Joan Webster has known where she is going since day one. But it wasn’t until today that she knew the destination: Kiloran. It’s an island in the Scottish Hebrides, and she sets off to wed the man who waits for her there. But a storm prevents the final leg of her journey, and the poor dear is stranded on a neighboring isle with a handsome naval officer also waylaid by the sea.

The beauty of 1945’s I Know Where I’m Going!—a romance written, produced, and directed by the incomparable Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, digitally restored and available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection—is that the premise is so simple, so rudimentary, there’s nowhere for the magic to hide. It bubbles up like the elements Joan (Wendy Hiller) must yield to, as well as the ones she tries to summon. A lot of movies are about the mystical force of love. Few make you believe it. I Know Where I’m Going! is one of the few.

That doesn’t mean I Know Where I’m Going!—IKWIG to the faithful—is flawless. I’ve seen IKWIG six or seven times now, and I’ve always found the moment when Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey, dreamy) translates the lyrics of “Nut-Brown Maiden” to be incongruous with the rest of the film. Livesey’s delivery is too intense, too severe, and the cut to Hiller’s reaction is too sharp. Cinematographer Edwin Hillier’s lighting gives them both a chiaroscuro shadow befitting of a Universal horror movie.

Surprisingly, other quibbles arose on this re-watch: scene changes aren’t as smooth as I remember, and there seems to be a few logical omissions from the script—possibly sacrificed to keep the movie a fleet-footed 92 minutes consumed in one satisfying gulp. Could it be that IKWIG feels clunky?

No. IKWIG is perfect, and I wouldn’t change a frame—not even that intense close-up of Livesey. Hillier’s photography is top shelf and, like the sets from fellow German émigré, production designer Alfred Junge, casts a spell on the viewer. IKWIG is the kind of movie you want to pull apart just to marvel at how impressively it all comes together.

IKWIG doesn’t feel like a movie that exists in this world, though it’s totally and completely of this earth—one of the finest things crafted by human hands. It’s a reminder, one I will no doubt return to again and again, that of all the forces in the world, nothing is stronger than love.

I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)
Written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, C.W.R. Knight, John Laurie, Petula Clark
The Archers, Not Rated, Running time 92 minutes, Released Nov. 8, 1945