As I often do, I bought this dvd when I saw the directors. I am familiar with Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell's films mainly from reading, and have seen The Red shoes and I know where I'm going previously. This film shows a seagoing battle during the early stages of World War 2, and the story is interesting in itself, but the plot isn't why I wanted to write about it.
It is one of the most naturally beautiful films I've ever seen (I refer mostly to the passages that take place on the ocean -which is most of the film). It's aesthetic pleasure is a strange thing to really explain fully, because next to for instance a Barry Lyndon, Apocalypto, La Haine or There will be Blood, it would look very dull. It doesn't use attention grabbing cinematography, but simply relies on the imagery to be so wonderful to look at. The digitally remastered version I saw has a colour pallette full of blues and greys, channelling the sea itself. It is worth noting that the colour saturation was absolutely perfect, it had a very comforting, almost pastel quality. I have noticed in the past that remastered films often look too colourful for me - I had that issue recently with Lawrence Olivier's Henry V.
Perhaps enormous, detailed, grey battleships making the sea their own, dwarfed by it's vastness is inherently cinematic. But also the blueness of the sea, costumes, interior designs and crucially shot choice all add to the film's soon to be lingering memory in my mind. It is a film of almost limitless charm. I was quite taken with the first shot (of many) of one of the warships sailing on the sea. I don't know why exactly but I think part of what impressed me was how obviously it was all for real, with no effects or models.
Like the directors' masterpiece The Red Shoes, the film is so visually detailed and rich. It let's the gorgeous imagery, the natural spectacle, do all the talking... that gives me a special feeling. It put me in mind of the first time I watched things like Chinatown, Vertigo and Days of Heaven, plus Werner Herzog's classics Aguirre, the wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo (perhaps no coincidence that much of both of these take place on water) which is high praise indeed.
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