Gone to Earth

A village in the Shropshire hills in the west of England at the end of the nineteenth century. Hazel lives with her father; she has a tame fox and lives by her own rules, in a world learned from nature rather than books. Two men want her: the village minister and a landowner devoted to hunting. One says he will protect her, the other wants to possess her. She marries, and as the life she chose closes around her the bond with the fox moves to the centre of the narrative. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger direct. Jennifer Jones plays Hazel. The source is Mary Webb's novel. It is one of their Technicolor films and the use of colour is directly part of the narrative; the hills, the sky and the colour of the fox make up its visual language. What happened to the film is a story in itself. The American producer David O. Selznick was unhappy with it and had it recut for release in America; new scenes were shot, the running time was reduced and the title changed. The original British version was restored years later. The subject is hunting. The fox hunt is shown as entertainment and the woman's position is openly matched to it; the film carries the comparison to the end. The exteriors were shot on location and some of the villagers are local people. Who it is for: viewers who like classic British cinema and the colour films of Powell and Pressburger. Who it is not for: the melodrama is heavy, Jennifer Jones's accent was argued over, and the narrative leans too far on symbolism.