我走我路

One of the finest romantic films ever made (名副其实！), I Know Where I’m Going tells the story of Joan Webster (the great Dame Wendy Hiller), a middle-class English girl willing to do anything to move up in the world. As with Colonel Blimp, the film’s themes are specifically rooted in English identity—in this case, the British obsession with social class. When Joan is on her way to marry a wealthy industrialist on his private Scottish isle of Kiloran, a storm hits, trapping her on the Isle of Mull. There she meets a naval officer returning from the war (Livesey again), and an attraction forms between the two.

This may sound like it conforms to the traditional romantic-comedy cliches, but I Know Where I'm Going has a lot more on its mind than your average Meg Ryan movie. This is a serious picture, saturated with myth and superstition, and containing some of Michael Powell’s most inventive imagery, from tartan hills to a stovepipe hat that becomes an actual stovepipe. Filmed in black and white due to a wartime lack of color film stock, the movie features extraordinarily dark visuals, and uniquely relies on atmosphere—wind, rain, tempestuous seas—to convey states of mind. Parts of the film may seem quaint at first, but stick with it—this is one of the Archer’s very best movies, and a fine place for newcomers to start.


我的点评：名副其实的有史以来最出色爱情电影之一，也是两人比较好懂的影片之一。很幸运我最初由这一部以及《黑水仙》而不是《红菱艳》开始认识了Powell & Pressburger。Wendy Keller 不美，但很有个性，演技一流，十分符合人物的形象和设定。她还主演过 Pygmalion (《卖花女》，1938，co-starring Leslie Howard, 《飘》中的卫希礼)，和后来好莱坞的《窈窕淑女》一样也改编自肖伯纳的那个剧本，我更喜欢这个英国的版本。
 

The Criterion Collection　DVD中的花絮，剖析了影片拍摄中的创新（包括如何以较小的成本别具巧思的创造不同寻常的视觉效果），也相当值得一看。
 

近年有一部片子叫《闰年》似乎有不少地方有这部片子的影子。

Title: 'I Know Where I'm Going!'
Year: 1945
Country: UK
Language: English, Scottish Gaelic
Genre: Drama, Romance
Directors/Writers: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Music: Allan Gray
Cinematography: Erwin Hillier
Cast:
Wendy Hiller
Roger Livesey
Duncan MacKechnie
Pamela Brown
Finlay Currie
George Carney
Margot Fitzsimons
Murdo Morrison
Petula Clark
Catherine Lacey
Nancy Price
Valentine Dyall
Walter Hudd
Anthony Eustrel
John Laurie
Rating: 7.5/10



The Archers' (Powell and Pressburger) b&w “never-too-late-to-meet-the-right-one” romance, shot during wartime, just prior to their foray into Technicolor. In the center stage of it is a middle-class English woman Joan Webster (Hiller), accentuated by the titular motto, she is a headstrong city gal, endowed with a limpid mind, and always knows what she wants ever since she is a little girl (real silk stockings).

After a succinct prologue traversing through her childhood to adulthood, now at the age of 25, Joan is going to marry a magnate of chemical business, and their wedding will be held in the (fictitious) Isle of Kiloran, but there is a catch, is this affluent but much older fiancé is the right man for her? That is the time-honored dilemma sets to disorient the self-willed soul of Joan, with a little help of a well-timed gale standing between her and the island, ever so close, but cannot reach, nature has unleashed a warning sign of this matrimony.

Thus, after traveling from Manchester through sundry methods of transport, Joan is stuck in the Isle of Mull, impatiently waits for the blustering gale to lull, and she meets the local denizens and a tinge of romance troublingly budding between her and Torquil MacNeil (Livesey), a navy officer who plans to spend his furlough on Kiloran as well, a subplot concerns an ancient curse subjected to the laird of Kiloran would serve as a sterling springboard for the pair to realize their true feelings for each other. But, their chemistry, the magic that leaves one's heart palpitating with hankering doesn't make for a leavening feeling of entrancement, albeit Hiller's emotive rendition is pitch-perfect and bursting with niceties. So Joan, portrayed as a self-seeking and reckless woman purported by the modern air of independence, falls for a nondescript character like Torquil (easy-going but blue-blooded) as a contingency when she has learned a lesson from her own mistake of preferring monetary security to a more organic life, the eloquence is rather deficient, conversely it also makes Torquil's choice of Joan, a city girl with glamor, over his long-time friend Catriona Potts (a shimmering Pamela Brown), an expansive huntress, sounds awkwardly hypocritical, the film's ethnographic message certainly hits the right mark, but its sex politics fails to launch in afterthought.

Be that as it may, the film is an absolute gas to behold, not the least for its sterling cinematography, elemental and picturesque (makes one wonder what it would look like if it were shot in colors), particularly, the eye-opening, studio-bounded money shots of the monstrous Corryvreckan whirlpool, starkly conjures up its cinematic allure for progeny to ponder about The Archers' studious work ethic and their state-of-the-art craftsmanship.

referential points: BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) 8.3/10

Joan Webster，韦小姐琼，从小就是个争强好胜的，凡事有主见，长得也很有主见。二十五岁时，琼决心要嫁一富翁，一个年纪可以做她爹的化工实业老板。老板在苏格兰西部拥有一个岛屿，韦小姐安排了行程，从曼彻斯特火车轮船日夜兼程，赶到岛上去嫁他。赶到苏格兰海边遇上了风暴，把她困在了Tobermory镇。镇上居民热情质朴，使心高气傲的韦小姐觉得有点不自在，她还遇到一个回家探亲的海军上校，上校和她一来二去便熟识了。天气阴晴不定，琼每天都想渡海，镇上人拦都拦不住，终于给她硬行抢渡，差点船毁人亡，落汤鸡似的回来。最后天晴了，琼却放弃了渡海。

著名的Archers——鲍威尔和普莱斯伯格二人组的作品。和《红菱艳》不同，这是浪漫喜剧，故事桥段无新意，结局也可预料，但过程出乎意料。并且营造了极具感染力的气场，使苏格兰Tobermory镇成为角色之一。我欣赏黑白画面，他们把水和浪拍得极好。尤其大漩涡的场面，可谓惊心动魄，让人难以置信那是四十年代的作品。开场不久，从雾中走出来的牧羊女，逆光对话的船家，也都是神来之笔。鲍威尔和普莱斯伯格的人物，多少都有些ecentric，韦小姐就是一个，镇上居民也是，玩鹰的老头，独守空房的卡特琳大嫂，船家和渔民等，与穿衣做事都憋着劲的城市妞韦小姐相比，他们非常自然而然。海军上校温柔宽厚，穿着呢绒格子裙倒是好看，但是他不神叨，所以就乏味了。

我印象最深的，除了巨漩涡，就是带狗回家的卡特琳嫂。她进屋，人未到，一群狼犬先到，她左手兔右手猎枪地走进来，把兔往地上一摔，再一甩头发，来一个正面亮相，简直酷毙了，虽然她长得不好看。

如果你喜欢黑白构图，喜欢有点神叨叨的人物，凌厉峻峭的苏格兰风光，这部影片适合你。

女人总归是女人，世人用成就来衡量男性，对于女人呢，是用快乐、幸福、满足…这些匪夷所思的非理性指标来看待她。

所以就像歌里面唱的：我知道我要去哪里。我知道谁将伴我同行。我也知道哪个是我倾心。但是天晓得将来我要嫁谁……
女人从小就在计划那事，为那事担心，因为这个她要一生经营的事业居然是完全不能确定，几乎要听天由命的。

电影里头Wendy Hiller演的这个女孩子，其实真的好叫我喜欢，她想干什么就立马行动，根本不太在乎别人的偏见。
所以电影一开头，就看到她从小特立独行，看到她远远抛开那些愚蠢的女同学，最后又看到她踌躇满志地通知老父——她马上要下嫁全国最有钱的人，一个年纪大她好多的中年实业家。
难能可贵，她真的是想好了怎么做对自己最有利，她不会做有事业没家庭的孤独女强人，她也不会光为了钱跟自己讨厌的人结婚，她完全是出于自己照料自己的决心，理性聪明地规划好一切，并且坚定地实现。


于是，Joan小姐像安排自己的人生一样，详尽地计划好旅程，自信满满地一个人带了婚纱与行李，搭火车准备去某个苏格兰海岛与富翁成婚。

尽管只要准确按照计划，一切就都在有条不紊地进行，可面对未知的未来，Joan小姐在梦中仍不免闪过几丝紧张与不安。
而在车站接她的人，毕恭毕敬地看到这孤身赴婚的新娘，眼神里也不禁流露出一点可怜。

就这样，辗转终于来到苏格兰海边，计划开始失效了——
天气恶劣，导致她完全无法渡海。只得呆在海边小村等待放晴。
新结识的当地人，为Joan开启了另一片天地，朴实的高地传统，诡异的乡间传说，大家随遇而安恬静度日的生活方式，对只知道按时刻表赶火车的Joan产生了变化，一切由陌生到亲切，尤其是那位对她深有好感的海军上校更让她舍不得离开。

Joan本身代表的有野心有冲劲有活力的城市有产阶级，最后折服于Torquil MacNeil上校代表的朴实生活，其实上校和其他的没落贵族一样，在她身边根本是弱的一方，真正做出选择的还是Joan,她忠于自己的内心，把握了自己的人生。

Powell & Pressburger堪称史上最注重艺术效果的电影导演，以往看到他们的电影都是绮丽见长，但这次黑白胶片上的苏格兰完全是一派自然，仿若能让你感受到实境，曼彻斯特车站人潮涌动空气滞闷，一到高地就天高草长四面开阔，废墟边的风是树间带来的徐徐娓动，海边的风伴随着惊涛拍岸则是潮湿又强烈。