A rather different sort of selection for you all this week and one which I recall has been obliquely requested by readers.
‘A Canterbury Tale’ is a Michael Powell and Emric Pressburger story of a chance meeting between a Land Girl, a British serviceman and an American serviceman. For various reasons this trio find themselves at a railway station in a town near to Canterbury and as they leave the station the Land Girl gets attacked with glue by a man in uniform. Finding out that there’s been more than one glue attack the three characters at the centre of this story set about trying to find who did it. During their search they find themselves, as the pilgrims of old did, making their way to Canterbury and the denouement of the movie.
This is a bit of a slow burn movie with lots of subtexts about British history and about a people having the sense of place and nuance about sin and piety and is a movie well worth watching.
One of the most wonderful, evocative films ever made – I went to school in Canterbury, and can remember first seeing a restored cut of the film, in 1977, I think. I later pinned down and visited all the major locations – including “the bend in the road” (near Chartham) – this some time before I found people were now doing guided tours officially!
The music by Allan Gray (a pseudonym) to my ear easily matches his fine work on The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp and I Know Where I’m Going – the Cathedral Theme which swells faintly when the building is seen still sends shivers down my spine. As for Erwin Hillier’s fantastic cinamatography, look at the skies – every shot is a gem.
Undoubtedly my all-time favourite film……
Oh yes! Just to add that I assume we all know the final scenes were not actually filmed in Canterbury Cathedral. They had some sort of projected backdrop rather than having film crews in the House of God!
Yeah I thought that looked like a back projection but it was really really well done and fitted perfectly with the other visuals.