:25:00
We're very, very conscious
of rock, sea, water, light.
:25:04
Er, it becomes
a truly elemental sequence.
:25:18
Looking at this sequence
of the cliff climb,
:25:21
this is where the film joins
another, quite important, current
:25:25
in '30s film making.
:25:27
It started in Germany at the end
of the '20s, the mountain films,
:25:31
which Leni Reifenstahl
made her name in.
:25:33
And Emeric Pressburger, who
still had not met Michael Powell,
:25:37
they'd be introduced
very shortly afterwards,
:25:40
was working, just about this time,
on a film called The Challenge,
:25:44
about the first ascent
of the Matterhorn.
:25:48
The mountain film, in various forms,
was becoming quite important
:25:51
and this is one of the most
startling, picturesque and dramatic
:25:56
contributions to
the '30s mountain film.
:25:58
It's even more so when we realise
:26:00
that Niall MacGinnis and Eric Berry
had to do their own climbing.
:26:04
And even if the close-ups were done
:26:08
under, perhaps,
reasonably controlled conditions,
:26:12
a shot like this
is truly breathtaking.
:26:14
Getting the shots of the anxious
watchers in the boats
:26:18
was very difficult indeed:
They weren't shot at the same time.
:26:22
As the days, weeks, went by,
:26:24
Powell was getting
increasingly worried
:26:27
about finding the right conditions
to shoot the men in the boats,
:26:30
which was essential for
the construction of this scene.
:26:33
It wasn't until they'd left Foula
and returned to Lerwick
:26:38
that he managed in one epic day
:26:40
to shoot almost all these images,
:26:43
knowing that they would intercut
and produce this remarkable sequence.
:26:47
He tells in his book
just how difficult and how dangerous
:26:50
the final section
of Eric Berry's climb was.
:26:53
This really was putting
an actor at risk.
:26:59
(Day-Lewis) Eric had to climb up
through the waterfall.