… and Days of Heaven to come

On Sunday February 10th, just a week after the Day in the Dark, Corrie Film Club is showing Days of Heaven, made by Terrence Malick in 1978. It’s an intensely visual film, strongly influenced by painters such as Edmund Hopper, whose House by the Railroad appears to the right. Some members of the cast were dismayed by the insistence on using natural light, disliking the delays and uncertainties of shooting that resulted, but the photographer, Nestor Almendros, knew exactly what he wanted. ‘It was before electricity was invented,’ he said, ‘and consequently there was less light. Period movies should have less light. In a period movie the light should come from the windows because that is how people lived.’

The plot is a scruffy affair about three down-and-out young seasonal workers who hatch a plot involving marriage to the farmer, who is said to be dying, and a take-over of the farm. In almost Biblical retribution for this idea, fire and locusts, plus the recovery of the farmer, destroy the dream. What survives, both for protagonists and viewers, is the overwhelming beauty of the vast landscape. Days of Heaven was a commercial failure when it was released, but it is now preserved in the United States National Film Registry for its cultural and aesthetic significance.

The showing begins at 8.00 pm in Corrie Village Hall, and is free of charge, though a small contribution to the upkeep of the hall would be welcomed.