What is your favourite scene from the film?
One of mine is when Joan is talking to her chauffeur and then she waits at the pier for the boat to Kiloran. As she realises the boat won't arrive and makes her way to Erraig, the combination of dreamy music and ethereal mists make this a wonderful scene.
This is my favourite movie, hand's down. I bought the dvd two months before I had anything to play it on, and didn't even blink at the $35 price tag for the Criterion collection edition. I could nearly say every scene is my favourite, and the one you cited is wonderful. But, gun to my head, I would have to say the last five minutes or so, after Torquil sees Joan off ("It depends") and then goes to check out Moy Castle, and ancestral curse be damned! ("I'd rather swim in the sea than in a swimming pool" "I know!")
I love the bits with Catriona and her big deerhounds -I was thrilled when a deerhound won the Westminster Dog Show a couple months ago and that event inspired my most recent viewing. Time for another one! But my favourite moment -it would make a great screen-saver- is when Torquil recites The Nut Brown Maiden and suddenly turns and stares boldly at Joan on the line,"And you're the maid for me." Gah!
Did you know that the phone booth is still there by the waterfall and is now a protected historical artifact, thanks to this movie? I called my mother and grandmother and yelled,"Guess where I am?!?"
I also love the scene with Rebecca at Achnacroish, particularly when she describes the Tobemory ceilidh in peace-time: "The women wear tiaras, those that have them, and the men are more splendid than the women" and Joan's eyes are irresistably drawn to Torquil, impishly sipping tea while standing against the wall.
Lovely film.
My favourite scene is definitely when we first see Catriona with her deerhounds climbing the hill in the dark wild weather. In fact whenever the deerhounds appear they steal the show in my opinion! Any scene with Pamela Brown is mesmerizing of course.
shareAny scene with Pamela Brown in any film is usually mesmerizing
She was primarily a stage actor, this was only her second film. But she quickly understood the difference between stage and screen and realised the power of the close-up.
In the scene where Bridie is remonstrating with Joan before the boat trip, the camera pans back and forth across Catriona who is standing between them. She doesn't say a word - but she speaks volumes
Steve
My favorite scenes include the one with Catriona in the castle--love Pamela Brown! What an excellent film!
shareI always get a giggle when they're having tea at Achnacroish, and as Torquil climbs the cabinet to reach the china, Mrs. Crozier says, "You know, Torquil, this young lady's [indicating Joan] going to be mistress of your house for the duration," and he bobbles the plates. (It serves as a nice counterpoint to Joan's double-take when Mrs. Crozier "introduces" them, too.) Torquil seemed just a bit smug carrying in that tea tray -- it's as if the Fates wanted literally to jab him a bit.
shareAnd notice the clever way he denies that he plays bridge. As if someone brought up like he was wouldn't know how to play bridge. But he hears that Joan doesn't play and he doesn't want to be stuck playing with the English Family Robinson (marooned in the Highlands). He wants to be with Joan
Steve
Oh, to have the footage from the other camera if it had been on Nancy Price! I would have loved to have seen the expression on Rebecca Crozier's face as Torquil told that whopper. :)
shareStrangely I've only just seen this film for the first time and I adored the scene at Rebecca Crozier's dinner. It's so adorable and the scene at the anniversary party after was so sexy when he had his arm holding onto the ladder she was on so she couldn't escape. And he recited the curse
shareand the scene at the anniversary party after was so sexy when he had his arm holding onto the ladder she was on so she couldn't escape.
Thinking again about that tea at Achnacroish, wouldn't it have been fun if Nancy had said that Joan was going to be the mistress of Kiloran?
Steve
Many lovely scenes outdoors (which Roger never got to really take part in since he was in a play at the time of filming. But my all time favorite will always be when he is told: "She's running away from YOU."
Mary
Believe in the magic of your dreams
[deleted]
YES, that's always worth at least one replay whenever I see the movie. :-)
shareMy favourite scene was the montage of Joan travelling to Scotland. Very creative use of multiple micro aspects especially the mise en scene with the man's top hat blowing steam as it fades to the train.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
Oh yes, the scene with the corny little tartan hills..... "You're over the border now..." Ah! That's when the IKWIG we all know and love really begins. The first seven minutes feel like a different movie altogether, although I love Joan preening in the restaurant. ("There's nothing wrong with this soup, I just feel like sending it back for no reason except to be ornery..." )
shareI think the final sequence defines the film and makes it great. If this board is any indicator, by the time Torquil enters the cursed castle, most viewers who enjoyed the film seem to have missed the disturbing satire intended by the filmmakers as they do with most Powell films and have embraced the spoiled and selfish Joan to the extent that they are hoping for her undeserved happiness as they would for the principle character in most romances. Others, of course, have grown to hate her and are repulsed by the injustice of the story, and thus don't like the film at all. Still others, myself included, embrace the fact that Torquil has earned the curse he brings upon himself and is no less deserving of happiness than any of the fools throughout the movie who have a chance to put Joan in her place but don't. The fact that all of the film's undertones are played out in a way that it is up to the viewer to recognize them or not is brilliant filmmaking, and the final scene is the pinnacle of it.
shareAs he stepped into the castle I said, "If she comes back to him while he's in the castle, then she's his curse." The ending made me laugh (out loud) for several seconds and I was pleased with that.
Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.
Mine is the pivotal moment during the ceilidh when Torquil is telling her that fabled story and it ends on a quote: "You're the maid for me" (looking at her).
.
I don't know if I can pick just one favorite scene, but I love the scene between Joan and Torquil at the ceilidh when he says "and you're the maid for me," and gives her such an intense look. When the camera cuts to Joan's face, you can tell she is beginning to consciously realize she her feelings for Torquil. The look on her face conveys so much emotion in just a couple of moments. I can see passion, anxiety and almost a kind of sadness that she is experiencing something so strong and real in her life that she has not planned and cannot control. That was some great acting on the part of Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesy.
share
Such a totally amazing scene!
.
This film is ALWAYS in my top ten list, and this Scene is always in my top ten list--when they are at the ceilidh and he is translating for her...and looks at her and says...you're the maid for me.... I first saw this ages ago when I was young...I was babysitting late. The TV guide rated it 4 out of 4 stars, saying it was one of the most romantic movies ever made. I thought...we will see about that- and fell for this movie hook line and sinker. 30 years later, I work in a library and someone donated this film last week...Criterion Collection! Score!
shareIsn't that strange, I adore this film, and have watched it more times than any other, but that is the one scene that grates with me...it seems over acted and embarrassing, just my opinion, of course :-)
www.a1animals.co.uk
I love:
"I think you are the most proper young lady that I have ever met" ... "I will take that as a compliment"
The unspoken follow up being "Good, it was meant to be a compliment"
Although we note that Joan asked that they sit at separate tables in the dining room of the Western Isles and some years later, Wendy was to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Separate Tables (1958)
Steve
Just saw the film for the first time; it was a lot of fun! All the scenes commented upon are good, so I'll go far afield: I like the passion of all the animals in their heated existence, humans included, [and nature as well, symbolizing that passion (the whirlpool)...]
I loved Torquil, the eagle [named after Torquil MacNeil!]: sometimes flying high, sometimes perched on a stand, in a room, a plaything of the powerful creature that controlled his existence: I loved the scene where Colonel Barnstaple, the falconer, got so excited in telling Torquil MacNeil the story of the successful hunt for the fox who'd been making off with the local lambs that he started screaming, waving the dead fox about, making it dance in the air, until Torquil, aroused, leapt off his nearby perch and attacked and rent the ready flesh yet again, yes!
The human owner laughing madly all the while...
We're animals, finally; we get aroused, and our essential nature is to leap at what we need; convention and carefully planned goals be damned!
And all the while, is some powerful being laughing madly at us?
Got to be the scene near the end where Torquil escorts her to meet her intended. She says something like will you do something for me, will you kiss me, This always gets the waterworks going.Lovely film.
share—The opening credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp01Zs0Gpgk. I find it quite moving.
—The moment when the bagpipers arrive...