His first feature film was Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), which Sight and Sound critics voted one of the greatest films of the past 25 years. He went on to make The Long Day Closes (1992), The Neon Bible (1995), and the award-winning Edith Wharton adaptation The House of Mirth (2000), starring Gillian Anderson and Dan Aykroyd. After his documentary memoir Of Time and City (2008) came the renowned adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea, featuring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale. He has since written and directed the Lewis Grassic Gibbon adaptation Sunset Song (2015) and the Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion (2016).