My inner film geek has gone completely nuts in the last few weeks over a more than 80-year-old movie that I first saw more than 20 years ago. And I figured, since I was going to write something about some movie this week anyway, I might as well try to address it here.
In
the early 2000s, my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Frantz made (yet another) trip
to Scotland--a country with which my family has always had a familial
obsession. When I describe my heritage, I describe myself as a
tenth-generation American mutt. When my mother's genetics are factored
in, I probably have ancestry from all over Europe, but the Scottish part
of it seems to be what we've been proudest of. And I'm no different.
Anyway,
during their trip, they stayed on the Isle of Mull. Mull was a primary
filming location for a popular British movie and there are many places
on the island that use that fact to draw in tourists--especially the
film geeks who like to travel. When they returned to the States, they
tracked down the movie, purchasing a Criterion DVD of it so they could
show it to family and say, "We were there! We stayed in that hotel!"
We were all very excited for them and, while I can't speak for my
parents, I, for one, really enjoyed the film.
After
I moved into Aunt Gayle's basement (which is an even longer story than
most of my long stories), I remember borrowing the DVD from her and
watching it again. It was just as enjoyable and I made a mental note
that I wanted a copy of my own one day.
It's
been more than a decade since that last viewing and in that time, that
mental note got pushed farther and farther back into the file cabinet of
pop culture inside my brain. But because of my obsession with Wes
Anderson movies, on a whim one day, I went to the Criterion website. I
discovered that in December, they were finally going to release that
movie in 4K and blu-ray discs. After the holidays, I was fortunate to
find it in Barnes & Noble (the only brick and mortar store that I
know of to sell Criterion films) and I immediately grabbed a copy.
This is where my inner film geek goes nuts...
I
discovered that since I had last seen it, the British Film Institute
(BFI) completely restored the film, making it look and sound better than
it ever has. The restoration was supervised by Martin Scorsese and his
long-time editor Thelma Schoonmaker. That alone made me geek out, but
on the blu-ray case, her name was listed as Thelma Schoonmaker Powell,
which was something I had never seen. I was completely unaware of the
fact that she had been married to one of the directors of this film. I
don't know why this blew my mind, but it did.
Needless
to say, I watched the film again. I don't know why, but I fell in love
with it even moreso than I did with previous viewings. I now want to
explore more films by these particular filmmakers and I don't know why I
haven't before. I'd certainly heard of them in film classes I took in
college, but we tended to actually view American movies. And when it
comes to film exploration, there are still so many classic American
productions that I've never seen, that foreign films (even British ones)
tend to get pushed to the back of the line. I'm proud to say this
particular film has now moved to the forefront of my pop culture
consciousness and I have a weird feeling it will become a semi-regular
weekend-off film. Also as an old black and white movie, it's perfect
for a Saturday afternoon with inclement weather, which is practically
another character in the film.
The
movie focuses on Joan Webster (played by Dame Wendy Hiller, who I'm
pretty sure died the year I first saw it), a headstrong English woman
who has definite ideas about what she wants in life and how to attain
it. She decides to "marry up" by becoming engaged to one of the
wealthiest men in the country, an industrialist who runs the company she
works for. She plans on traveling from Manchester to the remote island
of Kiloran (which isn't real, by the way) in the Scottish Hebrides. On
the way there, she gets stranded on Mull due to bad weather. First
it's fog, then it's the treacherous wind that blows away the fog. She
becomes acquainted with Torquil MacNeil (played by Roger Livesey), a
British naval officer on a brief leave who happens to be the laird of
Kiloran. During her extended stay, she witnesses how the locals live
and comes to realize that there's more to life than money. As Torquil
points out to her, there's a difference between being poor and not
having any money.
Through
their production company, The Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger wrote, produced, and directed not just this film but some of
the biggest movies in British cinema during the 1940s--films I now long
to see. Originally released in 1945 and co-starring Pamela Brown, Finley Currie, Captain C.W.R.
Knight, F.Z.S. (which is how he is actually credited) and a 12-year-old
Petula Clark, this week, please enjoy I KnowWhere I'm Going!
Until
next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember
that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for
you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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