I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Film Review

Powell and Pressburger followed their evocative A Canterbury Tale with a film which is imbued with an even greater sense of haunting lyricism and charm.  Whereas the former film showed us an idealised England of the 1940s, I Know Where I'm Going! gives us a portrait of a mythical Scotland - a poetic land of bleak landscapes, craggy mountains, velvet mists and Celtic legends - the perfect setting for a delicate romantic drama.

What links these two very distinctive films is the notion that a location can alter the life of an individual, achieving a spiritual transformation for the better.  The heroine of I Know Where I'm Going! starts out as a headstrong young woman who thinks that money is the key to a happy future.  Her arrival on a Scottish island opens her eyes to this tragic self-deception and shows her that true happiness lies elsewhere, deep within the human heart.

The only reason why I Know Where I'm Going! was made was because Powell and Pressburger found themselves at a loose end whilst waiting to get hold of colour film for A Matter of Life and Death - all existing colour film in England had been requisitioned by the air force for training purposes.  In the interim, they decided to make a simple, low budget black and white film, developed from an idea they had been considering for some time.   Famously, Pressburger wrote the entire screenplay for the film in six days.

The casting of Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey was an inspired choice.  Both actors play their parts with great subtlety and restraint, downplaying their characters' mutual attraction so that the film's ending is all the more surprising and poignant.  (Owing to West End commitments, Livesey was unavailable for the location sequences, so these were filmed using a double - not that you would ever notice.)  In the background, there are a host of colourful characters, such as the eccentric falconer Colonel Barnstable, played wonderfully by C.W.R. Knight.  13-year old Petula Clark appears briefly, some years before she made a hugely successful career as a singer.

Much of the film's soul-stirring power lies in its alluring black and white photography.  Cinematographer Erwin Hillier surpasses his work on A Canterbury Tale and manages to evoke both the poetry and bleakness of the Hebridean setting.  His shots of figures silhouetted against the brooding Scottish landscape show the sheer insignificance of man in this vast arena of unfathomable wonder and beauty, whilst the raging sea that pummels the coastline relentlessly conveys the raw untamed power that Nature has at her disposal, should she ever need to remind man of his place in the scheme of things.

With its narrative simplicity, engaging characters and highly evocative cinematography, I Know Where I'm Going! is a captivating work, less idiosyncratic and ambitious than other Powell-Pressburger productions, but every bit as emotionally satisfying and stylish as their other great films.

Film Synopsis

For her entire life, Joan Webster has always known where she is going.  Now aged 25, she intends to make her fortune by marrying Sir Robert Bellinger, one of the richest men in England.  Having broken the news to her father, she takes a train northwards, since her wedding is to take place on the Hebridean island of Kiloran.  She gets as far as the Isle of Mull before a storm breaks and she is prevented from crossing the small stretch of sea to her final destination.  She meets a young navel officer, Torquil MacNeil, who is also bound for Kiloran, for a holiday.   Whilst waiting for the weather to improve, Joan and Torquil get to know one another, and Joan learns something of the region's culture.  Fearing that her growing attraction for Torquil may imperil her marriage, Joan decides she cannot wait any longer and determines to cross the sea to Kiloran, even though it is still not safe to do so...