penfold

Aargh. Always gets me, that scene, along with the reveal of Johnny Cannon's face to Theo in the car....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

TimR

It was intriguing to me that I couldn't place her. I knew she was not really a New Englander - although only her voice gave her away. She played the role beautifully, with the right amount of reserve and the correct timing and the quiet independence. Very nice. I couldn't imagine anyone else in the part.

I continue to be suprised by the depth of her performance in AMOLAD. Perhaps Powell was able to being out a quality that other directors could not.

That camera obscura scene is a pleasure: I cannot imagine it being used in the same way in the work of any other film artists - that transformation of everyday life into something magical.

That is only three miles from the pilgrim sequence? What about the scene at the end of that prologue: that marvelous moment in A Canterbury Tale where Esmond Knight is narrating, the falcon becomes a plane and then the train is seen from the air? Is that all the same area?

"Our journey has just begun!"

TimR

What wonderful films they made.

This weekend, I will be watching The Battle of the River Platte and The Edge of the World

penfold

BoRP is OK, it's relatively conventional, but well crafted....EoTW is a terrific early work, Mickey's calling card, and gained good critical appraisal here and in the States at the time - have you found Contraband or Small Back Room yet?

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

batman

I watched Contraband for the first time in years recently, it is very good. The Small Back Room is a great film and one of my personal favourites (but don't tell anyone).

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Andy H

It's hard for me to choose a favourite, as it depends what mood I'm in at the time. However, AMOLAD is certainly in the top five, along with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, another P&P production.
They always managed to get a slightly odd, eerie feel to parts of their films, sequences where you can feel a kind of spell. I don't think its just me.
There's a sequence in 'A Canterbury Tale' in which there is a meeting held in a back room - it's all about the local customs and ways - and a strange heaviness descends, as though some kind of old English magic were at work. This seems (to me) to be a common theme of Powell's.
Sorry, probably been drinking too much airfix cement.

penfold

You're not wrong, though I wouldn't recommend drinking the glue...sniffing is sufficient I believe.
You can practically feel the sultry summer heat in ACT...it's very odd.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Gazza

Another thing I've noticed, especially in ACT, is that there's a strange, gentle tension going on. It's created by a lack of traditional tension, the conflicts are very subtle. It keeps you watching, keeps you listening, you just can't miss what's going to happen next.

The scene on the hill when they hide in the grass; it builds tension . . . what's going to happen, what will they hear/see, will they be discovered, will the Amercians draw conclusions about the relationship if they find them? But no, they race off down the hill again . . .

Andy H

Absolutely Gazza. That's one of those 'spell' moments, and it's broken in a trice when they get up and run off. Powell seems to use this time and time again, building up a strange (often brooding) tension which doesn't necessarily have any connection with the story, it's just something he wanted to say.

Steve Crook

There are some of the original rebs - the 1776 colonists that balk at the mention of Paul Revere. But they don't speak so they are probably being played by British extras.

Steve

Steve Crook

It's tempting to think of A Canterbury Tale as Powell's film as it is such a hymn to the area where he grew up. But he said that he didn't fully understand what Emeric was driving at while they were making it and it's only with subsequent viewings that he began to understand it more. In many ways it is more Emeric's film than Micky's.

It was the same for most people. It wasn't very popular when it was first released. It did OK but it wasn't a huge hit. The people did have other things to think about in 1944. D-Day had happened and was a success. They knew that the end of the war was in sight and began to think about what to do after it, how they'd be able to sort out the mess.

It's only gradually that it's become more and more popular over the years. It's been a real slow burner, taking 50 or 60 years to find its audience

But even today most of us don't understand it fully. You have to slow down to its pace to appreciate it. And there is a lot of meandering which is very important for setting the atmosphere and explaining what the three pilgrims experienced, but doesn't exactly move the plot forwards.

Emeric once said [in New York City, 1980] "I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing - it should have a little bit of magic . . . Magic being untouchable and very difficult to cast, you can't deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them."

There is magic at work in ACT. Emeric prepared the nests beautifully

Steve

David Brent

'A Matter Of Life And Death' has been shown recently on the Australian pay TV channel Ovation.

It's next showing will be at 8.30pm Tuesday 24th June.

The channel has been promoting the showings by saying that the film was voted the third best British film ever made.
Does anyone know which poll came up with that result?

I personally think AMOLAD is overrated but hey, thats me.

Dave.

Steve Crook

Third best? It was voted second best (after Get Carter) in the Total Film Magazine poll of 25 film critics

It does often score well in polls, even though most polls tend to give higher ratings to recent films - most people have short memories

Thanks for the alert about it showing on Oz TV. I'll spread the word

Steve

TimR

I just watched it last night - I would agree with your assessment. I enjoyed it, but was hoping for more detail on the character of Langsdorff, especially with an actor as well cast as Peter Finch.

The direction is tight and the film is well structured, but there were a few times where I lost the thread of the story. I had to rewind the video to make certain that I grasped what was happening.

The early naval battles are the one aspect of WWII that I know the least about, so this filled in some of the gaps in my own knowledge.

I probably won't get to Edge of the World until next week, as life has picked up steam in the last few days. The other two films will follow, certainly. I have looked into their availability - and I will likely borrow them through interlibrary loan before buying them.

There are four that I have not been able to locate yet - Ill Met by Moonlight, Oh, Rosalinda, Elusive Pimpernal and Gone to Earth, even under the American title.

I would have thought that with Jennifer Jones in the cast, it might be easier to find that last one, but it isn't.

I would not buy any of them without seeing them first - unlike the P&P classics - and our interlibrary loan system is really outstanding. It covers the entire US. If a film is not located through their system, it is very unlikely that it is available in the US.

Ill Met By Moonlight is on TCM every few months, so I will probably catch up with it then.

TimR

I had read about Kathleen Byron being a great beauty in Black Narcissus, but I wasn't too impressed. Too strange for my taste (not her - the role )

Then in AMOLAD, I was very impressed. She was regal. I would like to have seen her play Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter.

I had thought many of the women you mention were quite successful. Wendy Hiller was a major "name" here in the US, and I know all of the others except Patricia Roc. I especially liked Lili Palmer, who was both beautiful and smart and sane. An attractive woman who is sane and low-key and level-headed and has a sense of irony always "gets" me.