Design for loving… I Know Where I’m Going (1945), BFI, London Film Festival Restoration Premier

What more is there to say about this film beyond the personal? Introducing, the BFI’s Robin Baker – general mood, "Christmas morning" - recalls seeing it in the mid-70s at home with his parents and the emotional impact it had, and still has, when the three pipers march towards Moy Castle at the end. In a video introduction Martin Scorsese describes seeing it late in his growing fascination with Michael Powell’s work and, expecting a rather mannered romcom, was never so delighted to be proven wrong, blown away by its “enchanted suspense.” It was Emeric Pressburger’s favourite of the films he made with Powell and his grandson, Andrew McDonald, a filmmaker and Scot, couldn’t agree more; the film’s precision being matched by its disciplined 90-minute length – a producer’s dream.

The restoration of our cinematic crown jewels, has taken some four years according to the BFI’s Film Conservation Manager Kieron Webb, who described how the various surviving elements were combined, including one pre-release positive that was slightly longer during the whirlpool scenes, to produce the sharpest images but also the sharpest sound. He suggested there might be a PhD in the use of sound in post-war cinema and it’s certainly worth listening to this film afresh.

Kieron often gets asked what it’s like to work on a film you love and then have to spend so much time with and the answer was, broadly, that the heart only goes fonder in restoration proximity which is only appropriate for a film that not only is about love but which also makes you love or even fall in love… For me, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have captured that feeling and not for the first time.

Wendy and Roger

Few can match the duo for sheer heartful strangeness and they can comfort and unsettle all at the same time and whilst they represent a type of British-ness they also subvert it with their films containing elements of expressionism and mysticism that are distinctly European and challenging. There are obvious cultural reasons for this in Pressburger’s case but Powell, from Kent, had spent time at his father's hotel in Nice and gained experience in German film studios in the silent era.

Released post-war in late 1945, this film offers the re-assurance of enduring love and community spirit after the battles won…and offers a Celtic companion to the previous year’s ethereally English A Canterbury Tale. I Know Where I’m Going also returns Powell to his beloved Scotland and to the highlands and islands previously showcased in The Edge of the World (1937). This time the location is Mull, and the distant shores of “Kiloran” (a fictional isle roughly in the position of Colonsay). All are beautifully photographed by Erwin Hillier - all darkness and light with some stunning shots of mountains, shore and sky.  These are perfectly matched by expertly constructed interiors in Denham Studios which may be 500 miles away, but they feel part of the location as surely as if they’d been built there.

What does Joan see in Catriona?

Wendy Hiller is sublime as Joan Webster, a bank manager’s daughter from Manchester who – seemingly – knows exactly where she’s going and always has done. The film opens with a series of witty scenes showing the heroine’s steadfast pursuit of what she wants at different stages of childhood and presenting the credits on various bits of the scenery. This helps to accentuate the material world in which Joan lives and, shortly after we see her leaving an art-deco industrial building she informs her father that she’s off to Scotland to marry Consolidated Chemical Industries or at least the factory’s owner Sir Robert Bellinger, one of the richest men in England.

Joan is absolutely sure of herself and waves goodbye as her train heads north for her inevitable wedding and, if she has doubts, we only see them as the off-kilter dreams she experiences as she heads towards the border. However, nature conspires against her as dense fog will not permit the final leg of her journey to the island Bellinger has let and upon which they are to be married.

This is Scotland in 1945 and yet the feeling is Archers’ other-worldly with the misty magnificence of the exterior landscape mixing with wonderfully vibrant characters. The Gaelic community endure the English wartime invasion with a pragmatic shrug and a knowing smile. There’s a well-to-do family with a chatterbox wife always desperate to play bridge and whose daughter (Petula Clark, who once sat on the swings with my mother-in-law in Weymouth) seems more mature than the adults, just about tolerating her mother’s skittishness. They contrast with wise old matriarch Mrs. Crozier (Nancy Price) who waxes lyrical about the dances… Scottish passion versus English artifice... But the English can go native and throw themselves into the area as eccentric Colonel Barnstaple (Captain C.W.R. Knight) proves in his vain attempts to train an eagle as a kestrel.

Pipe smoker of the year, 1945

He rooms with Mrs Catriona Potts, played by Pamela Brown as wild as the wind… and also the love of Powell’s life, here acting to set the emotional template for the film. Catriona’s ahead of Joan in actually feeling where she’s going and not rationalising… “there are more important things than money…” she tells the younger woman. She is a force of nature and the younger woman is transfixed when she appears: Hiller’s reaction shot is superb and you can sense the rest of the story panning out in those few seconds.

By this stage, Joan has met Torquil MacNeil as played magnificently by Roger Livesey who has relaxed clarity of purpose and intensity that’s hard to pin down; wild as Catriona and as sure footed as Joan. Torquil is a naval officer on shore leave who is also the Laird of Kiloran and is the one letting the land to Joan’s fiancé. There’s an instant frisson between the two... something fierce.

There’s also something unspoken between Torquil and Catriona… an understanding certainly but maybe more:  they’re rooted in their culture, location and earthy self-recognition. It’s most un-English but that’s exactly why Eric and Emeric loved the Scots! There’s seemingly not a lot of Manchester left in Joan’s very (southern) English ambition but Hiller’s Stockport accent slips out in the nightclub scene when asking for a “sherr-ay” and a “doo-bonnay” … the Lassie’s from Lancashire alright.

Pamela knows

Joan wishes for a wind to blow her way clear to Kiloran but she summons a storm which leaves her stranded with Torquil’s increasingly intimate company. Something’s afoot and as he explains his family’s curse as they walk past Moy Castle, the depth of the link between land and folklore becomes clear: “My father never entered Moy Castle, nor did my grandfather or his father, and nor will I.”

The two stay in a hotel but Joan insists on sitting at separate tables…not just for appearances sake but her own. But the barriers crumble further as they attend a ceilidh in honour of a local couple’s 60th anniversary. Here, superbly marshalled by John Laurie – fine actor and student of Gaelic folk - the music and the dance is frenetic and the emotions charged… Couples old and young whirl around the floor, their individual dramas played out as Joan watches from a step ladder with Torquil pushed gently against her legs. He translates the lyrics of the song and emphasises the last line almost too forcefully as he turns to look directly into Joan’s eyes ‘Ho ro, my nut-brown maiden…You're the maid for me.’

By now Joan is desperate to get to Kiloran and, in spite of the dangers, pays one of the locals over the odds to take her there. It’s potentially suicide but Torquil fails to argue her round. Only when Catriona points out that he is the reason she’s leaving – Joan is running away from him – does Torquil take action. He leaps into the boat to fight for his life and love… and you really should watch the film if you want to find out what happens next.

It is not surprising that I Know Where I’m Going is the kind of film that people become strongly attached. It’s a love story but one that avoids cliché with its unpredictability and spirited call to know thyself and to always be prepared to be blown off-course. Love is facilitated by chance and by the right time and the right place… away from industrialised routines, Joan is able, finally, to “know” where she has to go. It’s a call to take the chance and be open-minded as the dance doesn’t go on forever.

It doesn’t matter if it’s you first or twenty first time as Scorsese says, there’s always something new in a film that never fails to stir and inspire. It’s never looked – or sounded – better, so look out for this exemplary restoration in 2022... I know where I'm going, back to the BFI to watch it all over again!

 

Fine people, very fine people indeed.