Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz in The House of Mirth. BFI National Archive

A MAJOR RETROSPECTIVE of one of British cinema’s most singular filmmakers, Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terence Davies is an extensive season of film screenings at BFI Southbank and beyond. Programmed by BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts, providing a comprehensive journey through Davies’ body of work, the centrepiece is a UK-wide theatrical re-release of the digitally remastered The House of Mirth (2000). One of Davies’ most acclaimed films, this sumptuous adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel stars Gillian Anderson as doomed and impoverished socialite Lily Bart, with a supporting cast including Laura Linney, Eric Stoltz, Dan Aykroyd and Anthony LaPaglia. Anderson is mesmerising as Lily, as Davies’ signature detailed set pieces and lingering close-ups build to a slow-burn portrait of privilege, delusion, manipulation and despair. Subsequently released on Blu-ray for the first time on 24 November, The House of Mirth will be available on the BFI Player subscription service from early 2026.

Other films playing in the retrospective at BFI Southbank and on BFI Player include The Terence Davies Trilogy, three short 35mm films – Children (1976), Madonna and Child (1980), and Death and Transfiguration (1983) – that trace Davies’ emergence as one of the great cinematic voices and boldly experiment with the themes and forms that would become hallmarks of his future work. His debut feature Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), shot in two parts over two years, is a remarkable interpretation of his own tortured childhood, depicting a family terrorised by a volatile father, played by Pete Postlethwaite. A lighter mosaic of imagination, time and memory, The Long Day Closes (1992) evokes Davies’ youth in Liverpool with an expressive soundscape featuring beloved songs and movies of the 1950s.

His adaptation of John Kennedy Toole’s The Neon Bible (1995) stars Gena Rowlands in a sweeping study of religious hypocrisy and domestic trauma in the small-town Deep South; and in his meditative take on Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Rachel Weisz is sensational as Hester Collyer, the young wife of a high court judge who risks her reputation and sanity in the pursuit of happiness and sexual passion.

Poets take centre stage in Davies’ final two films. A Quiet Passion (2016) weaves together the life and work of Emily Dickinson, with Cynthia Nixon brilliantly capturing her sharp wit, struggles with faith and emotional decline; while Benediction (2021) is a devastating, lyrical portrait of Siegfried Sassoon, with Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi sharing the celebrated war poet’s weighty burdens of conflict, guilt, introspection and shame.

Terence Davies died on 7 October 2023 aged 77, after a short illness. Love, Sex, Religion, Death continues at BFI Southbank to 30 November, with screenings accompanied by talks and a free exhibition curated by Edge Hill University, home to the Terence Davies Archive.

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