The Long Day Closes & Q&A, ICA

Rewind through twenty years of limp Hugh Grant romps and you hit the last golden age of British cinema, when directors like Peter Greenaway and Terence Davies attracted attention and – crucially – funding for some miraculous art films.
Davies made his name with 1988's superb Distant Voice s, Still Lives, a semi-autobiographical account of a tough Merseyside upbringing, which Jean-Luc Godard singled out with typical chutzpah as the only good British film ever made.
His sophomore effort, 1992’s The Long Day Closes, is hewn from the same rock: set in Liverpool in the mid-50s, it follows the escapades of dreamy schoolboy Bud as he struggles at school and discovers cinema. As achingly poetic as his debut, Davies’s masterpiece begs to be seen by anyone who thinks British cinema began with Richard Curtis. The ICA is giving a one-off screening on Wednesday 10t September, followed by a Q&A with Davies himself.