Paul E

Does Steve know if there's any doubling in A Canterbury Tale! Joan may have to move on to AMOLAD if there is!!
Joan - you may be aware that James Mason was originally booked to play the part anyway but was sacked by Powell before shooting began because Mason was whingeing so much about having to go near the water!?

joanwebster

paul e thanks for that, i think i knew it was james mason, but i didn't know iw was his whinging.
it was 4 beams. but my family are hungarian, and it thrilled me to see the superstition in another form mentioned. not all rooms have beams. and not all rooms have 4 corners, by the way it has not worked yet.

it made me feel how central european the p + p films seemed to me

Steve Crook

But there is quite a lot of playing around with locations. Tracking them all down was a real job of work [by Paul Tritton in his wonderful book on the film]. Because Powell knew the area so well, he grew up there, he could choose exactly the right location for each shot.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Steve Crook

That's why we love them so much - they are very european and very British at the same time, taking the best from all styles and the best people available both in front of and behind the camera.

I like to use Colonel Blimp as an example of a "typically British film" as made by P&P
Written by a Hungarian (Emeric Pressburger)
Filmed by a Frenchman (Georges Périnal)
Music by a Pole (Allan Gray - born Josef Zmigrod)
Design by a German (Alfred Junge)
Starring an Austrian (Anton Walbrook)

And Powell himself, although born in England, had a most unusual (for the time) world view of cinema and art in general. That was partly because he spent a lot of time in the South of France and did a lot of his film-making apprenticeship there.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Paul E

Talking of actors not going to Scotland I believe the only time Robert Donat went to Scotland in The 39 Steps was for 2 days shooting of the Forth Bridge sequence - the chase and crofters cottage sequences were filmed at Lime Grove.

David Brent

The fabulous Powell & Pressburger website has given me the locations to where many of my favourite films were made.
One thing i havn't been able to confirm though is the location of the waterfall in 'I Know Where I'm Going' if one does indeed exist.
That's the waterfall seen located by a telephone box in the film.
Is the waterfall a natural wonder or was it concocted in the studio?

Dave.

Steve Crook

Thanks Dave.

Oh yes, it's completely natural and does indeed have the phone box quite close to it. Although they chose a camera angle and tweaked the sound effects a bit to make it seem like the waterfall was a bit bigger & closer and interfered with phone calls even more than it actually does.

It's near Carsaig, on Mull. See the trips to Mull that some of the PaPAS group have done. There are some photos of it there.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

David Brent

Many,many thanks Steve.
I'd missed that part of the website.
Have you ever been to Mull yourself?
Every time i get to see 'I Know Where I'm Going' and 'A Canterbury Tale' ect.. i get a great yearning to visit the locations used in filming.
I hope to do it one day soon.
Gee,that phone box certainly looks like it's in the middle of nowhere.That's why i origionally thought it probably wasn't real.
Great to know the old red box is still there.
Again many thanks mate.

Dave.

Steve Crook

There are some other good ones in the 'P&P Trips' area of the web site. It includes some reports & pictures from screenings or festivals and location trips. Lots of visits to Canterbury, also some visits to Shropshire to see the locations used in Gone to Earth and some screenings there.

I have been to Mull, but not for a few decades.

Whenever I see They're a Weird Mob or Age of Consent I get a yearning to visit those places :)

It was still a red box when the last PaPAS member visited it last year. Let's hope they can keep it that way. I once even met the BT Engineer who had been in charge of siting the phone box there. He denied that it was a dry summer when they put it in. It was just a fairly central location for the community around Carsaig. It doesn't really interfere with phone calls as much as they make out in the film, especially if you keep the door shut.

There is some deliberate comedy, slapstick even, in the film - like the stuff with the phone box & Capt. Knight (Col. Barnstaple), an expert falconer, getting his lure tangled up in the bushes.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

David Brent

Great stuff Steve.

When you say that after watching AGE OF CONSENT you get a yearning to vist....do you mean North Queensland or Helen Mirren? wink

Dave.

fred kite

i love this film .....roger livesy{a fellow welshman )is superb as is wendy hiller.....this film captures a fantastic storm .....filmed in brilliant black and white....colour would have spoilt this film........classic stuff what do you fellow brit movie fans think????????????????????

Steve Crook

Well I might be a bit biased, liking (nearly) all things P&P as I do. But this is certainly one of their best. I like it so much that I even did the pilgrimage to Mull (with about 25 other people) to see where it was all filmed.

It's a film that many people love dearly, and it stands repeated viewing.

And I think that it's all the more impressive when you realise that Emeric Pressburger wrote the story for it in less than a week! Add to that the magical way that Roger Livesey & Petula Clark never went to Mull and I think it's a very cleverly made film.

You can study it in detail like that or you can just sit back and admire it as a beautiful, romantic, dramatic film.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Wolfgang

I think what separates this from other P&P works is its charm. It is just so disarming. It is probably their most likeable film.

Jim

Love this film, which I found quite by chance many years ago. I always thought that Rog was an Irishman, but you are right Fred; I looked him up on INDb. Bloody awful way to die poor old lad.

Good morning boys.

fred kite

how did he die jim??????????????iv no idea....nothing too violent??????????