Over the last ten years or so,I have been hearing a lot of people,from film makers to people in the local DVD shops having conversations,and giving endless praise to what seems to be one of the now-most loved film making duo of the last few decades :Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell.

Whilst I have seen some clips of A Matter of Life and Death and Peeping Tom (1960-also reviewed),they have always been near the top of my list,of film makers whose work I should search out for.

Sadly over the years I have kept them stuck on my list as films I would pick up "next time",which has meant that I have always put them at the back of the queue.

In 2011,I was very surprised when my dad came back home one day,and he showed me that he had picked up a very rare restored Powell and Pressburger film.

From the moment that my eyes became transfixed on the great opening to this film,I realized that I had to make this my first Powell & Pressburger film right away...

View on the film:

Superbly adapting Mary Webb's novel, the screenplay by Powell and Pressberger looks at is Hazel changing from being in an environment that is on the outskirts of town,where she and her father are able to live there lives the way their want,to her trying to fit into a much more wealthier environment,whilst trying to adopt her past leanings into an acceptable style.

Whilst most film makers would have turned this into a My Fair Lady-style film,with Hazel trying to become upper-class,Powell and Pressburger instead show,that the more Reddin tries to pull Hazel away from her life as a Gypsy,Hazel becomes more annoyed at how much Reddin is trying to get her to leave all her values on life behind,which she has used to follow her life by.

Going deep into the woods with an excellent cast,the shining star of the film is easily the gorgeous directing from Powell and Pressburger,and the cinematography by Christopher Challis. For the first half of the film the directors and Challis give the film the appearance of an enchanting Red Riding Hood/Brothers Grimm story,with the film being filled with Autumn colours that make all the excellent scenes of Hazel and her father living in the countryside almost looking like a living water colour painting!

As Hazel starts distancing herself from her country life,the film makers take the look of the film into a brilliant,opposite direction. With the Reddins mansion,that due to being owned by a very rich person should be filled with light ,instead being filled with very dark,dimly lit shadows,the suggest that whilst the mansion may look as beautiful as the countryside on the outside,it is actually an almost nightmarish forest,that will try to keep you lost in the darkness of the building and the inhabitants in it,for a very long time..

Final View on the film:

One of the most beautiful looking film that I have ever seen.

"Gone to Earth" is a very, very pretty film. It was made in the UK and the colorful English countryside is quite nice. However, the film also is incredibly slow to be point of being tedious. It also features a main character who is a bit stupid and difficult to like. For me, this film was very tough going.

Hazel (Jennifer Jones) is a sort of free spirit who loves nature and lives her own odd life. While somewhat pretty, this alone didn't explain why both the Parson and Squire were so smitten by her. The Parson's love was sincere but lacked passion and the Squire's had plenty of passion but nothing else. During the course of the film, Hazel vacillates between the two...though you wonder why any sane woman would want either of these losers.

Overall, the film just didn't pay off for me. Pretty English countryside aside, the movie just seemed tedious and many of the characters nonsensical. It did, however, have a happy ending.

A re-edited version of 1950's "Gone to Earth", which apparently derived after an artistic struggle between production team the Archers and David O. Selznick. It's a rather overripe, humorless adaptation of Mary Webb's book "Gone to Earth" involving a gypsy girl in 19th century Wales who is caught between two men. Predictably handsome melodrama, yet one which seldom involves the viewer. Co-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have a unique and occasionally ominous way of letting nature unfold in front of the lens, and the cinematography is vivid and expressive; however, they don't seem to know much about actors or about the strength of performance--the technique seems to elude them--and Jennifer Jones in particular comes off looking like an amateur (which she is most assuredly not). The film has its charms, but it has no gypsy blood--nor a wild heart. ** from ****