March 26, 2012

32 I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

****
Country: UK
Director: Michael Powell


In the 1940s Michael Powell and his writing, producing, and directing partner Emeric Pressburger created a string of films of astounding ambition and scope. In their complex narrative structures and weighty themes, sophisticated use of color, creative integration of music and image, and bravura application of technical resources to create cinema illusion, these films are a series of masterpieces nearly unequaled in motion picture history. Yet in the middle of making dazzling movies like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes, Powell and Pressburger concocted a seemingly simple little black-and-white romance that is in its modest way as great an achievement as those more adventurous pictures. The film is I Know Where I'm Going! and of all the Powell and Pressburger movies, it is the gentlest and most charming. Michael Powell called it "the sweetest film we ever made."

The film opens with a short prologue/credits sequence that establishes the main character, Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller). We briefly see Joan as a toddler, child, and young woman who always "knew where she was going," a headstrong person who from her earliest years knew what she wanted and showed single-minded determination to get it. Now as an adult she has determined to marry a rich man and live a life of comfort and has become engaged to her older employer, the industrial magnate Sir Robert Bellinger. Within minutes after the film begins she is on her way to her wedding in Scotland, where Bellinger has established a wartime residence on the island of Kiloran off the west coast. Everything on the journey goes smoothly until the final leg, when she must take a boat from the island of Mull to Kiloran, for the harbor is fog-bound and no boats are able to operate. Joan now finds herself temporarily stranded in a small Scottish village, to the London sophisticate as alien a place as a foreign country.

Joan also finds herself in the company of a young Scottish naval officer home for a few days' leave, Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesy), also on his way to Kiloran and stranded until the fog lifts. During Joan's stay on Mull, Torquil becomes her guide to the local scenery and culture, introducing her to his friends Catriona (Pamela Brown), who has known Torquil since childhood, and Col. Barnstaple (C.K.W. Knight), an eccentric falconer. He also introduces Joan to other local inhabitants and, outfitted in traditional attire including the kilt, accompanies her to a ceilidh (or traditional Scottish social gathering, pronounced KAY-lee) celebrating the sixtieth wedding anniversary of the parents of his friend John Campbell (Powell regular John Laurie, who is credited as an advisor on the ceilidh sequence), where Joan is introduced to the music and dancing of the isles.

As anxious as Joan is to get to Kiloran, she finds that two things now stand in the way of the comfortable future she has plotted for herself so deliberately. One is practical: the fog which at first wouldn't lift has been followed by a gale that makes it too dangerous to be out on the water. The other is emotional: she finds herself unwillingly attracted to the unpretentious and quietly noble Tarquin, and the attraction is clearly mutual. At first just anxious to get to Kiloran and Sir Robert, she now becomes frantic to get there before her emotions can derail her carefully laid plans for the future.

Finally, in desperation Joan offers a large sum of money to a young boatman to take her to Kiloran during a lull in the storm and Torquil, recognizing the danger of such a foolish act, especially given the treacherous nature of the notorious local whirlpool called the Corryvreckan, insists on accompanying her. During the voyage the worst happens. A gale blows up, the boat's engine stalls, and the three foolhardy sailors must fight for their lives to avoid being drowned in the Corryvreckan, providing the narrative rationale for the thrilling set piece that forms the climactic sequence of the film.

It's a big, technically intricate sequence composed of location shots of the actual Corryvreckan (including some filmed by Powell himself with his handheld camera while strapped to the mast of a boat), shots of the actors filmed in the studio tank at Denham near London using the same small open boat as in the location shots, miniatures and models of the boat and its passengers, and most impressive of all, a Corryvreckan created for the film in the tank at Denham. This mock Corryvreckan, inspired by Cecil B. DeMille's parting of the Red Sea in the silent version of The Ten Commandments, uses gelatin rather than water, a specially built machine to create a realistic whirlpool in the studio tank, and a high-speed camera running backwards so that the whirlpool appears to be rising from the sea when the footage is projected normally. Aside from the sometimes obvious rear projection in the studio shots, the blend of the real and the simulated is nearly seamless. On both the technical and the emotional level, the entire sequence is just stunning.

The Corryvreckan sequence, while the part of the film that most obviously shows Powell's amazing technical skill, is not the only thing in I Know Where I'm Going! that does this, which is why I called the film seemingly simple. Powell originally wanted James Mason to play Torquil, but when Mason was reluctant to go on location to Scotland, he began to look elsewhere. He had known Roger Livesey since the mid-1930s, when he tested him for the lead in one of his quota-quickies, and the two later had a great success with Livesey playing the title role in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). Now Livesey wanted to play Torquil and embarked on a campaign to convince Powell, who thought that at thirty-eight Livesey was too old for the part, to cast him. He lost weight, dyed his hair blond, and worked on modifying his body language to suggest that of a man ten years younger. It worked and he got the role.

The only hitch was that Livesey was committed to a play in London and wouldn't be able to go to Scotland when the location shooting was scheduled. By now convinced that Livesey was indeed right for Torquil, Powell promised him he could get around this. Using a specially selected and coached double for the location shots, he cleverly combined long shots of the double with closer shots of Livesey filmed at Denham and carefully manipulated staging, editing, and optical effects to conceal the fact that, as Powell writes in his autobiography, Livesey "never came within five hundred miles of the Western Isles." If you don't already know this before you see the film, it's unlikely you will be aware of it. Powell later wrote that "so perfect was the illusion that I couldn't tell myself, now, which is Roger and which is his double."

Yet for all Powell's technical skill at creating cinematic illusion, what makes his films so memorable is that no matter how much trickery he used to produce those unforgettable images, he never lost sight of the importance of building the film on the human element—a compelling story and authentic character relationships and emotions. None of his films illustrates this better than I Know Where I'm Going! All the people in the film seem fully defined and individualized, right down to the unforgettable supporting characters like Catriona, Col. Barnstaple, John Campbell, Rebecca Crozier the grande dame of Mull, and characters who appear in only one or two scenes. At the center of the film, of course, are Torquil and Joan—Torquil the completely unaffected man and Joan the self-willed young woman on her way to marriage and a new life who is so taken by his steadfastness and openness that for the first time ever she begins to doubt that she does know where she's going.

As Torquil and Joan, Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller play off each other beautifully. Livesey locates the calm center of Torquil and never strays from it. That constancy is the essential personal quality of Torquil, but it means that he is basically a static character. Hiller has the more challenging role. She has to establish an apparently fixed character then show how that person gradually undergoes an involuntary process of self-discovery. Joan is a woman whose outer rigidity acts to tamp down an inner emotional volatility that becomes agitated by her reactions to the people and places she encounters on her way to Kiloran. She finds an unfamiliar culture with customs and values that might have come from a previous century and falls in love with both a man and a way of life. Under the influence of Torquil and Scotland, this woman who has lived her entire life wrapped up in herself is unexpectedly taken out of herself, and the experience transforms her. Wendy Hiller shows subtly but unmistakably the conflict Joan feels as, against her will, she finds her own nature changing. Hiller rarely made movies, preferring to work on the stage, but her performance in I Know Where I'm Going! is simply one of the most memorable by an actress in British cinema.

I Know Where I'm Going! is perhaps Michael Powell's most personal film, for it expresses more strongly than any other his love of the sea and especially his love of Scotland. As with all of Powell and Pressburger's films, this one is a collaborative effort between the two, and I certainly don't wish to minimize the contribution of Pressburger. Yet the thing that gives the film its essential flavor, the Scottish element, was the product of Michael Powell. In his autobiography Powell describes how in I Know Where I'm Going! Pressburger devised the basic events of the plot and then he (Powell) fleshed them out:
This is the way Emeric and I always worked. He invented a situation and I followed it through to the end. Authors think of a storm, wind and waves and a stormy sea. A director personalizes the conflict. . . . According to our usual plan of work, my job was to add to and change the location sequences, bringing in all I had learned of authentic dialogue, atmosphere and names of the Western Isles.
With Torquil and Joan, Michael Powell's Scotland is really the third main character in the film. Powell invites us to discover along with Joan the color and customs of a place he depicts as magical, a place that has the power to bewitch, to alter the most ingrained attitudes, and to move those who encounter it in wholly unanticipated but serendipitous directions.

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This post is part of A Tribute to the Archers: A Powell & Pressburger Movie Blogathon. For more posts on the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, visit the Classic Film and TV Cafe. Michael Powell's autobiography is A Life in Movies (New York: Knopf, 1987).

32 comments:

  1. Mr. Finch,
    Fine work here on a film that is just simply wonderful. I myself am about to rewatch this for the first time in several years and plan to do a write-up as well. You're right, though, it's on par with their best work in it's own way.

    "Hiller rarely made movies, preferring to work on the stage, but her performance in I Know Where I'm Going! is simply one of the most memorable by an actress in British cinema."

    Very true, and I find myself saying this with every film she's in! She is, IMO, one of the greatest actress of all time. True she wasn't in a lot of films, but she is always astounding and her work holds up so well today. Major Barbara, Pygmalion etc. She is amazing and I love, love, love her!!

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    1. Jon, I greatly admire Hiller's small body of film work. Her Eliza Dolittle in "Pygmalion" is equally fine, although as much a product of Shaw as Hiller. Oddly, Michael Powell says it took him years to appreciate her performance here. He had Deborah Kerr in mind for the part and admits this probably prejudiced him. They were having an affair and wanted to get married, but Kerr wanted to go to Hollywood and become a star and Powell wanted her to stay in England. He broke off the relationship and impulsively married someone else then gave the part to Hiller. He thought her performance "lacked surprise." Don't know what he meant by that, except that maybe he felt her stage actress approach was too thought-out in advance and lacked spontaneity. But to me it's one of the all-time great film performances by an actress.

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  2. If someone asked me why they should watch "I Know Where I'm Going!" I would probably wave my arms and shout "because!". Now I will direct them to your insightful article.

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    1. Caftan Woman, thank you. I always find it daunting to write about a film I like as much as this one. How to praise it with the enthusiasm I feel and still be persuasive? And how to write about a film whose charm is so subtle and has little or nothing to do with ideas, the element in a film that's the least difficult to write about?

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  3. R.D., you have written a thorough examination of I Know Where I'm Going! While I don't share your deep admiration for it, I can enjoy reading your analysis. I prefer the technical elements of the film to that of the acting and story--with one exception, I thought Pamela Brown was intriguing as Catriona. Great post.

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    1. Kim, I recall your recent review of the film and your reservations about it. It's interesting you should mention Pamela Brown. She and Powell were having an affair while he was writing and filming this. Apparently he wrote a fairly involved subplot about how Catriona and Torquil had been in love. (Powell must have had quite a thing for his actresses. He later had an affair with Kathleen Byron while making "Black Narcissus.") When he and Pressburger went to edit the film, they realized--or rather Pressburger did, he had to convince Powell that it was enough to suggest this, that the viewers would draw that conclusion anyway from the way Catriona and Torquil related to each other--that he had overdone that element because of his feelings for Brown, and the subplot was discarded.

      I get the feeling that generally their films were so thoroughly worked out in advance that they needed only technical attention at the editing stage, but that this one proved to be a big exception. It's hard to believe that the movie wasn't filmed exactly as conceived, so tight does its construction seem, but apparently they reworked it extensively in the editing room. And I agree with how interesting Brown is. She had wonderfully photogenic features, and you can sense the love in the way she's presented and photographed. And you can see how too much of such a strong screen personality would have diverted attention from the main story.

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  4. Wonderful post on an equally wonderful film. I have a co-worker/friend who loves this film. He and his wife traveled to Scotland so he could see where this film was made. He showed me the a series of photographs with himself and his wife at the various locations. It just represents how passionate fans of this film are.

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    1. Filmboy, I've also heard of devotees of "A Canterbury Tale" going on tours of the locations of that film in Kent. I wonder how much of the traditional Scottish way of life we see in this film remains today. The film gives you a good idea of how culturally remote this part of Scotland was from southern Britain in the mid-40s, but I doubt if that's the case today. If that's so, I'm glad P&P documented the customs and attitudes of the time.

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  5. A wonderful evocation of a film I haven't seen in ages. But thanks to Netlix, I'm about to change all that.

    I had few memories of I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING and maybe I hadn't thought as highly of it as many others did. But your post made me second guess myself. I am going to rewatch it with new eyes and maybe a new perspective.

    Scotland - visited there years ago and fell in love with the place. So I'm all set to fall in love in love with it again. Thank you.

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    1. Yvette, I think one of the things Powell wanted to do was show his vision of Scotland as a magical, mystical place. This is something I wasn't able to discuss at length in the post, but it's definitely a big part of the film, with the legends and the curse that are so important to the plot. You also get a good idea of the incredible natural beauty of the Western Isles too. It IS one of those movies where the setting is so vivid and so idealized that you immediately want to set off to see it for yourself!

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  6. Excellent posting, even the screenshots are stunning.Wendy Hiller is such an extraordinary actress, I loved her in "Pygmalion" which I saw for the first time not too long ago. There are few filmakers today with the artistry and love of cinemas as Powell and Pressburger.

    JOhn Greco

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    1. John, I'm a great fan of Wendy Hiller too. She was just wonderful as Eliza Dolittle, but she always made a strong impression, even later when she played supporting character parts. She got the best supporting actress Oscar for "Separate Tables," and I think she really deserved it, easily outacting anyone else in the movie, David Niven notwithstanding. I think she should have been nominated for playing the mother in "Sons and Lovers" too, but I suspect people couldn't decide if it was a lead or supporting performance. Martin Scorsese, of course, is probably the person most responsible for the rediscovery of the great P&P films. Powell's wife Thelma Schoonmaker edited Scorsese's first full-length film in 1967 and has edited all his films since "Raging Bull."

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  7. R.D. ~ I recall seeing this film when Thelma Schoonmaker selected it as TCM’s guest programmer. I recall being impressed by how powerfully a story could move when simply told, and as you said of the film “it is the gentlest and most charming. Michael Powell called it "the sweetest film we ever made." I simply couldn’t imagine, prior to seeing this film, how the beauty of a landscape could come through in black and white. I hadn’t yet seen other examples of how The Archers created a stunning world in a limited palette, and as you said they captured a separate character in the west coast of Scotland. I also recall what a treat it was to see a very young Petulia Clark as part of the cast.

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    1. Gypsy, I first saw this on TCM too a few years back. I recorded it to send to a friend and sat down a few days later to make sure the recording was okay, intending to watch just the first 15 minutes or so until Joan leaves for Scotland--and ended up watching the whole movie all over again! Now that you mention it, the only b&w sound films I can think of offhand that capture the beauty of a landscape as well as this one are certain Westerns with especially atmospheric location shots.

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  8. R.D., you have done justice to a perfectly lovely film. My wife and I saw I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING for the first time a few years ago and it was love at first sight. From its opening sequence (which you describe so well), I was immediately taken with Wendy Hiller's performance and the exploits of the headstrong, young woman she was playing. (I was so impressed with Dame Wendy that I stopped to look up her credits...always a good sign.) She and Roger Livesey (love his voice) play off each other beautifully. I had no idea that Livesey had to "play younger" for his role. Part of my fascination with this film is its parallel to BLACK NARCISSUS in terms of the role of the environment. In NARCISSUS, it's the erotic surroundings that seemingly work against the nuns and foster secret desires. In I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, it's the weather that seemingly finds way to keep Joan and Torquil together until they recognize their true feelings. And I wholeheartedly agree that "Scotland is really the third main character in the film." (For the record, the last sentence in your review may be the best Finchian passage yet written.)

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    1. Rick, thank you. I think this is the kind of movie that if people respond to it, they don't just like it, they LOVE it the way you and I do, and apparently a lot of those who've left comments. Livesey definitely had a distinctive voice; nobody else sounded exactly like him. I just rewatched "The Entertainer" a week or two ago, and that voice allowed him to convincingly play Laurence Olivier's father, even though he was only one year older than Olivier.

      Now that you bring it up, I can see what a big part nature and the elements play in the film, which must be quite something for a Londoner like Joan. Even when she's inside, she's often gazing out the window, ostensibly to check the weather, but I have to think also to enjoy the natural beauty of the place. One thing I noticed reading Powell's autobiography was how detailed and vivid his descriptions of places were. He had a real painter's eye for using visual details to tell a story on film.

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  9. I adore this movie. Just reading your post makes me start singing the beautiful title song.

    I think Joan (played wonderfully by Wendy Hiller) is such a great female character. I think I love her so much because she seems real & not a fantasy. She is allowed to be imperfect, she is allowed to make mistakes but despite that she is allowed to find happiness in the end. The ending is also in my opinion one of the most loveliest romantic scenes in cinema. It makes my heart melt every time when we understand what the "curse" really means for these two.

    I also love the way & Powell & Pressburger made the Island come alive with the scenery shots and the many different inhabitants we meet in this film. It's almost a character in itself.

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    1. Kim, I sure agree about what a great, unique, and real character Joan is. In most movies such a reactive role is a passive one, but here it's an active one and the center of the movie. She's not only an observer, but a person who's allowed to grow and mature because of what she's exposed to. One thing I caught while watching the film in preparation for writing the post, which I hadn't noticed before, is that Joan is aware of what the curse is because she's been in the castle. It's only to Torquil that it comes as a surprise, and to the viewer of course. And what a great ending that is--a curse that brings about the happiest ending possible for these two!

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  10. R.D. - Much as I admire the magnificence of "The Red Shoes" and "Black Narcissus," this is the film of The Archers closest to my heart. Just as Joan is enchanted by Torquil, the isle and its people,"I Know Where I'm Going!" bewitches the viewer. The 'ceilidh' sequence alone is absolute magic - such pure and simple beauty.

    You describe perfectly the challenge Wendy Hiller faced in portraying Joan and I agree completely that her performance "is simply one of the most memorable by an actress in British cinema.” She artfully portrayed another fascinating transformation as Eliza Doolittle in “Pygmalion.” If only she had enjoyed acting onscreen as much as on the stage...

    I was surprised to learn that Roger Livesy was not involved in the location shooting. I'm thinking especially of scenes at the end of the film where Torquil and Joan meet near his family's ancestral castle. I'm sure the next time I watch I'll have an eye out for the double.

    I've been looking forward to your thoughts on "I Know Where I'm Going!", R.D., and it was certainly worth the wait.

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    1. Eve, many thanks. It would be hard for me to name a favorite P&P film. Each one is so entirely different from the rest; they certainly never fell into the habit of repeating themselves. Having said that, this is certainly in my top three, and at least as many others are masterpieces. One thing, though, I don't think any of their films is as engaging as "IKWIG" on the emotional level. Powell knew all the tricks to fool the audience into believing what they saw, and what he didn't know he invented. Just an unbelievably talented man who, like Hitchcock, liked nothing more than the technical challenge of creating optical illusion.

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  11. It is rare that I have a chance to read something that so perfectly reflects the work honored. R.D., you painted the loveliest picture of this "sweet" and lesser known and much lesser appreciated film. "I Know Where I'm Going" is a precious gem that initially delighted me on first viewing and subsequentially became endeared to my heart. On an interesting note, I have been to Scotland and, ironically, was unable to take a ferry from Fort William to Mallaig because of fog. I loved your heartfelt and honest writing. Extraordinary blog!

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    1. Toto, thank you for such a complimentary comment. What "IKWIG" lacks in spectacle compared to the better-known films of P&P, it makes up for in feeling. It IS a "precious gem" or maybe like one of those perfect miniature portraits certain English painters did so well, small in scale but vast in its power to move those who see it.

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  12. I think this film is my favorite of all the Powell and Pressburger films. Your descriptions of the character is spot on-thank you for posting about it. Also for the info on how the whirlpool was filmed, and the double for Livesey-I had no idea about those two items so reading about them was interesting.

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    1. Jenni, when I chose to write on "IKWIG" for the blogathon, I didn't realize how fond so many people are of the film. I know I was taken with it the first time I saw it, and it pleases me to learn that so many others appreciate its understated virtues too. I wasn't sure what to write about--there are always so many sides to a P&P film--but quickly decided that both Wendy Hiller and her character Joan deserved special attention.

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  13. R.D., I am astounded at how many P&P films I have NOT seen. I think I got so stuck on The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus, I did not go any further, at least when I was younger. Now that I am really into researching movies and am part of such a great blogger community, I have learned so much! Your article is just wonderful, combining the story with background so seamlessly. I'm dying to see it now! I was particularly interested in the lengths a dedicated filmmaker will go to get what he wants: "It's a big, technically intricate sequence composed of location shots of the actual Corryvreckan (including some filmed by Powell himself with a handheld camera while strapped to the mast of a boat)..." Wow, that's determination! I can't wait to see that scene. Again, excellent review R.D.!

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    1. Becky, you picked the two most accessible P&P films to start with. One of the most remarkable things about Powell is that he was equally a creative craftsman intrigued by the technical challenges of turning his vision into reality and an inspired artist. His artistry elevated his technical skill, and his craftsmanship humanized the intelligence of his art. I find that sense of balance in all of his films, and I think it helps explain their wide and enduring appeal. They can be big and intimate at the same time, not so easy to do successfully if you consider all the lifeless, overblown epics around.

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    2. I thoroughly enjoyed your post on a film I just discovered for the first time a little over 3 years ago. Like you, I found myself watching it all over again in a very short time frame! I was grabbed by the combination of the characters, the setting, and the film's mystical quality -- all the castles, Gaelic, legends, and music give the film sort of an otherworldly quality, yet at the same time it's firmly rooted in reality, such as reminders of the war.

      I was especially intrigued to learn that Margot Fitzsimons, who plays Bridie, is Maureen O'Hara's sister. She was only in a couple of movies.

      Thank you for your post, now I want to watch the movie again!

      Best wishes,
      Laura

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    3. Laura, I think you identified something in "IKWIG" that's typical of Powell and Pressburger films, and that's how all the elements have a wonderful unity. I think that's why their films tend to leave such a lasting impression, whether the scale is small as in this one or more grandiose like their better-known ones. You're right about the mystical elements of the films (I'm thinking of "A Matter of Life and Death" and "The Red Shoes" too) being grounded in reality and real human situations and emotions.

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  14. Superb post on a wonderful film. I love the background you've provided on the filming and all those involved. Terrific work.

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    1. Jacqueline, thank you. It's always a challenge to use background information without letting it take over the post. I have to remind myself to restrict it to what's relevant to my main focus, which is character, theme, and that nebulous thing called style.

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  15. Yet for all Powell's technical skill at creating cinematic illusion, what makes his films so memorable is that no matter how much trickery he used to produce those unforgettable images, he never lost sight of the importance of building the film on the human element—a compelling story and authentic character relationships and emotions.

    Bravo. Could not have been better expressed.

    This one's been on my radar for quite some time now -- I did record it the last time it made the rounds on TCM...now all I have to do is find a few extra hours in the day to watch it. First-rate review as always, Richard...I may have to "poach" this next week if I'm a "chop" or two short.

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    1. Ivan, thank you. Hope you get a chance to watch it soon. There's a real sense of innocence to this film but no naivete at all--hope that makes sense. As always, I'd be pleased to see this appear in Classic Chops.

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