| Money isn’t everything?
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Britain’s most famous filmmaking duo, were quick to be caught up with the newfound idealism that blossomed at the end of the Second World War. The result is I Know Where I’m Going!, a love story and fable brimming with idealism, charm and technical virtuosity. The Criterion Collection’s DVD release of this 1945 masterpiece is a welcome addition to the mounting library of work now available from the two filmmakers.
I Know Where I’m Going! tells the story of Joan (Wendy Hiller), a headstrong careerist who has always known exactly what she wants. At five, she wants silk stockings. At 21, a nice young lad would have taken her to the movies twice a week but she prefers dinner at an expensive restaurant once a month, and she gets what she wants. At 25, for a young lady of the time she’s got a scandalously independent and flashy lifestyle. Suddenly, she announces to her father that she’s going to be married to one of Britain’s wealthiest industrialists, and she’s travelling that very evening to the remote Scottish Hebrides, where she will join him at his home on the island of Kiloran.
Joan's journey north by train, boat and car is a wonder of mechanical efficiency, but scant miles from the island a snag appears in her schedule. As she waits on the mainland for the arrival of her fiancé, the fog rolls in, postponing any traffic to or from the island that evening. A handsome young navy officer (Roger Livesey), who is also waiting to cross to the island, suggests she take shelter for the night in a nearby manor. As stormy weather closes in, delaying passage even longer, Joan’s carefully laid plans are dashed upon the rocks by an equally powerful emotional gale. She is suddenly immersed in a mystical and seductive world where her materialist compass can no longer guide her.
At first glance, I Know Where I’m Going! seems to be a more whimsical and less substantial film than Powell and Pressburger are known for, but placed in its historical context, it is a deeply political film. In the DVD liner notes, it is casually mentioned that Powell and Pressburger felt the film was part of a "crusade against materialism" and "an attempt to remind their war-weary audience what it had been fighting for." These are powerful sentiments that, in today’s climate of rampant materialism, might be seen as naive or even dangerous (read: bad for business). It’s not that Powell and Pressburger were political radicals, they simply shared feelings felt by many at the time – a disgust for those who profited from the war and an idea that they should be building a new world based on equality.
Politics aside, I Know Where I’m Going! is a technical marvel. Right from the clever opening credits to the climax set against the roaring, swirling backdrop of a an enormous whirlpool, the film is filled with cinematic invention. Jolly good fun for the cinephile and casual viewer alike.
I Know Where I'm Going! is available at finer video stores in Calgary. |
