1943. An American sergeant on leave, a British soldier and a young volunteer with the Civil Defence to meet the descent of a night train, a few miles from Canterbury. Then they join the hotel in the village, the young woman is assaulted by a stranger who pours glue in her hair. The adventures of three modern pilgrims begin ...
Michael Powell knew better than anyone else to universal culture and mindset typically insular English. Deeply attached to his roots, but also open to the world, he has managed to express this characteristic with a rare perfection in A Canterbury Tale . On the pilgrim route from Canterbury, three characters from very different backgrounds will find answers to questions that gnaw and some form of peace, through the magic of the English countryside and that of Powell and Pressburger.
A Canterbury Tale , like other films of the duo Powell / Pressburger and the rest of the English production of the period, part of the political propaganda film by the desired 'É state. Unlike É United States and especially Germany, England will be the only nation to draw very big films, as his approach is different. The goal here is to distract the British citizens of their troubled lives but also to educate É United States to the fate of Europe. Armed with these specifications, the filmmakers have a huge freedom in the choice of subjects and in their treatment. Filmmakers who have taken years to establish itself in the head as big productions are thus rapidly launched as Powell and Pressburger, whose fruitful association's lead atop the English cinema of the time. can doubt the real impact of the works of Powell and Pressburger, as the poetic atmosphere, the complexity of the different levels of reading and originality of the plot are at odds with the direct simplicity desired by a propaganda film. Some bristled abnormalities besides the censors, such as the German point of view adopted in The 49th Parallel , the ode to the glory of an English officer who stops short in Colonel Blimp or spooky A question life or death intended to reconcile American and English after the war. A Canterbury Tale , although one of the most typical English works of the duo, will also be one of their few commercial failures and Powell lasting impression. The latter had indeed invested as never before in this testimony of love for 'his' England and its traditions.
The film opens with the text of the prologue of the Canterbury Tales Chaucer (in which the film's title pays homage), together with the image by a map showing the route of the pilgrims of the fourteenth century. It is these latter which illustrate the first sequence of time, describing the mood of the time laughing forgotten. A falcon peregrine launched by rising into the air and back down under the shape of a flying fortress (in an ellipse whose prodigious Kubrick was probably inspired to that between the bones and the space station in 2001 ) will transition us back into the present. 
Powell elected as part of the story of the Kent area, full of history and childhood memories as it grew up. The mixture of mystical aura and warmth generated by all the result of addition of these two inspirations. The human aspect is reflected particularly in the picturesque description of the inhabitants of the village of Chilingbourne. Powell to convene all professions and personalities he knew as a child, linked to this rural lifestyle he loves so much. Spirits workers imbued with the values of the country, where every good day must be completed at the pub, the characters offer a typically English landscape and universal time. This will indeed one of the finest moments of the film, when the American soldier, the son of a farmer, wheelwright dialogue with the local culture in the wood. In a magical moment, the boundaries of age and nationality fall to no longer share that love of work well done, tasks ancestral being better able to approximate beings. 
A Canterbury Tale also wants the themes, issues and atmosphere that portrays a film event of the ideals of some great English writers. The lyricism reached by certain sequences as well as some nostalgic attachment to England, refers in particular to the most beautiful writings of Kipling. Powell himself claims the influence of GK Chesterton in his memoirs, irony and distrust of the latter to some modern capitalism pervading the film. Powell, however, is far from a heavenly vision and idealized. 
The character of Thomas Colpeper gathers itself cultivated mind, a scholar but also withdrawn to England. Eager to share his knowledge and culture to put young soldiers stationed in the region, it also happens to be "the man with the glue" that stalk our hero. This glue-coated hair girls still out in the dark and flirts with the soldiers, while young men in the country are at the front. Magnetism and mystery released by the play of Eric Portman reinforce the duality of character, open the world refining his knowledge, but caught up by his isolationism, when it comes to rapprochement with the "stranger". 
A major reason for the commercial failure of the film will almost philosophical nature of the screenplay written by Emeric Pressburger. Some sizes of the duo's previous films, not having grasped the depth, also will decline the invitation. The couple magic Colonel Blimp should be reconstructed here, but Roger Livesey (scheduled to play the role played by Eric Portman) and Deborah Kerr (who had to take the role the farm worker, but she left England to pursue a Hollywood career, breaking the romantic relationship she had with Powell, who refused to follow) will be conspicuously absent. Producers will demonstrate the same caution against this unconventional narrative and shall grant the green light in view of huge success encountered previously by Powell and Pressburger. must say that apart from its investigation on slight pretext and the "glue man " A Canterbury Tale is a movie without any real conflict or to resolve fundamental issues, if it is the spiritual heroes it is difficult to transcribe into images. Powell and Pressburger have tried on numerous occasions during their filmography, but always placing items most consistent, able to hook the audience directly. The exotic setting, the events and innovations of visual Black Narcissus were buffer mystical atmosphere, like the love story of A matter of life or death allow easier access to her world dreamlike.
None of these facilities is being Here in the treatment and the relationships between the three heroes of the film, all representing a facet of the personality of Powell. Sheila Sim (future wife of Richard Attenbourough) is Alison Smith, a young farm worker fell in love with the landscapes of Kent. This region is synonymous for her happy memories and pain to both since there had a wonderful time with her fiance, who went missing at the front. John Sweet, meanwhile, plays his role almost of American soldier on leave. Actually landed in England, he was released by its U.S. State to play in Major A Canterbury Tale , in which he plays the only role of his career. 
At no doubt in another context, without the failure of the film, a different fate ahead of him as his performance is tender and touching. It is here the sergeant Bob Johnson, who will find in the simplicity of village quiet gentleness of his native Ohio. Only shadow to his happiness, his fiancee who has not sent letters for weeks. Dennis Price (who became famous a few years later in the role of the heir killer Noblesse Oblige ) Portrays the character in the most superficial appearance of the trio, English soldier stationed in London and jaded city dweller who does not care about rural setting that surrounds it. 
The adventure begins in darkness, when the heroes arrive in a train plunged into the darkness of the blackout . Powell will constantly inform more characters later, as and when they are absorbing the magic of the region. Surrounded by his team of German experts e having worked for the UFA, Powell makes plans chiaroscuro particularly complex and searched, inspired by German Expressionism. The first awakening of the American in the darkness of his room, soon the morning light radiated from Kent, is most eloquent in this respect. 
The atmosphere will be so increasingly mystical imagery soaking the elegiac beauty of places many times. One of the most beautiful scenes of the film is undoubtedly that where Alison, solitary walk, falls on Colpeper wilderness. He always suspicious of this city potentially temptress and she suspected to be "the man with the sticks", a moment forget their mutual distrust to lie in the grass, admire the sky and its clouds, enjoy the musicality of the wind and indulge in the quiet majesty of nature . These moments alternate with sequences funniest and playful are all the charm of the film. 
film on the pilgrimage, A Canterbury Tale would necessarily conclude when the heroes decide to make their own, during the last thirty minutes masterful. Physical pilgrimage when back on the road large old to which their gaze will be laid during the entire film, and since the inner end of the road, all their troubles and doubts will be resolved. If the fate of American soldier and a farmhand prove beautifully touching (one finally receive letters from his fiancee, the other discovers that his is still alive), that the character of Dennis Price, almost antipathetic to date, totally upset. 
We have learned that previously officiated in the civilian as a cinema organist, although his dream is to officiate in a church. During a mass attached to his regiment leaving for Overseas, the opportunity is offered by the local organist to play for his comrades. Now in Forward Christian soldiers, the soldier, finally in his element, is finally lets go for calm, while his notes and chimes of bells illuminate Canterbury Cathedral (rebuilt in the studio by Alfred Junge) and the city full, partly reduced to rubble, restoring hope and peace to a whole nation for one song. 
Such was the message Powell and Pressburger made aware of English Heritage and beauty around them, and show the Americans that this could fall under the yoke of despotic German. A message left misunderstood given the lukewarm reception that the film received a wound in long perennial Powell (who spends only a few lines in his autobiography), for which this return to the land of his childhood remains attached to the Deborah Kerr and separation with a professional failure. 
released while the Americans were already in Europe, the film and its virtues so nebulous and without context, now adorned with a universal scope. Released on DVD Zone 2 French by Editions Light in a magnificent edition
From the opening scene that immediately puts in the magical atmosphere of the film
0 comments:
Post a Comment