The Days of Dylan Thomas
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This 21-minute documentary film on the life and death of the celebrated Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, is made from still photographs and, in part, from Thomas’ own recorded voice.
Based on the photographs of Rollie McKenna with contributing photographs by other American and British photographers, it is an excellent companion to the pictorial biography, The Days of Dylan Thomas, by Bill Read and Rollie McKenna.
McKenna’s film on the life and poetry of Dylan Thomas is made from photographs of deceptive serenity, skillfully woven with a lean narration which includes some of the Welsh poet’s own words. These elements are integrated with a music score of considerable distinction and discretion. The result is a moving cinematic experience which honors the poet with dignity and affection.
An uncanny portrait of the poet comes off the screen—charming, gifted, beset by disquietude, driven to wild hilarity and clowning, burdened by the cares of living. Selections from his work, spoken by Dylan Thomas himself with his own Welsh magic, are alternately passionate, gentle, desperate, soaring. Together with the images of great beauty and revelation, the effect is a low-keyed unremitting tension. Dylan Thomas is quite simply unforgettable.
WHAT CRITICS SAY
“There is a lyric texture to this film that is a tribute to Mrs. McKenna’s artistry as both photographer and producer, with sight and sound blending for an aesthetic appreciation of the essence of an artist. ‘The Days of Dylan Thomas’ is documentary creativity at its best.”
– Judith Crist, THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE
“...a curiously touching memorial, at once objective and supported upon a foundation of poetic emotion.”
– Archer Winsten, NEW YORK POST
“People Are Talking About...the appealing short film, The Days of Dylan Thomas, which brings to one of the most overtold tragedies of the twentieth century the picture of young Caitlin Thomas as a tearing beauty, and strips again the despair of the poet who ‘boomed and fiddled while home burned’.”
– VOGUE
“...an incredibly poignant documentary of self- destruction.”
– Geri Trotta, HARPER’S BAZAAR
Credits
Narrator: John Malcolm Brinnin
Producer: Rollie McKenna
Director: Graeme Ferguson
Editor: Joseph Zysman
Composer: John Duffy
21 minutes | 1965 original film restored in 2026 | English SDH subtitles