---
title: "Of Time and the City"
year: 2008
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/of-time-and-the-city"
fi1m_id: "of-time-and-the-city"
imdb_id: "tt1232790"
tmdb_id: 29785
wikidata_id: "Q3349493"
fi1m_score: 82
critics_score: 81
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-10-01T20:22:55.567523+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T20:23:00.210756+00:00"
region: "SK"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Of Time and the City (2008)

Directed by Terence Davies · 1h 14m · Documentary

## Identity

Of Time and the City

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/of-time-and-the-city
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** of-time-and-the-city
- **IMDb ID:** tt1232790
- **TMDB ID:** 29785
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3349493
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232790/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/29785, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3349493

**Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 81 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* Terence Davies rolls his eyes at the Beatles and the Queen, then weeps over a block of flats

> Terence Davies lays old film of Liverpool under borrowed songs, borrowed poems and his own voice, and mourns the city he grew up in. It is sharp, funny and often sour, and we forgave the sourness. It gets through a lifetime in 74 minutes.

## Synopsis

Liverpool, from the 1940s to the present, in archive film narrated by Terence Davies, who grew up there and left. Newsreel and amateur footage show dockers leaving the gates, women scrubbing their front steps, children swimming off the landing stage, the ferry crossing the Mersey. Davies recalls a working-class childhood, a faith he prayed hard to keep and lost, and a sexuality he discovered watching the wrestlers at Liverpool Stadium. The Queen’s Coronation of 1953 passes with a running sum of what it cost; the Beatles get a brief and unimpressed mention. Editor Liza Ryan-Carter sets old songs and classical pieces against the demolition of the terraces and the tower blocks that replaced them. Roy Boulter and Sol Papadopoulos produce; the whole thing runs 74 minutes.

## Review

Terence Davies grew up in Liverpool, left it, and in 2008 came back with 74 minutes made almost entirely from other people’s film of the place. Newsreel, council documentaries, amateur film, television: dockers coming off shift, women on their knees scrubbing a doorstep, boys swimming off the landing stage, the ferry crossing the Mersey. Over it he reads, in a voice that has clearly enjoyed a lifetime of being listened to: his own memories, written up with some ceremony, and lines he has borrowed from Eliot, Housman and Chekhov. Under both runs the music he loved. It is the first film he had made since *The House of Mirth* (2000), and it is a good one, with a sourness in it that we will come to.

It is not a history of Liverpool and does not try to be. The city appears only where it touched him: the church where he prayed hard and got no answer, the cinema, the football terraces, the wrestling at Liverpool Stadium where he watched the men in the ring and understood, as a boy, what he was. He says this plainly, and says what it meant to know it in a decade that sent men to prison for it. The film runs roughly from the war to the present, but it moves by association rather than by date, and anyone wanting to know what happened to the docks will have to look elsewhere.

Liza Ryan-Carter cuts it to the music rather than to the narration, and that is why the film works. The sequence everyone remembers, and that we will not pretend to have been immune to, has Peggy Lee singing *The Folks Who Live on the Hill* over footage of the new estates: terraces coming down in clouds of dust, then tower blocks going up, then children on the walkways and washing on concrete balconies. Lee is singing about growing old content in a house with a view. The camera is looking at homes nobody would choose to grow old in. We were moved more than we expected, and it was the gap between the song and the picture that did it; the film does not have to say a word, and for once Davies does not.

He is funny, too, and not kindly. The Coronation of 1953 gets a long look and a running sum of what it cost against what the streets around him had. The Beatles get a few seconds and a sniff; he tells us he had moved on to Mahler by then and clearly expects us to agree. We laughed at the Coronation, and then felt a little ashamed, because the people in the newsreel are so plainly happy and he is so plainly not. Most critics have forgiven the tone. One has not, and found the film cynical. We think that is the wrong word. Davies is not sneering at Liverpool. He is angry with it for not having been kinder to him, and the anger is what keeps the nostalgia honest.

There are faults. The footage Davies shot himself, of the city as it is now, is on clean digital video, and beside the grain and bleed of the archive it looks like a property programme. The spell breaks every time he returns to it. A montage of young men going off to the Korean War is laid under a sentimental pop ballad, and it is the one place where the music tells you what to feel when the pictures already had. And the prose can be purple. Davies writes as though every sentence must be fit to carve, and after an hour we would have taken a few that were not.

Set against his own films, it is a companion to [*Distant Voices, Still Lives*](https://film.one/film/distant-voices-still-lives) (1988) and *The Long Day Closes* (1992), which built these streets on sets, cast actors as his family and lit them like memory. Here he has the actual streets and nobody acting, and he has to supply the family himself, in words. It is lighter than those films and quicker, and it lets him be funny about his own misery in a way they did not.

Watch it at home, late, with the lights off and the sound up, and preferably with someone who has left somewhere and not entirely got over it. Roy Boulter and Sol Papadopoulos produced it, and what they got was a film about Liverpool that spends a good deal of its 74 minutes declining to celebrate the place.

*Fi1m score 82, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews lean strongly in the film’s favour. Most critics describe Davies’s return as a poetic, deeply personal essay on Liverpool, and the praise clusters in the same place: the archive footage, chosen with evident care, and the way it is set against music and Davies’s own narration. Several reviews call the juxtapositions rapturous or intoxicating, and most find the voice-over witty as well as mournful. Even the dissenters concede the film is beautifully assembled.

Where they part is on Davies himself. His anger at what became of the city strikes some as a strength and others as grating; the Los Angeles Times finds it occasionally overwrought, and Eye for Film, the one outright negative review, dislikes the sour, cynical tone enough to turn against the film. Variety finds it charming but not especially profound about Liverpool itself, and The AV Club thinks the sterile digital photography breaks the spell. The spread is narrow, with one clear outlier.

## Straight answers

**Is Of Time and the City worth watching?**

*Of Time and the City* is worth watching for anyone who has left a place and not quite got over it, and we scored it 82. Terence Davies lays archive film of Liverpool under songs, poems and his own voice, and the result is sharp, funny and often sour. The purple prose and the clean digital footage of the present day break the spell now and then.

**How long is Of Time and the City, and what is it rated?**

*Of Time and the City* runs 1h 14m. It is a documentary film.

**Where can I watch Of Time and the City in Slovakia?**

*Of Time and the City* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovakia at the moment. It is available in 3 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Of Time and the City, and is it suitable for children?**

*Of Time and the City* carries a UK 12A certificate and contains no violence or frights to speak of; it is archive film of Liverpool with Terence Davies talking over it. The adult content is in the talk, which touches on lost faith, a boy discovering his sexuality at the wrestling, and the cost of the Coronation. Young children would be bored rather than alarmed.

**What should I watch after Of Time and the City?**

After *Of Time and the City*, try [*Distant Voices, Still Lives*](https://film.one/film/distant-voices-still-lives) (1988, Fi1m 90): The same Liverpool streets, rebuilt on a set, with Davies’s family singing in the pub. Then [*Sans Soleil*](https://film.one/film/sans-soleil) (1983, Fi1m 82): Chris Marker’s letters read over footage of Tokyo and Guinea-Bissau; the essay film at its freest.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (5/5): The review calls the film an enthralling, poetic docu-essay, while noting its caustic streak. It singles out the distinctive mix of music and literary voices. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/of-time-and-the-city)
- **Empire**, Ian Freer (95/100, inferred): The critic calls it a poignant, beautiful and entrancing film, praising Davies’ personal yet universal portrait of Liverpool. The review singles out the carefully chosen archive footage, varied soundtrack and narration. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/time-city-review/)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (95/100, inferred): Bradshaw calls the film sublime and a welcome comeback for Davies. He especially praises the rapturous, often brilliantly wrong juxtapositions of archival images, music and narration. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/31/of-time-and-the-city)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (90/100, inferred): The critic gives the film a strongly positive verdict. The film’s lyrical, personal treatment of Liverpool’s past is singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/movies/21time.html)
- **IndieWire**, James Crawford (85/100, inferred): Crawford finds the film intoxicating and deeply personal, praising Davies’s poetic, seductive voice and intelligence. He notes that the Korean War montage’s sentimental song choice is a rare misstep. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general/sydney-dispatch-3-of-time-and-the-city-226384/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (85/100, inferred): Turan finds the film a distinct pleasure, despite moments when Davies’s anger feels grating and overwrought. He especially praises Davies’s eye for evocative archival footage and his skillful pairing of images with music. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-time30-2009jan30-story.html)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B+): Tobias describes the film as a caustic, witty, regretful elegy that offers a distinctive portrait of Liverpool. He praises Davies’ personal perspective and narration, while noting that the sterile digital photography breaks the spell. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/of-time-and-the-city-1798205536)
- **Sight and Sound** (80/100, inferred): The critic offers an affectionate, amused and sometimes angry portrait of Davies’s Liverpool. They praise the deft use of archival footage, witty commentary, literary quotations and apt music. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/f99dd942-eee8-5228-8864-047f737f5cb5/of-time-and-the-city)
- **Slant Magazine**, Fernando F. Croce (3/4): Croce finds the film emotionally powerful, though its mix of rue, anger, and elation only occasionally becomes rhapsodic. He praises its layered archival images and melodic passages, which make the vanished world of Davies’s childhood feel vividly present. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/of-time-and-the-city/)
- **The New Yorker** (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary a poignant celebration and mourning of Liverpool. They praise how Davies’s voice-over and musical selections animate archival footage through inventive montage. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/of-time-and-the-city-2)
- **Variety**, Leslie Felperin (65/100, inferred): Felperin finds the film moving, droll and charming, though not especially profound and sometimes short on insight about Liverpool itself. She praises its polished editing, musical choices, Davies’s narration and especially its archival research. [Read](https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/of-time-and-the-city-1200522260/)
- **Eye for Film**, Val Kermode (30/100, inferred): Kermode finds the film beautifully made and haunting, but ultimately dislikes its sour, cynical tone. She especially praises the archive footage and moments when music and images combine without Davies’s narration. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/of-time-and-the-city-film-review-by-val-kermode)

## Details

- **Director:** Terence Davies
- **Director:** Terence Davies
- **Writer:** Terence Davies
- **Editor:** Liza Ryan-Carter
- **Producer:** Roy Boulter, Sol Papadopoulos
- **Cast:** Terence Davies as Self - Narrator (voice)
- **Runtime:** 1h 14m
- **First release (France):** 19 May 2008
- **Genres:** Documentary
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f_Hnf7V-5Q

## Where to watch in Slovakia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovakia at the last check.

Also available in: GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Distant Voices, Still Lives* (1988), Fi1m 90: The same Liverpool streets, rebuilt on a set, with Davies’s family singing in the pub. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/distant-voices-still-lives.md)
- *London* (1994): Patrick Keiller walks a city with a grudge, a bibliography and a dry narrator.
- *Sans Soleil* (1983), Fi1m 82: Chris Marker’s letters read over footage of Tokyo and Guinea-Bissau; the essay film at its freest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sans-soleil.md)
- *My Winnipeg* (2007): Guy Maddin invents his home town in order to get out of it; funnier and stranger.
- *News from Home* (1977): Chantal Akerman reads her mother’s letters over long shots of a New York that is not home.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/of-time-and-the-city