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* ComingOfAgeStory: For the Lewis children.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas Eve, Tommy shows love to his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas Eve, Tommy shows expresses love to for his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.
awake. As Terence Davies puts it on the DVDCommentary track:
-->(A) lot of people have said about this bit that it makes him more human... but my response is always the same. Like all tyrants, he is moved by sentimentality, not by real emotion, 'cos if he really wanted to show his love, he should have said it to them when they were awake.
-->(A) lot of people have said about this bit that it makes him more human... but my response is always the same. Like all tyrants, he is moved by sentimentality, not by real emotion, 'cos if he really wanted to show his love, he should have said it to them when they were awake.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas, Tommy shows love to his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas, Christmas Eve, Tommy shows love to his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.awake.
----
----
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' is a 1988 British film written and directed by Terence Davies.
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' is a 1988 British film written and directed by Terence Davies.
Davies as his feature directorial debut.
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The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on the 1950s. The Lewises have tried to put their lives back together after Tommy's death, but his presence looms. All three Lewis children get married and have children of their own, and they all try to find a bit of happiness.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on the 1950s. The Lewises have tried to put their lives back together after Tommy's death, but his presence looms. All three Lewis children get married and have children of their own, and they all try to find a bit of happiness.
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The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on [[TheForties the 1940s 1940s]] and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on [[TheFifties the1950s.1950s]]. The Lewises have tried to put their lives back together after Tommy's death, but his presence looms. All three Lewis children get married and have children of their own, and they all try to find a bit of happiness.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on [[TheFifties the
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' is a 1988 film directed by Terence Davies.
It is about two decades in the life of a Liverpool working-class family. The time frame starts no later than 1940 (one scene shows Liverpool being bombed by the Germans) and ends no earlier than 1959 (from a date mentioned on a radio broadcast of a horse race). Music/TheBeatles are growing up somewhere in town, but they aren't mentioned. Instead the story centers on the Lewis family, and it is told in two halves. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
It is about two decades in the life of a Liverpool working-class family. The time frame starts no later than 1940 (one scene shows Liverpool being bombed by the Germans) and ends no earlier than 1959 (from a date mentioned on a radio broadcast of a horse race). Music/TheBeatles are growing up somewhere in town, but they aren't mentioned. Instead the story centers on the Lewis family, and it is told in two halves. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' is a 1988 British film written and directed by Terence Davies.
It is It's about two decades in the life of a Liverpool working-class family. The time frame starts no later than 1940 (one scene shows Liverpool being bombed by the Germans) and ends no earlier than 1959 (from a date mentioned on a radio broadcast of a horse race). Music/TheBeatles are growing up somewhere in town, but they aren't mentioned. Instead the story centers on the Lewis family, and it is told in two halves.
The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
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* UsedToBeASweetKid: Nell tells her children that she married Tommy because he was kind and a good dancer. Neither of these things remain true in the present day.
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* AwfulWeddedLife: Most of the marriages in the movie go poorly. Tommy beats his wife, Jingles and Eileen have controlling husbands, and Mickie complains that her own husband is useless when it comes to domestic matters.
* BurgerFool: Eileen and Mickie leave to get new jobs out of town, but their excitement over the new beginning is promptly quashed when they find themselves in humiliating and unglamorous service positions.
* BurgerFool: Eileen and Mickie leave to get new jobs out of town, but their excitement over the new beginning is promptly quashed when they find themselves in humiliating and unglamorous service positions.
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* DomesticAbuse: Tommy beats his wife quite badly. In one scene Tommy kicks and punches Nellie to the ground, whereupon the film cuts to a badly bruised Nellie doing the dusting in a dazed, disassociated manner.
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* DomesticAbuse: DomesticAbuse:
** Tommy beats his wife quite badly. In one scene Tommy kicks and punches Nellie to the ground, whereupon the film cuts to a badly bruised Nellie doing the dusting in a dazed, disassociatedmanner.manner.
** Jingles's husband is extremely controlling and rarely lets her out of the house, which disgusts her friends.
** Tommy beats his wife quite badly. In one scene Tommy kicks and punches Nellie to the ground, whereupon the film cuts to a badly bruised Nellie doing the dusting in a dazed, disassociated
** Jingles's husband is extremely controlling and rarely lets her out of the house, which disgusts her friends.
* ParentalFavoritism: Tommy shows a clear preference for Eileen, as he gives both her and her friend money to go to the dance, over Maisie, who has to scrub the floors first, before Tommy throws ''her'' money on the floor. Needless to say, Eileen misses their father badly, while Maisie prefers her mother and doesn't miss him at all.
* PartingWordsRegret: When Eileen leaves town for a new job, Tommy childishly refuses to speak to her, even though it's only for a season. An exasperated Eileen yells at him for being so frustrating, then breaks down in tears on the train. Tommy later becomes extremely ill while she's out of town, and dies shortly after.
* PluckyComicRelief: Mickie, Eileen's best friend, is constantly hamming it up and cracking jokes, has the least troubled marriage of the female characters, and generally acts as a bit of levity in the film.
* PartingWordsRegret: When Eileen leaves town for a new job, Tommy childishly refuses to speak to her, even though it's only for a season. An exasperated Eileen yells at him for being so frustrating, then breaks down in tears on the train. Tommy later becomes extremely ill while she's out of town, and dies shortly after.
* PluckyComicRelief: Mickie, Eileen's best friend, is constantly hamming it up and cracking jokes, has the least troubled marriage of the female characters, and generally acts as a bit of levity in the film.
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* TwoActStructure: Divided into two parts of equal length: "Distant Voices", which revolves around the father's role in the family, and "Still Lives", which revolves around his children starting families of their own.
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* TwoActStructure: Divided into two parts of equal length: "Distant Voices", which revolves around the father's role in the family, and "Still Lives", which revolves around his children starting families of their own.own.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas, Tommy shows love to his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: On Christmas, Tommy shows love to his children while they're asleep. Unfortunately, he has little affection to them while they're awake.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/distant_voices_still_lives_1988_005_bfi_poster_1000x750.jpg]]
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* OopNorth: The tribulations of a working-class family with a horribly abusive patriarch in the 1940s and 50s.
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* ScreamingChildbirth: Maisie, when she delivers her daughter Elaine.
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* ScreamingChildbirth: ScreamingBirth: Maisie, when she delivers her daughter Elaine.
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* StartsWithTheirFuneral: One of the first scenes shows Tommy in his coffin and then the rest of the family, dressed in black, leaving the home to follow the hearse.
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* StartsWithTheirFuneral: One of the first scenes shows Tommy in his coffin and then the rest of the family, dressed in black, leaving the home to follow the hearse.hearse.
* TwoActStructure: Divided into two parts of equal length: "Distant Voices", which revolves around the father's role in the family, and "Still Lives", which revolves around his children starting families of their own.
* TwoActStructure: Divided into two parts of equal length: "Distant Voices", which revolves around the father's role in the family, and "Still Lives", which revolves around his children starting families of their own.
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* TheAtoner: Tommy is bedridden, dying of...something. His desire to atone is expressed in four words, as he looks up at his son: "I was wrong, lad."
* CaptivityHarmonica: In one scene Tony, who is in the army, has gotten nabbed by [=MPs=] and put in a stockade. He pulls out a harmonica and starts playing.
-->'''Offscreen guard''': Give us a tune, scouse!
* CaptivityHarmonica: In one scene Tony, who is in the army, has gotten nabbed by [=MPs=] and put in a stockade. He pulls out a harmonica and starts playing.
-->'''Offscreen guard''': Give us a tune, scouse!
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* GrayRainOfDepression: The camera turns to show rain spattering a window, in the hospital where Tony and Maisie's husband George are laid up badly injured after a construction accident.
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* TheMusical: The movie is filled with singing, almost from beginning to end. Most of it is people singing in pubs and in family sitting rooms, wakes, wedding and christening parties, but there is song after song after song.
* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: Ends with Mam (Nellie) walking off with Maisie and George from Tony's wedding reception.
* ScaryFlashlightFace: With candles. Tony is spending the night at his weird grandma's house. After his candle-holding cousins recite a weirdly intense bedtime prayer, Grandma comes into frame. Her face lit from below with candles, spooky Grandma says "If you look in a mirror after midnight, you'll see the devil."
* ScreamingChildbirth: Maisie, when she delivers her daughter Elaine.
* ShoutOut: Eileen and her friend Mickie go to see ''Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing''.
* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: Ends with Mam (Nellie) walking off with Maisie and George from Tony's wedding reception.
* ScaryFlashlightFace: With candles. Tony is spending the night at his weird grandma's house. After his candle-holding cousins recite a weirdly intense bedtime prayer, Grandma comes into frame. Her face lit from below with candles, spooky Grandma says "If you look in a mirror after midnight, you'll see the devil."
* ScreamingChildbirth: Maisie, when she delivers her daughter Elaine.
* ShoutOut: Eileen and her friend Mickie go to see ''Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing''.
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives''
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives''
Lives'' is a 1988 film directed by Terence Davies.
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* AbusiveParents: Tommy is shown in an early scene whacking Maisie in the back with a broom when she asks to go to a dance. Other than that his abuse of his children seems to be mostly mental and verbal, coming from his bottomless rage.
* AnachronicOrder: Just about everything in the second part comes after everything in the first part, but within each half the timeline of the scenes is completely scrambled, in a manner that suggests how one's memory skips around. The early scenes of Tommy's funeral in 1949-ish are followed by a scene of Eileen going out on a date, Eileen getting married, and scenes of a Christmas when the Davies children were little.
* AnachronicOrder: Just about everything in the second part comes after everything in the first part, but within each half the timeline of the scenes is completely scrambled, in a manner that suggests how one's memory skips around. The early scenes of Tommy's funeral in 1949-ish are followed by a scene of Eileen going out on a date, Eileen getting married, and scenes of a Christmas when the Davies children were little.
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* DomesticAbuse: Tommy beats his wife quite badly. In one scene Tommy kicks and punches Nellie to the ground, whereupon the film cuts to a badly bruised Nellie doing the dusting in a dazed, disassociated manner.
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''Distant Voices, Still Lives''
It is about two decades in the life of a Liverpool working-class family. The time frame starts no later than 1940 (one scene shows Liverpool being bombed by the Germans) and ends no earlier than 1959 (from a date mentioned on a radio broadcast of a horse race). Music/TheBeatles are growing up somewhere in town, but they aren't mentioned. Instead the story centers on the Lewis family, and it is told in two halves. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on the 1950s. The Lewises have tried to put their lives back together after Tommy's death, but his presence looms. All three Lewis children get married and have children of their own, and they all try to find a bit of happiness.
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: There isn't a ton of exposition in this film, but in the opening scene Nellie calls to her son, "Tony, are those two sisters of yours up yet?
* InnerMonologue: An early scene shows Eileen, on the morning of her wedding, saying that she misses her dad. The camera focuses on a smiling Maisie (the family is posing for a photo), who thinks "''I don't, he was a bastard and I bleedin' hated him''." This is followed by a scene of Tommy shouting at Eileen to clean the basement floor and then beating her with a broom when she asks to go to a dance.
* SliceOfLife: There really isn't a through-plot to the story. The first part shows the family dealing with their violent, rage-filled father. The second part shows the three children, now grown up, starting lives of their own. It's more a portrait of life among the working class OopNorth in a period of great change for Britain.
* StartsWithTheirFuneral: One of the first scenes shows Tommy in his coffin and then the rest of the family, dressed in black, leaving the home to follow the hearse.
It is about two decades in the life of a Liverpool working-class family. The time frame starts no later than 1940 (one scene shows Liverpool being bombed by the Germans) and ends no earlier than 1959 (from a date mentioned on a radio broadcast of a horse race). Music/TheBeatles are growing up somewhere in town, but they aren't mentioned. Instead the story centers on the Lewis family, and it is told in two halves. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the 1940s and the family patriarch, brutal, abusive Tommy Lewis (Creator/PetePostlethwaite). Tommy flies into violent rages and brutally abuses his beaten-down wife Nell. Tommy and Nell's three children, Tony, Eileen, and Maisie, grow up traumatized by their father's violence. Eventually, sometime around 1949 or so, Tommy dies.
Part two, "Still Lives", focuses on the 1950s. The Lewises have tried to put their lives back together after Tommy's death, but his presence looms. All three Lewis children get married and have children of their own, and they all try to find a bit of happiness.
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: There isn't a ton of exposition in this film, but in the opening scene Nellie calls to her son, "Tony, are those two sisters of yours up yet?
* InnerMonologue: An early scene shows Eileen, on the morning of her wedding, saying that she misses her dad. The camera focuses on a smiling Maisie (the family is posing for a photo), who thinks "''I don't, he was a bastard and I bleedin' hated him''." This is followed by a scene of Tommy shouting at Eileen to clean the basement floor and then beating her with a broom when she asks to go to a dance.
* SliceOfLife: There really isn't a through-plot to the story. The first part shows the family dealing with their violent, rage-filled father. The second part shows the three children, now grown up, starting lives of their own. It's more a portrait of life among the working class OopNorth in a period of great change for Britain.
* StartsWithTheirFuneral: One of the first scenes shows Tommy in his coffin and then the rest of the family, dressed in black, leaving the home to follow the hearse.
