Episode 401: THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992) with Abbie Phelps

The wistful, self-aware reflections highlighted in movies like THE LONG DAY CLOSES earned Terence Davies the unique moniker of ‘cinematic poet’. He grew up Catholic, discovered his queerness young, and came of age during British postwar austerity, but it’s not so much about his upbringing as it is about his recollection of his upbringing. It makes sense when you watch it.

Abbie Phelps designed the delightful poster that promoted a short Terence Davies series at the Trylon, and she also happens to love this movie, so we’ve welcomed her back to the show to dig into what makes it special, what ‘cinematic poetry’ actually means, the power of music in communicating memory, and what people misunderstand about THE LONG DAY CLOSES!

Find Abbie…

• On Bluesky at https://bsky.app/abbiememorydoll.bsky.social
• On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goodhunterabbie/
• On Trylove episodes about DRIVE ANGRY (2011), WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), THE TRAIN (1964), MOULIN ROUGE! (2001), PHANTOM THREAD (2017), STAR WARS (1977) (with Natalie Marlin), THE INSIDER (1999)

References:

• Buy the poster Abbie designed for “Terence Davies, Cinema’s Greatest Poet” at the Trylon (Sept. 2026): https://ko-fi.com/s/a9b4005fd4
• “Mark Kermode on… the revered British director Terence Davies: ‘He had to fight to get every film made’” (Nov. 2023) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/04/mark-kermode-on-the-revered-british-director-terence-davies-he-had-to-fight-to-get-every-film-made-distant-voices-still-lives-benediction-the-long-day-closes
• “Coming of Age in Pittsburgh: To Fashion a Text” by Annie Dillard (The Wilson Quarterly Volume 12, Issue 1 Winter 1988) https://wilsonquarterly-legacy-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/full-issues/new-year-1.pdf
• “Hopes For Paradise: Terrence Davies and The Long Day Closes” by Rich Woodall for The Quietus (May 2022): https://thequietus.com/culture/film/film-terrence-davies-long-day-closes-30-anniversary/
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets at https://www.trylon.org/
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog, at https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!

#TerenceDaviesCinemasGreatestPoet #DCP

Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Tammy" written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, orchestrated by Joseph Gershenson, and sung by Debbie Reynolds as heard on the THE LONG DAY CLOSES soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 401: THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992) with Abbie Phelps

2:26 - A question about Halloween

5:34 - Whadja Watch This Week?

28:05 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, Ltd.)

29:28 - Abbie’s poster for the Trylon’s Terence Davies series

33:29 - Terence Davies, an all-too-brief and all-too-shallow overview

36:17 - What ‘cinematic poetry’ and ‘pure cinema’ mean in relation to Terence Davies

39:44 - A journey through time, space, and memory

46:40 - The memories you find yourself drifting to

51:50 - What most people get wrong about THE LONG DAY CLOSES

58:48 - How Davies layers recollection and reflection on screen

1:03:06 - The “vivid” decay of memory

1:12:18 - Davies’s use of music in this part of his oeuvre

1:22:07 - A phantom of World War II

1:30:19 - The “Tammy” scene

1:35:09 - The Junk Drawer

1:43:52 - Cody’s Noteys: A Noteys Sampler Platter (multiple themes/types of Q\&A trivia)