Watched while my internet was out, so I'm logging this late.
Astonishingly gorgeous shot of the inside of this clock tower, as well as the view out the window. What's most astonishing about it is that it's a miniature of the Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury Cathedral, pulled by finger and thumb to the sound of the real bells, allowing for this amazing shot to happen in the first place. Right from that moment, I thought I was going to like this movie, and I felt that sensation largely confirmed during the really wonderful reading of the first lines of Chaucer's unfinished work. Of course, the shot of the bird/plane is also really incredible.
I've never really concertedly watched Pressburger and Powell, which is why I thought this ought to be my first experience. There is, I think, a lot of love for British poetry in this film (there is, for instance, a quotation from a famous poem, John Dryden's Imitation of Horace), even if there's not really an ample sense of love for the bawdiness and dirtiness of Chaucer in particular. I suppose it'd probably be asking a lot of a 40s film to manage that.
Much of the film centers around the mystery of just who is out there putting glue in people's hair, and it's not necessarily hard to figure out as a viewer, but our characters spend an awful lot of time trying to prove just who it is.
It's really good...it's really good. Also, for academic types, there's about 700 different things you could write a paper on in this film.
"See, what kind of a crack is that, I come from Oregon!"
alt. quote: "Everything on wheels must be on the move sooner or later."
Watched while my internet was out, so I'm logging this late.
Astonishingly gorgeous shot of the inside of this clock tower, as well as the view out the window. What's most astonishing about it is that it's a miniature of the Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury Cathedral, pulled by finger and thumb to the sound of the real bells, allowing for this amazing shot to happen in the first place. Right from that moment, I thought I was going to like this movie, and I felt that sensation largely confirmed during the really wonderful reading of the first lines of Chaucer's unfinished work. Of course, the shot of the bird/plane is also really incredible.
I've never really concertedly watched Pressburger and Powell, which is why I thought this ought to be my first experience. There is, I think, a lot of love for British poetry in this film (there is, for instance, a quotation from a famous poem, John Dryden's Imitation of Horace), even if there's not really an ample sense of love for the bawdiness and dirtiness of Chaucer in particular. I suppose it'd probably be asking a lot of a 40s film to manage that.
Much of the film centers around the mystery of just who is out there putting glue in people's hair, and it's not necessarily hard to figure out as a viewer, but our characters spend an awful lot of time trying to prove just who it is.
It's really good...it's really good. Also, for academic types, there's about 700 different things you could write a paper on in this film.
"See, what kind of a crack is that, I come from Oregon!"
alt. quote: "Everything on wheels must be on the move sooner or later."
