I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) -- M. Powell & E. Pressburger

I was truly captivated by this 1945 picture from The Archers (Powell & Pressburger, famous for the later Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes). A completely British film featuring a heroine who knows what she wants and that is to raise her social standing by marrying a rich but older businessman who is a symbol of Britain's new focus on corporate culture (he runs Consolidated Chemicals).  The film details her journey from Manchester to a tiny Scottish island (Kiloran) where the wedding will take place -- at last she is stopped by a tremendous gale blocking her passage.  She meets Roger Livesly who is more than he seems and they are stuck together waiting to cross the dangerous channel (where a well-filmed whirlpool lurks).  The film is thus a romance as well as a keenly wrought observation of down-to-earth Scottish values and culture (yes, some bagpiping here).  Powell and Pressburger go the expressionistic route (as usual) which lends a distinctly magical air to the otherwise realistic proceedings, full of dream sequences, superstition, ancient curses, and romance.  In the end, in what must be a political statement, humanistic values are championed over the military industrial complex. This makes the film sound dull but it is definitely not -- a moving mystical romance.