations of ideas, like a return to the light of memories remained buried in the memory. A movie without a plot, no dialogue, no respect for history, very far from the established rules of screenwriting. We can say that from a certain point of view that is a film in the form of poetry, as opposed to traditional film in the form of prose. The story is then reconstructed by the audience itself, which integrates in his mind the missing parts and interconnections, just like in the video-clips, but in these video works the story has a duration of four minutes or so, while in this remarkable film the entire film writing is built around this method, with a special effort of the Director that must hold for the duration of a standard movie. |
The story is
divided into two parts, just like the title. Distant Voices is the
frightening memory of the alcoholic and violent father, played brilliantly
by the British actor Pete Postlethwaite, dictator in his family, where he
seeks his revenge on a gray life, all set in a leaden and popular Liverpool
before the Beatles era, in the '40s and early the following decade, a city
photographed so impressionistic by Patrick Duval. |
Weddings ... | ... and everyday life, during the "radio days" |
What we see are fragments of this
story, small daily events, habitual gestures (see above), family gatherings
(see images below), in short, moments that are fixed randomly in the memory
of everyone of us. Often, during these memories we can see or hear the
actors singing the songs of that period or the radio playing these songs.
It is not a way of singing musical kind, that is, out of context, it is sung
realistic, consistent with the situation, which arises for pleasure or
convivial gatherings, in pubs, in an era prior to the disco and karaoke,
when customers actively built the soundtrack of the evening. |
Interpreter |
Charcter |
Freda Dowie |
The mother |
Pete Postlethwaite |
The father |
Angela Walsh |
Eileen |
Dean Williams |
Tony |
Lorraine Ashbourne |
Maisie |
Debi Jones |
Micki |
Marie Jelliman |
Jingles |
Sally Davies |
Eileen as child |
Nathan Walsh |
Tony as child |
Susan Flanagan |
Maisie as child |
Soundtrack (Selection) |
The soundtrack consists mostly of popular radio hits of the '40s and '50s in Britain, so realistically re-proposed to sing together in pubs. It is indicated one of the many interpreters who have performed these "standard ". |
Song |
Author / Interpreter |
Moments / Note |
Hymn To The Virgin |
Benjamin Britten |
|
In The Break Midwinter |
Harold Drake |
|
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing |
Susan Bullock |
The famous piece of Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fein, from the soundtrack of the eponymous movie of 1955 with William Holden and Jennifer Jones. |
The Finger Of Suspicioun |
Dickie Valentine |
|
Dreamboat |
Jack Hoffman |
|
The Music of the Years Gone |
Nat King Cole |
|
I Wanna Be Around |
Johnny Mercer / Tony Bennett and others |
|
They Tried to Tell Us We're Too Young |
|
|
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling |
by Chauncey Olcott & George Graff and Ernest Ball |
A song of 1912. |
We’ll Have a Happy Ending Now |
Ella Fitzgerald and others |
The scene of his mother beaten by her husband. |
Taking a Chance On Love |
Ella Fitzgerald and others |
|
The Gang's All Here |
Probably a popular inspired song of 1917, by Leo Feist |
The song that accompanies the scene in the air raid shelters. |
Oh Mein Papa |
|
One of the songs sung in the evenings at the pub. |
The Water is Wide |
Traditional Irish song |
The song during the credits. |
Oh Waly, Waly |
Benjamin Britten |
|
A selection of images of the film |
Tony's wedding | ||
The father so little beloved ... | ... and the reason why ... | |
Preparing for the pub | ||
The evenings at the pub .... | ... singing (and dreaming) together. |
© Alberto Truffi 2011 - Music-Graffiti |