Alison Uttley’s 1938 novel ‘A Traveller in Time’, adapted for TV in 1978 by Diana De Vere Cole and directed by Dorothea Brooking This adaptation brought the setting into the present day: Diana De Vere Cole did a neat job, focusing on Penelope’s emotions as she slips in and out of a Tudor world (cutting … Continue reading A Mind for Magick Pt 3: ‘A Traveller in Time’ on screen
Contexts for chaos, imagination past and present: “Memoirs of a Survivor” (1981) Somewhere in this blog I wrote about trying to capture the things I responded to as a child, the things which grew and developed into the portals of the imagination that have stayed with me, and how they shapeshifted over time, with different … Continue reading Frosty winds made moan
For anyone still moved by other times & places – a ramble on their role in the everyday Regular readers (both of you) will know I’ve tried to explore something which would draw together all the eclectic strands of those things which capture my imagination. They extend into my domestic life: each time I made … Continue reading Motifs in mind: daydreaming and escapist inspiration
It’s heartening to see John Schlesinger’s 1967 film of Far From the Madding Crowd getting a well-deserved reappraisal, with some fairly glowing reviews for the restored version released in cinemas this Spring: “One of the most entrancing and elemental landscape films ever shot in these isles, thanks in large part to Nicolas Roeg’s peerless cinematography … Continue reading Properly rediscovered: 1967’s Far from the Madding Crowd
In exploring the mindset of a figure clouded by legend, this Swiss-made retelling has a beautiful atmosphere. It uses shore, mountain and forest to depict Mary’s psychological terrain; puppet effigies twitch in firelight with folk-ritual precision, and Elizabeth is a constant presence, never made flesh – she is paint or puppet or a glimpse of … Continue reading Firelit effigies: Thomas Imbach’s ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (2013)
Roddy McDowall’s 1970 retelling of the Ballad of Tam Lin, like its counterpart The Wicker Man, had a troubled release and was destined to rot away in a vault. It was Martin Scorsese who rescued and restored a print for VHS in the 1990s. A delayed release in the early 70s (as The Devil’s Widow) … Continue reading Rediscovered film gem: Tam Lin (1970)
Followers of WhistlesintheWind will know that Jane Eyre and Rebecca have come up a few times in posts, usually exploring the gothic allure of rambling houses – the kind that are as much a character as the inhabitants themselves. They are both fascinating, now intertwined novels, and one actress lived both in the 1940s. As … Continue reading Joan Fontaine – missionary of gothic
WHISTLES IN THE WIND 