Steve Crook

Well they certainly had a lot of fun making it. Powell often said it was his favourite film because, even looking back from the end of his career, it was the one that let him play God and create a complete universe.

In earlier films he had been given remarkable freedoms. He had a whole country to play in (with the assistance of the Government) in 49th Parallel. He rebuilt Canterbury Cathedral in A Canterbury Tale. He rebuilt the Himalayas in Buckinghamshire in Black Narcissus. He had the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet to play with in The Battle of the River Plate. But in AMOLAD he had the whole of time and space to play in.

Remember as well the famous scene where Conductor 71 first comes to see Peter and as he moves from the monochrome "other place" to the brightly coloured Earth he says "Ah, one is starved of Technicolor, up there"

Thelma Schoonmaker once described that as the Archers saying "We know it's artifice, you know it is, and we know you know. But let's still admire it because it's so well done". She also said "They were lifting up the curtain & letting us in on the joke. A rare privilege and an example of their confidence."

Steve

TimR

Oh.....Ambiguous is not a word that fits easily into my vocabulary.

I suppose I don't have much choice, though.

Well, I will watch it again and form my own conclusions.

Moor Larkin

The original was also a zillion times better................

batman

I most heartily agree with you sir!

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

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

TimR

Its interestig to read this: I would never have known that Anglo-American relations were a significant - let alone central - theme in the film if I had not been watching for it. I knew about the mandate through Powell's autobiogaphy and this forum.

In the film it is seems like a charming incidental theme, but hardly a significant issue. I would have noticed that it was a good "payback" joke on us (Americans) that the Englishman gets the American girl when so many G.I.s were going with English girls at the time. But otherwise, I would not have noticed it.

A Canterbury Tale is far more effective and moving on that score.

Well, I do like your Elysian Fields comment: nicely expressed.

I suppose it is interesting to consider various possibilities. I had not expected the "mystery" aspect. I thought it would be more straightforward: either he's dead or not. Either it's real or not.

Now I will never know for certain.

Moor Larkin

I really must watch that dvd I got free all those months ago.........................

batman

I watched it for the first time recently .... it was quite good.

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

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

Moor Larkin

Well..... It's got David Niven in it, so it couldn't be ALL bad.........

Third Man

Well I don't want to get into guiding you into what maybe you should see as everyone has different angles but I don't see it quite like that and I'm not professing that what I am about to say is in any way the right way to see it..

If Powell is having a joke at America it's a whimsical one at best, maybe someone like Steve knows more as to what if - any jokes where being played at the Americans expense but you have to remember it's June who saves Peter - June is the powerful player in this story - the American saving the Brit from destruction and the Brit is so worth saving because he is so beautiful - the uncommon person - then there's the end when June says ..

"We Won! "

Yes their love has won together, together they will stay.

Analogies are at play all the time in this film.


Back to the jokes I think more are being played on the British stereotype by Powell in the film and I've read somewhere that he might of been having a laugh at the war time documentary boys by placing the celestial world in black and white therefore saying that there is more realism in what goes on in the mind, more irony I think

Simon

TimR

Sure - always interested in the views of others. That is why I am here.



Well, those analogies went right over my head. I feel like a blockhead.

I was so caught up in the issue of whether or not it was a real experience that I missed a lot of the detail and (apparently) a lot of the depth.

It is a great favorite with my wife, sister and mother - and I watched it with all three of them. (This was definitely not the case with Colonel Blimp or Tales of Hoffman)

I kept asking questions about the hallucinations and the details and eventually my wife said: "Stop analyzing and just watch!" and my sister nodded and then shook her head in disgust.

In other words: Shut up Tim

Your comments gives me food for thought. I am very interested in Anglo-American relations (not always an easy issue ) and I was initially disappointed in that aspect. But there is clearly more than I was seeing - much more.

Well, first, I don't mind the jokes on Americans about all. (Especially from P&P)

And I did like the line about the B&W vs technicolor.

Steve Crook

I like your wife and your sister
I've often said a similar thing to Ian Christie and other professors of film history and similar things. Sometimes you have to stop analysing everything and just sit back and enjoy it.

Especially with a film like this where it hit me at various emotional levels before I started trying to find out everything about it.

I know, love and admire just about every frame of it. But even now that I do know so much about it, I can still just sit back and admire it as a total experience. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry.

Steve

TimR

Point taken.

Yes - I will work on that at the next viewing. Also, I will watch it alone, because use of the remote is forbidden when they are watching AMOLAD - and also I Know Where I'm Going, which is even more sacred. It's my mother's favorite film.

Of course I'm the same way about A Canterbury Tale and Colonel Blimp.

The three P&P films that I really love all threw curve balls at me. They knocked me off balance, and I liked that - I was impressed by their mastery of the art. I didn't know what to expect, and had no time to split off and analyze because the structure of the films were so unusual. I didn't see the pitch coming. By the time the ball hit, I was already caught up in the films.

A Matter of Life and Death and I Know Where I'm Going were both straight pitches: more conventional; AMOLAD reminded me slightly of the 40s Hollywood fantasies at the beginning. The tone changed quickly, of course, but it was enough for me to start the "Why" and "What" questions.

Also, oddly enough, the presence of David Niven made the film seem far less unusual and far more accessible: for an American who grew up watching British war films and epics - and even American war films - Niven was one of the most familiar faces and voices.

I think it's just about impossible to dislike him, and he is well suited to the role here. But in the other P&P films, almost everyone was new to me - or, as in the case of Deborah Kerr, familiar people seemed quite different from I was used to. Niven is always Niven.

Wonderful enthusiasm.

Well, I will return to the film well prepped.

Third Man

Do you know what , if I could microcosm this film into one part of what it meant to me, it would be in that phrase.

Simon

Steve Crook

And I presume you all know that it was dubbed after shooting. If you watch his lips then he says "One is starved of colour, up there" but they dubbed it to have him say "Technicolor" because it's a better gag. Even though it does throw his mouth out of synch with the words for the rest of that sentence. But he's turning away and partly obscured by the bushes so it's not very noticeable. And then he still has his back to the camera when he delivers his next line "What a night, for love"

But that line does still always get a laugh from an audience

Steve

Steve Crook

I meant to comment on this one earlier. Yes, it is June who proves to be the strongest one at the end. Although one of my few complaints about the film is that June seems to be quite weak and submissive all the way through the film up to then. She can't play chess, she didn't know Peter was a poet, she hasn't though much about life after death. She's a good nursemaid and is obviously devoted to Peter but sometimes it seems that all she does is gaze adoringly at him.

Now bear in mind that this was the same team that gave us superb strong and interesting women like Catriona (and Joan) in IKWIG and Edith, Barbara & Johnny in Blimp. Even as far back as The Spy in Black and Contraband you have Valerie Hobson playing very strong characters. So it does seem that June doesn't really do enough - until the end. "Goodbye darling"

Steve