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Pretty Good

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I can't remember the exact quote but Michael Powell once said that with a film all you can do is make it in the hope that something magical will come and nest in it. He certainly did that with 'I know where I am going' and 'A Canterbury Tale.'I am not sure I have much to add with my encomium but re-watching 'I know where I am going' I was struck with what today would be called the sheer "emotional intelligence" of the film. It is so rare in the cinema today and long gone from the British Broadcasting Corporation or general British film-making which decades ago used to make fine adaptations of good British novels. The plot and characters have already been well rehearsed in previous threads so there is no need to go into that, but I say again how rare these days a film such as this is. In both films, the scenes are not just well shot, the acting so perfect but they are so well-written. The main characters of these films are interesting and intelligent and whom, if they were real, you would love to have as your friends or acquaintances and upon whose continuing story you would always want to be updated. And if they were not, you would eagerly await the next film or novel to continue their tale. The BBC has largely given up drama for one-dimensional soaps and when a 'worthy' English or American film comes along, as they still do occasionally, it is usually a film about manners or just plain sentimentalism. Worthy but dull and lifeless. Not just still life but stiff life.Steven Spielberg can and does occasionally make intelligent films but they are, I think and feel, still left asleep at the post in comparison with Powell and Pressburger.A film which is as stimulating as a good novel is the best of ambitions but with the age of Powell and Pressburger now past so I fear is either the ambition or the ability. Incidentally, also on show in these two films, Powell once complimented his colleague Emeric Pressburger for having a perfect feel for the 'shape of a scene'.If there is such a place as Heaven and I get there I hope they will have made lots more such films for me to enjoy; films which are food for the spirit and mind as well as heart to enjoy.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's romance film follows the story of Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller), a young middle class Englishwoman with ambitions. She thinks that she knows where she's going as she intends to travel to the Hebrides to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a very wealthy industrialist. She encounters many complications that inhibit her from travelling to Kiloran upon her arrival on the Isle of Mull. This leads to her meeting Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey) with whom she makes a strong connection during her stay. The script itself doesn't exactly cause their connection or explicitly suggest the eventuality of a romance between the two. However, the on-screen chemistry between Hiller and Livesey enables the audience to make an allowance for that, and view it as an honest and realistic relationship. Overall, the film is well shot, presenting the audience with an aesthetically pleasing view of Scotland. On the whole, it is an enjoyable film.

If I was putting it in a double bill, it would be, not with another Scottish film, but with 'The Peaceful Man', set in Ireland, or 'Gone to Earth', set on the English/ Welsh border country.Heck, let's call it a triple bill!The essential qualities are: beautiful countryside: real people, albeit some a little unusual: excellent acting from fine actors - and, most importantly, a story that may not be new but is neither hackneyed nor trite.If you want a period film that's not a 'just-so' story - where there aren't necessarily good guys who always do the right thing, and bad guys who are obvious villains, and macguffins round every corner - well, here it is.

Here's a film I would have never ventured to watch had I not come across it by accident on Turner Classic Movies. This woman, Joan Webster, played by Wendy Hiller, is off to Scotland to marry some guy she obviously doesn't know too well. We know this ourselves because she has dinner with her father the night before she's scheduled to leave for the Hebrides. Her father tries to tell her to slow down and think about it but she: "KNOWS WHERE SHE'S GOING." (She doesn't scream it, as implied by the caps. But she might as well have. The setup is movie perfection.) Joan has these directions to the island on which this guy has planned to marry her. She has to take the train from London to East Bumshoe, then another train from Bumshoe to Overloafen, a bus from Overloafen to Pudgydubby, a cab from Pudgyduddy to Shaddycrack, the ferry from there to some other weirdly named town, then the water taxi to yet another Scottish backwater, and finally a private skiff to the island. Unfortunately, when she gets there, it's thick of fog. Swirling, smoky, impenetrable fog. Fog like you won't believe, unless you live in Scotland or Great Britain or Maine, like I do. Or you own a Hollywood fog machine, or work in a Russian spa, or live next door to Sherlock Holmes. You get the point. So she can't get to the island. She has to stay at someone's house with a bunch of other people who are similarly stuck. At this point, we're only about five minutes into the film, which is just more of this movie's magic, because it's here she's dealt the classic "Call to Adventure" of the hero's journey. She meets a man, and not the one she's supposed to marry. The man is Torquil Macneil, played by Roger Livesey; he wears a kilt and speaks in a heavy Scottish brogue, and although he's not exactly the most handsome leading man you ever saw, he does wear a kilt and speak in a heavy Scottish brogue, which makes him, apparently, very hot. Don't get me wrong, he's always the perfect gentleman. It's 1945 for God's sake. Later that day, feeling rather threatened by this charming kilt-wearing Scotsman, she tries once again to get the boat to the island. She's told it's way to foggy but as soon as the wind comes around northwest, the fog will lift and they'll be able to go. That night, Joan, while lying in her bed at the Inn, prays for wind from the northwest. In the morning Joan wakes to find her prayers answered. The fog has cleared. Unfortunately, it's because of a full blown northwest gale, which ends up sticking around for more than a week. She never makes it to the island. This special gem of a movie is the product of one of the most creative collaborations in movie history, that of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They had a gift for storytelling that is almost gone. Very often when you see a film today you're struck by inconsistencies, failures of logic, plot holes, gimmicks, etc. Or you're faced with a movie that just doesn't come together. Not the case with Powell and Pressburger films. Their movies have perfect structure; they engage you, keep moving toward a goal and wrap up all neat and tidy. If you ever see this one on the video rental shelf, grab it and take it home. I guarantee you won't be disappointed, especially if you're trying to score some points in the romance game.