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I Know Where I'm Going! | Year: 1947 Classification: Drama Directed: - Emeric Pressburger - Michael Powell Actors/Actresses: - Wendy Hiller - Roger Livesey Unforgettable film! (VHS Edition), (by stardustraven) 'I know where I'm going' is another film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and was released as one their Archers productions in October 1945. It's the story of assured, determined Joan Webster who travels to the Scottish Hebrides to marry a rich man. But when she meets a penniless Scottish laird her intentions are thoroughly thwarted. This film was shot in black and white on location on the island of Mull [of the cast only Roger Livesey who plays the part of the laird Torquil, didn't set foot on Mull because of engagements elsewhere]. 'I know where I'm going' is an unforgettable love story which features two of the most eminent British actors: Wendy Hiller as Joan and Roger Livesey as the laird Torquil, and they certainly carry this film. The message of 'I know where I'm going' is to embrace life and love, and this picture is enchanced by such diverse symbols as a wonderful dreaming sequence, a castle with a curse on it, hawks, gales, a turmoil and the Scottish landscape itself. Wendy Hiller is wonderful as Joan, it's a delight to watch her unbend, and embrace the love/life she truly desires [that is Torquil]. Roger Livesey is equally riveting as the very charming Torquil and his golden, deep voice is definitely an asset to his acting skills. Of the supporting cast I was also very fond of Pamela Brown's Catriona. A free spirited Highland lass who lives with wolfhounds. 'I know where I'm going' is also remarkable for its authentic treatment of Scottish culture. There's a lot of Gaelic spoken in this film and Joan and Torquil visit a traditional Highland 'ceilidh'. The stunning Scottish landscape itself is another important 'protagonist' in this film. All in all, 'I know where I'm going' is definitely one of the most riveting and unforgettable productions of the Archers. A haunting and treasureable film. IKWIG (as its creative team of Powell and Pressburger dubbed it) was made on a black-and-white stock right after WWII, when technicolor film and equipment were temporarily unavailable. It was the tale of a London-based woman who has always known what she's wanted all her life, and has decided to marry a wealthy, nice, but elderly business tycoon. ("You can't marry Consolidated Chemical Industries!" sputters her father. "Can't I?" is her reply.) He has rented a sprawling castle on a distant isle of the remote, nature-claimed Hebrides Islands, off the coast of Scotland, and she's traveling to meet him for the wedding, there. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't cooperate, and she's stuck for days one island short of her goal, where she encounters endless local traditions, people, and scenery, along with the young Laird of Killoran. Her desperation to achieve her goal nearly causes the death of several people, and has a profound effect on her understanding of the culture she's dropped into from London. I would venture to call IKWIG the uber-chick film. It has several of the qualities that succeed so well in romance novels/film making: a self-reliant, intelligent heroine; a rugged hero who is at first perceived as the antagonist; a growth in understanding about the world around her, that allows ultimately for a complete change of POV in the heroine. It is that rare creature, a romance film that isn't a romantic comedy. It has some brilliantly inventive comic moments, especially (and significantly) before the film moves leaves England--like the heroine's dream sequence as she sleeps aboard a train, climaxing in a distant shot from above that has the hills covered in tartan as the train passes into Scotland--but that isn't the focus. (If anything, it is a bit of magical theater that represents a flight *away* from reality, showing us the early values of the heroine; just as the culture she finds in the Hebrides becomes a massive section of magical theater which, less brilliant, hammers away at her preconceptions both through its human and elemental aspects.) However, there are many things about IKWIG that lift it above the chick film genre presented by such horrific stuff as Scriptless in Seattle. Powell was in love with the Hebrides, and, unusually for a fictional film of this period, IKWIG is filled with the culture of its surroundings. There's no sense of embarassing "types" as in so many Hollywood films-on-location, but rather more than a dozen subsidiary characters, none of them models, who fit naturally into their assigned roles, with or without dialog, and contribute to the film's sense of otherness. The writing is unsentimental and never cloys, but brings out many of the local traditions, superstitions, and myths surrounding the Hebrides in a natural and seemingly impromptu fashion; so that when we attend a party given in honor of the sixtieth wedding anniversary of the Laird of the Campbells, we actually see three bagpipers playing as An excellent film with great scenery This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. This movie is one of the more interesting that I have seen. The story follows a woman on the way to her wedding to a wealthy man on an island in Scotland. Inclement weather prevents her from taking a boat to the island and she subsequently meets a naval officer and begins to have feelings for him. The film has excellent scenery of Mull Island in Scotland. There area also excerpts from Michael Powell's "The Edge of The World" a documentary "Return to the Edge of the World" and another documentary "I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited" by Mark Cousins. Buy I Know Where I M Going at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on I Know Where I M Going Search with the Priority Search Engine on I Know Where I M Going This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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