[Originally posted here]

A Canterbury Tale
dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1944 UK

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An American GI, a Land Girl and a British soldier, all on their way to Canterbury, meet in a small neighbouring town that has fallen victim to an unknown serial glue prankster.

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Enduringly original film that has for many come close to capturing the essence of 'Englishness'; whatever that might be, this certainly depicts with much energy and feeling the notion and nature of a pilgrimage – less holy than merely geographical, but certainly historical – and how it might affect those undertaking it. Structurally unique, its narrative pacing takes some adjusting to; its central mystery is on the face of it a simply curious scripting choice, but its otherwise Maguffin triviality becomes subdued as the film gains an almost mystical quality, rich and seductive and elusive in tone. There is also, throughout, a careful, confident and highly innovative control of the medium – as one example, our protagonists are introduced almost entirely in darkness, in a prolonged night scene that seems celebratory, in the filmic sense, of such social details during wartime as having no lights on display after dark (for fear of providing targets for bombers); it contrasts beautifully with the open sun-blazed tranquillity shown much later in the film.