«Emeric scriveva la sceneggiatura e me la passava, perché a mia volta ci lavorassi sopra; poi, gliela restituivo con modifiche. All’inizio, avevamo anche tentato di discuterne insieme; ma la discussione degenerava sempre rapidamente in lite. E poi, aveva sempre lui l’ultima parola!» (M. Powell, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1989).

 

«It was Pressburger’s idea to make The Battle of the River Plate and that film too [I’ll Met By Moonlight]. With the first one, I was able to make a well-constructed film, interesting and with a lot of success. A film that was true as much as possible. Thanks to memory, to remembrances, to descriptions. But for the other movie about the kidnapping of a German general in the mountains of Crete, during the war, by partisans, in this case we have to make it dramatic. We had to introduce women. We needed a romantic anecdote. And Pressburger, who was so enthusiastic about The Rio de la Plata and its success – it was really a great success – refused to invent a story. […] So I went to Crete and spent a month in the mountains. I went on all the roads, all the paths, on foot. […] I learned many interesting stories, collected a lot of information, anecdotes. We had to build the story with all that. And I had discussions several times with Emeric. But he didn’t want to hear it. And the result was not good, because I couldn’t find a way to make a masterpiece with that material. I was always the prisoner of facts, of truth. I don’t like the film. But some people liked the film, or at least some of its elements. […] [The music] was very good. […] I had convinced Emeric to find a Greek composer. An agent in London told me that there was a young Communist student in Paris who had won the Music Prize in Moscow. I sent a telegraph to see him. He arrived here with a few music tapes already made. He had done that for radio, television, cinema. We listened to them. I was very disappointed. So I asked him whether he had something else, a symphony, for example. He had one. And I told him: “Let us hear the symphony.” And we hired him. It was very good. You’re right, that part of the film was interesting. But besides that, I couldn’t build scenes. I was tied by the weight of facts. So, out of desperation, I turned to other elements, music, the creation of an atmosphere. But it was not my area. As you know, I’m not fond of cinéma-vérité. It’s not my voice, my trade» (M. Powell, Michael Powell Interviews, a cura di David Lazar, University Press of Mississippi/Jackson, 2003).

 

«A Londres, Emeric avait fini une première version du scénario d’I’ll Met By Moonlight et me l’avait envoyée. Je fus déçu. Il était intéressant comme peut l’être un documentaire, quand on connaît les faits. Il contenait quelques bonnes inventions et quelques surprises, certaines remarquablement semblables à d’autres procédés qu’Emeric avait utilisés dans d’autres films, ainsi le général Kreipe retrouvant ses objets personnels à la fin, comme Conrad Veidt dans Espionne à bord. […] La haute qualité [des] éléments, et d’autres encore, fit de La Bataille du rio de La Plata, connu en Amérique sous le titre The Pursuit of the Graf Spee, un de nos plus grands succès commerciaux. Et notre incapacité à inventer des personnages et des motivations de même valeur fit d’I’ll Met By Moonlight un de nos plus gros échecs. […] Le gouvernement grec avait décidé que tourner I’ll Met By Moonlight en Crète serait une provocation, et refusait de nous accorder les permis nécessaires pour amener une équipe de cinéma, armée jusqu'aux dents. “Mais ça ne sera pas du tout le même film si on ne tourne pas en Crète!” dis-je à Emeric. Il secoua la tête. “Je suis désolé, Michael, mais je ne pense pas que cela fera la moindre différence si tu fais le film dans le Sud de la France, où tu connais tous les extérieurs, ou en Corse. [...] L'administration nous donna un ultimatum: faites le film où vous voulez sauf en Crète ou à Chypre, ou annulez la production. J'étais impuissant. Je tournai le film dans les Alpes-Maritimes, dans les montagnes entre la Savoie et le Var. C'est un beau pays sans habitations, seulement des casernes et des routes militaires, car la frontière entre la France et l'Italie a changé trois fois. Mais la véritable raison pour laquelle cette vaste région n'a pas été exploitée, c'est qu'elle servait autrefois de chasse gardée pour les rois d'Italie et de Savoie; depuis quatre-vingts ans elle abonde en marmottes, chamois, éperviers et moutons sauvages» (M. Powell, Million Dollar Movie. Une vie dans le cinéma tome 2, Institut Lumière/Actes Sud 2000).

«Powell e Pressburger rimangono insieme ancora per due anni, durante i quali realizzano due film, entrambi di soggetto bellico: The Battle of the River Plate del 1956 e I’ll Met By Moonlight del 1957. Sebbene molto diversi dal punto di vista  spettacolare e narrativo, i due film segnano un curioso ritorno ai temi e ai personaggi dei primi lavori comuni. Si inseriscono nella fioritura dei soggetti bellici che caratterizza la produzione britannica della prima metà degli anni ’50 […]. Ovviamente, Powell e Pressburger […] giocano su un terreno familiare. Ostili per cultura e sense of humour ad ogni ideale supereroico (che svillaneggiavano acutamente in 49th Parallel), tracciano due percorsi all’insegna per un verso tranquilla della resistenza e dell’eccentricità britannica, per l’altro della coscienza storica tedesca. Non a caso entrambi i deuteragonisti tedeschi […] agiscono nel pieno rispetto delle norme della cavalleria e con la consapevolezza crescente della sconfitta inevitabile. Non si tratta più soltanto della lucidità dialettica che aveva attirato sugli autori tante critiche in occasione dei film di guerra, ma anche del dubbio diffuso che il collasso finalmente visibile dell’impero ha generato. […] In The Battle of the River Plate e I’ll Met By Moonlight, invece, l’anacronistica letterarietà delle regole informa la scena, non eliminando la partecipazione emotiva […], ma elidendone qualsiasi connotazione e passione politica concreta. Sull’altro versante, il generale tedesco emulo di Pollicino (rapito dai partigiani greci, semina lungo il percorso bottoni e altri oggettini che consentano ai suoi uomini di seguire le sue tracce) e il suo maggiore britannico seguace di Byron (con l’ineffabile aplomb di Dirk Bogarde, si presenta vestito come un bandito da operetta e, tra un’azione e l’altra, legge Alice nel paese delle meraviglie) immergono I’ll Met By Moonlight in un tempo così “remoto” che non ha più alcun rapporto con gli eventi reali. Tutto ciò è come un filtro che consente una lettura puramente leggendaria della storia, in un contesto non lontano da quello della Primula Rossa. Il richiamo non è casuale, perché il personaggio del capitano Leigh-Fermor di Bogarde condivide la svagata eccentricità di sir Percy Blakeney. Con una piccola differenza: che Patrick Leigh-Fermor, scrittore e studioso della cultura classica, è esistito davvero e davvero ha emulato Byron combattendo con i partigiani greci nella seconda guerra mondiale. Per l’ennesima e ultima volta gli Archers rintracciano nell’individualismo eccentrico il punto di forza dell’idealismo britannico, segnalandone però contemporaneamente l’irresistibile tramonto. […] Dopo I’ll Met By Moonlight, Powell e Pressburger interrompono la loro collaborazione. I motivi non sono mai stati chiariti, né probabilmente lo saranno mai, a meno che Powell non decida di rompere il suo insolito riserbo nella seconda parte della autobiografia (che sta attualmente terminando). Certo, ci sono di mezzo un progetto fallito e, soprattutto, l’appiattimento crescente del cinema britannico. L’affermazione definitiva della televisione, il crollo delle frequenze cinematografiche e la chiusura di molte sale non sono affatto compensati da una politica di sovvenzioni che tende a ricompensare i film di maggiore successo» (E. Martini, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1989).

 

«British producers have found a profitable market in the filming of heroic war time exploits, and yarns which ridicule the German army are particularly popular. I’ll Met By Moonlight, the latest in this category, is not without its faults, but has the makings of a substantial grosses in the domestic market. […] Dirk Bogarde, now one of the top boxoffice names in British pix, turns in another smooth and satisfying performance as a British major, with David Oxley giving valuable aid as his No. 2 man. Marius Goring, an excellent choice as the general, is smugly confident that he’ll be rescued by his own men and gallantly accepts the fact that he’s been outwitted by a bunch of amateurs. Cyril Cusack, as a British agent, who had gone without a wash for more than six months to fool the enemy into believing he was a native, tops a well-chosen all-male cast. To Powell and Pressburger goes full direction and scripting credit. Christopher Challis has done a fine job of VistaVision lensing» (Myro, “Variety’s Film Reviews, 1954-1958”, vol. 9, 20.03.1957, R.R. Bowker, New York 1989).

 

«I’ll Met By Moonlight, made soon after and released in early 1957, belongs to a different tradition of British military mythology, combining the public school practical joke with the Byronic motif of the poet-adventurer. Based on Billy Moss’s memoir of the undercover campaign in occupied Crete, its focus is the romantic figure of Patrick Leigh-Fermor, better know now as a travel writer and classical scholar. As Ian Moncreiffe noted in his introduction to Moss’s book (written in 1945, but withheld from publication by censorship until 1950): “Cavalier Paddy at least already knew the Hellenes, since he had taken part in a cavalry charge during some  counter-rebellion in Tsaldaris’s time, and had been allowed to keep his charger as a reward… later, at Caterham, bewildered guardsmen had been interrupted in their polishing while Recruit Leigh-Fermor recited a rolling Horatian ode in troubadour honour of one of his friends among the Cantacuzene princesses”» (I. Christie, Arrows of desire. The films of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Waterstone, London 1985).