The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033627/

Saturday 29th

9:00 pm
In Which We Serve
Classic drama starring Noel Coward and John Mills. Adrift at sea after their Royal Navy destroyer is attacked and sunk, the surviving crew members recount their stories in flashback. [1942, b&w][S]

10:50 pm
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Powell and Pressburger's masterpiece of British cinema chronicles the extraordinary life story of British army officer Clive Candy, beginning with his early career in the Boer War. [1943][S]

Sunday 30th

7:00 pm
The Colditz Story
John Mills stars in the true story of the notorious German POW establishment and the officers who tried to escape from it. [1955, b&w][S]

8:35 pm
A Bridge Too Far
Star-studded epic war film recounting Operation Market Garden, the daring Allied plan to parachute 35,000 troops into occupied Holland to capture a strategic line of bridges. [1977]

Monday 1st May

7:20 pm
The Man Who Never Was
Spring 1943. As the Allies plan to invade Europe through Sicily they must deceive the enemy into expecting the attack elsewhere. Two British officers propose a daring and ingenious plan. [1956]

(which is a nice little selection. needs more submarines though)

I saw Powell's The Edge of the World on Tuesday. Utterly brilliant, utterly beautiful. Shot almost entirely on location in an almost Mass Observation style but with a Thomas Hardy-esque plot. Like all of his movies he puts the emphasis where you least expect: landscape and the everyday, rather than melodrama. See it.

has ne1 read MP's autobiog? was he a ballet fan way back, ie in the teens and twenties?

I wouldn't know- I only got to page six hundred.

Watching Black Narcissus again, I'd forgotten that every inch was shot in England.

And I know it's a melodrama, but nearly everything about Sister Ruth (esp in the last half) is indeed WAY TOO MUCH.

[image of Lou Reed and VU here]
You know it's just too much

Watching Black Narcissus again, I'd forgotten that every inch was shot in England.
They didn't have to go far to get to the Army Navy store to get the Black Narcissus.

Nor the sausages to eat.

i'd forgotten BN is cheap cologne too!

You obviously didn't read the RIP Deborah Kerr thread too carefully.

i seldom read entire threads carefully.

At this point, me neither.

Guy who played three roles in Canterbury- Narrator/Lantern Show Brit/Village Idiot - was British character actor Esmond Knight, who had been blinded in the war, and also played the Old General in Black Narcissus, of which Powell said something like "he thoroughly enjoyed playing the Rajah, but I don't think he was a very convincing one."

And he's still alive. And he was in I, Claudius. Sweet.

My info says he passed in 1987, after appearing in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

Hm, I didn't know Jack Cardiff worked on a Rambo movie.

Ah, I misread his IMDB entry. ah well.

"You can't hurry an elm!"

"I give it 'til the rains break."

Esmond White and Jean Simmons were both in both Blank Narcissus and Sir Larry's Hamlet, the fight over the use over the latter becoming almost a Pinewood-Denham "frontier war," according to Powell.

I have an advance Criterion 2-disc Thief of Bagdad, and I'm not sure I've ever looked forward to spending 8-10 hours with a set before.

I can't be objective about <i>A Canterbury Tale</i>; it's a brilliant film which manages to be simultaneously comforting and unsettling - and Kubrick obviously thought so too, since the bird/Spitfire cut at the beginning is definitely "hello <i>2001</i>."

And Eric Portman as the glue-pourer really was the business; sad that he's largely forgotten now as an actor, or remembered only for his appearance in <i>The Prisoner</i>, since I never saw him give a performance which was anything less than arresting, even if the film itself wasn't much cop.

I have an advance Criterion 2-disc Thief of Bagdad, and I'm not sure I've ever looked forward to spending 8-10 hours with a set before.

-- Dr Morbius, Friday, May 9, 2008 2:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

awesome. report back!

Just watched A Canterbury Tale again. That scene on the hill with Allison and the Glue Man ("Glorious, isn't it?") might be my favorite Archers moment (from what I've seen).

canterbury tale is amazing.

Blimey. That 10-film DVD boxed set is now only £9.99 from HMV with free delivery!

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=389105

9-film, rather.

Ordered that quick sharp.

just got the thief of baghdad in the mail today, surprise review copy! WOOHOO!!

The Small Back Room from Criterion next week, very underappreciated, esp the two leads.

Radio 4 had a programme about the book's author, Nigel Balchin, recently. It prompted me to buy The Small Back Room, but I haven't read it yet.

I'd like to read it, Powell second-guessed how they did the adaptation.

what does that sentence mean?

new set from sony — kind of random 2-film collection with "a matter of life and death" and "age of consent."

i'd never seen either before... just watched the former last night. pretty great. the opening scene with them meeting over the radio as david niven's plane is going down really won my heart...