
Directing
Carol Morley
Born
1966-01-14 (60)
Place of birth
Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Known for
Directing
Credits
35 titles
Carol Anne Morley (born 14 January 1966) is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. She is best known for her semi-documentary Dreams of a Life, released in 2011, about Joyce Carol Vincent, who died in her North London bedsit in 2003, but was not discovered until 2006. Her older brother is the music journalist, critic and producer Paul Morley.
Known for
5.1England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
The Falling
2015
5.1Mike Hoolihan is an unconventional New Orleans cop investigating the murder of renowned astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell, a black hole expert found shot to death in her observatory. As Mike tumbles down the rabbit hole of the disturbing, labyrinthine case, she finds herself grappling with increasingly existential questions of quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and exploding stars. The hunt for a killer draws a detective into an even larger mystery: the nature of the universe itself.
Out of Blue
2019
6.5A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
Dreams of a Life
2011
6.4In a last-ditch mission to get recognition for her talent, Audrey Amiss (Monica Dolan) persuades her psychiatric nurse, Sandra Panza (Kelly Macdonald) to take her on a road trip back to where her story began – but with so many deviations along the way, will they ever make it?
Typist Artist Pirate King
2023
6.0After her father's suicide in 1977, 11-year-old Ann struggles with grief, alcoholism, and promiscuity. Exploring her sexuality and self-destruction, she finds solace in art, overcomes family secrets, and achieves acclaim as a filmmaker.
7 Miles Out
2026
7.0Based on the filmmaker's collection of newspaper cuttings the film presents private moments that give strange glimpses into everyday life.
Everyday Something: True Stories from the 21st Century
2001
Film credits
2000s · 2 titles
7.2Carol Morley returns to Manchester, where in the early 1980s, five years of her life were lost in an alcoholic blur. The Alcohol Years is a poetic retrieval of that time, in which rediscovered friends and acquaintances recount tales of her drunken and promiscuous behavior. In Morley’s search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it.
The Alcohol Years
2000
Carol Morley tracks down her old friend Catherine Corcoran and returns to India where they once travelled as teenagers, in this playfully autobiographical short.
Return Trip
2001
Behind the camera
5.1England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
The Falling
2015
5.1England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
The Falling
2015
5.1Mike Hoolihan is an unconventional New Orleans cop investigating the murder of renowned astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell, a black hole expert found shot to death in her observatory. As Mike tumbles down the rabbit hole of the disturbing, labyrinthine case, she finds herself grappling with increasingly existential questions of quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and exploding stars. The hunt for a killer draws a detective into an even larger mystery: the nature of the universe itself.
Out of Blue
2019
5.1Mike Hoolihan is an unconventional New Orleans cop investigating the murder of renowned astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell, a black hole expert found shot to death in her observatory. As Mike tumbles down the rabbit hole of the disturbing, labyrinthine case, she finds herself grappling with increasingly existential questions of quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and exploding stars. The hunt for a killer draws a detective into an even larger mystery: the nature of the universe itself.
Out of Blue
2019
6.5A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
Dreams of a Life
2011
6.5A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
Dreams of a Life
2011
6.4In a last-ditch mission to get recognition for her talent, Audrey Amiss (Monica Dolan) persuades her psychiatric nurse, Sandra Panza (Kelly Macdonald) to take her on a road trip back to where her story began – but with so many deviations along the way, will they ever make it?
Typist Artist Pirate King
2023
6.4In a last-ditch mission to get recognition for her talent, Audrey Amiss (Monica Dolan) persuades her psychiatric nurse, Sandra Panza (Kelly Macdonald) to take her on a road trip back to where her story began – but with so many deviations along the way, will they ever make it?
Typist Artist Pirate King
2023
6.0After her father's suicide in 1977, 11-year-old Ann struggles with grief, alcoholism, and promiscuity. Exploring her sexuality and self-destruction, she finds solace in art, overcomes family secrets, and achieves acclaim as a filmmaker.
7 Miles Out
2026
6.0After her father's suicide in 1977, 11-year-old Ann struggles with grief, alcoholism, and promiscuity. Exploring her sexuality and self-destruction, she finds solace in art, overcomes family secrets, and achieves acclaim as a filmmaker.
7 Miles Out
2026
7.0Based on the filmmaker's collection of newspaper cuttings the film presents private moments that give strange glimpses into everyday life.
Everyday Something: True Stories from the 21st Century
2001
7.0Based on the filmmaker's collection of newspaper cuttings the film presents private moments that give strange glimpses into everyday life.
Everyday Something: True Stories from the 21st Century
2001
6.0Six troubled strangers arrive at a hotel located on the south coast cliffs of Dover. Looking for something, or looking to lose themselves entirely, the guests spend time together in the cold, isolated setting. As tentative connections form, they begin to uncover a shared purpose that unites them.
Edge
2010
6.0Six troubled strangers arrive at a hotel located on the south coast cliffs of Dover. Looking for something, or looking to lose themselves entirely, the guests spend time together in the cold, isolated setting. As tentative connections form, they begin to uncover a shared purpose that unites them.
Edge
2010
In the middle ages there was an outbreak of dancing manias in Europe that lasted hundreds of years. In the 20th century thousands of Chinese men and some women thought that their genitalia were vanishing, while schoolgirls in Belgium thought that they were being poisoned by a certain brand of fizzy drink. Looking at these various cases, and more, the professor (Maxine Peake) takes us on a musical journey through mass hysteria.
The Madness of the Dance
2006
NRMaxine Peake stars in a short film about three fears (birds, falling, sleepwalking) - filmed and edited in a single day on a mobile phone for Cinema Now, a digital conference held at BAFTA.
The Fear of Trilogy
2006
NRMaxine Peake stars in a short film about three fears (birds, falling, sleepwalking) - filmed and edited in a single day on a mobile phone for Cinema Now, a digital conference held at BAFTA.
The Fear of Trilogy
2006
NRSet in England in 1977, The Week Elvis Died is an evocative and bittersweet look at life from a child's point of view. Karen (Jennifer Williams) aged 10 is bullied at school by Julie and her gang. Her dysfunctional family can't help her and she doesn't confide in them. All she has for comfort are her descant recorder, her pet rabbit Elvis and her adoration of top disc jockey Tony Blackburn.
The Week Elvis Died
1997
NRSet in England in 1977, The Week Elvis Died is an evocative and bittersweet look at life from a child's point of view. Karen (Jennifer Williams) aged 10 is bullied at school by Julie and her gang. Her dysfunctional family can't help her and she doesn't confide in them. All she has for comfort are her descant recorder, her pet rabbit Elvis and her adoration of top disc jockey Tony Blackburn.
The Week Elvis Died
1997
5.0Carol Morley's debut short uses the iconography of the genre of melodrama – the staircase, the father – to explore the story of a girl's relationship with her father, and the impossibility of recreating a time, a place, and a memory. Cross-cutting between the girl protagonist and her father, the film creates a sense of crisis and conflict. As the girl invests her feelings in her surroundings and describes events connected to her father, we are drawn into a world of pain and pathos. Morley's first directorial credit was her graduation film from Central St. Martin's School of Art.
Girl
1993
5.0Carol Morley's debut short uses the iconography of the genre of melodrama – the staircase, the father – to explore the story of a girl's relationship with her father, and the impossibility of recreating a time, a place, and a memory. Cross-cutting between the girl protagonist and her father, the film creates a sense of crisis and conflict. As the girl invests her feelings in her surroundings and describes events connected to her father, we are drawn into a world of pain and pathos. Morley's first directorial credit was her graduation film from Central St. Martin's School of Art.
Girl
1993
9.0Annie wants to find her cat and forget her past. She walks the streets of the East End of London, in the footsteps of Josef Stalin and Mahatma Gandhi. Annie's obsessive journey through local history triggers an unravelling of her own life.
Stalin My Neighbour
2004
9.0Annie wants to find her cat and forget her past. She walks the streets of the East End of London, in the footsteps of Josef Stalin and Mahatma Gandhi. Annie's obsessive journey through local history triggers an unravelling of her own life.
Stalin My Neighbour
2004
Short documentary celebrating the achievements and passion of the women who were ferry pilots during World War II. They transported all types of aircraft, often in hazardous conditions, for Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).
Forgotten Pilots: The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) 1939-1946
1999
7.2Carol Morley returns to Manchester, where in the early 1980s, five years of her life were lost in an alcoholic blur. The Alcohol Years is a poetic retrieval of that time, in which rediscovered friends and acquaintances recount tales of her drunken and promiscuous behavior. In Morley’s search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it.
The Alcohol Years
2000
7.2Carol Morley returns to Manchester, where in the early 1980s, five years of her life were lost in an alcoholic blur. The Alcohol Years is a poetic retrieval of that time, in which rediscovered friends and acquaintances recount tales of her drunken and promiscuous behavior. In Morley’s search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it.
The Alcohol Years
2000
NRCarol Morley's 16mm documentary short is set in a fast food restaurant where a selection of twenty-somethings talk about their troubles. One of two shorts Morley directed as her graduation films from Central St. Martin's School of Art (the other being Girl).
Secondhand Daylight
1993
NRCarol Morley's 16mm documentary short is set in a fast food restaurant where a selection of twenty-somethings talk about their troubles. One of two shorts Morley directed as her graduation films from Central St. Martin's School of Art (the other being Girl).
Secondhand Daylight
1993
In January 1970 the actor Sir Alec Guinness wrote a letter to The Times complaining about the lack of attention shop assistants gave to customers. The letter was printed under the heading ‘I’m Not Here’. Using that story as its inspiration, this film about shop assistants and boredom wittily combines extracts from a Harrods' training video and original footage from 'Miss London Stores 1970'.
I'm Not Here
1994
In January 1970 the actor Sir Alec Guinness wrote a letter to The Times complaining about the lack of attention shop assistants gave to customers. The letter was printed under the heading ‘I’m Not Here’. Using that story as its inspiration, this film about shop assistants and boredom wittily combines extracts from a Harrods' training video and original footage from 'Miss London Stores 1970'.
I'm Not Here
1994
Carol Morley tracks down her old friend Catherine Corcoran and returns to India where they once travelled as teenagers, in this playfully autobiographical short.
Return Trip
2001
Carol Morley tracks down her old friend Catherine Corcoran and returns to India where they once travelled as teenagers, in this playfully autobiographical short.
Return Trip
2001
