Terence Davies and the Cinema: An Intertextual Study of His Films

This thesis examines the oeuvre of the British filmmaker Terence Davies between 1976 and 2011. Overall, his work from this period can be separated into two distinct categories: autobiographical films and literary adaptations. Whereas previous critical works on this writer-director have often framed him as an auteur due to the considerable creative control that he exerts over his films, this thesis problematizes such a reading by situating his body of work within a larger intertextual field. Within this field, I include other films, literary texts and pieces of music, in order to explore how other cultural influences have been channelled into Davies’s filmmaking. I also explore the idea that his memories of growing up in Liverpool – particularly during the 1950s – constitute another intertext within his autobiographical films. Similarly, I demonstrate how considering the creative input of his key collaborators – including producers, cinematographers, editors and production designers – illuminates both Davies’s approach to filmmaking and the dense construction of his films as texts. Unlike other critical writings on Davies’s career, my thesis considers the audience’s engagement with his films and the readings they generate from them.
This thesis adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to Davies’s films by engaging with various branches of study within the arts, including post-structuralist theory, autobiographical studies, adaptation studies, music theory, auteur theory and production studies. Furthermore, this thesis includes insights that have been gathered from eighteen original interviews with individuals involved in the making of Terence Davies’s films – including one with the filmmaker himself.