The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

Anyone seen the Scorsese-narrated (but not directed) doc yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sSeQgxj0rg

Yes

I saw it at MoMA but it is also streaming on MUBI UK & Ireland

It’s good. It tells a story you may already know but still packs a little bit of a punch.

This review is a wee bit harsh at times but basically OTM. https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/made-in-england-the-films-of-powell-pressburger-review/

Thought it was a reasonable choice to keep close to Marty’s POV.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, but I would say make sure you watch all the key movies before seeing it as it's pretty spoilerish

Good point!

Some of the bigger scenes in BLACK NARCISSUS, of course I’d seen many times before but having seen the doc immediately beforehand lessened any residual shock or surprise even more. Which wasn’t really a problem, there was plenty of other stuff to focus on.

Yeah. But I think it would be sad to have the end of Red Shoes, Life and Death and the plot of Blimp all revealed before seeing these fantastic movies!

Totally

Basically always good to go in knowing as little as possible.

I remember certain films where I was the man who knew too much going in and I then had to watch extra times before I could enjoy them properly.

One thing that still managed to shock and cause laughter was the first sight of David Farrar riding that tiny Bhotiya pony/Bhutia horse, bare-legged and in earth-color shorts, like some kind of cover boy UPS man mystery date.

One thing I recently learned from a commentary track was that Kim Hunter had been recommended to Powell by Alfred Hitchcock. Prior to AMoLaD she was a contract player who had mostly only been in screen tests and only then offscreen, feeding lines to the other actors. While Mickey was in the US to fetch her he ran into Kathleen Byron, who he convinced to move back to the UK to appear in that film and of course the two others.

Of course when I was a kid I only knew Kim Hunter as Zira.

Seems like there are some other minor roles in her filmography before that so maybe this was just another Mickey print the legend exaggeration, simliar to him claiming that "Poppa" Percy Day had worked with Méliès and that the famous rocket in the moon's eye image was his.

The latter did work with Abel Gance on NAPOLEON though.
https://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2011/07/walter-percy-day-master-of-matte.html

Some people seem to like Emeric’s novel THE GLASS PEARLS.

Is “Blimp” worth seeing on a big screen? I saw ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ a couple of weeks ago, which I think does merit the big screen.

Definitely, and I’ve been meaning to type that in now for the past two days.

It’s very long and sweeping and in Technicolor. I don’t know how you would sit through it on a small screen in this day and age

Trying to decide whether I can make A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Think I saw it a few years back at the Film Forum.

Xpost Looks kind of interesting - had no idea he was a novelist as well until I saw the doco. What struck me watching the doco was how all these quintessentially British movies of the 40s were made by Hungarian emigre Pressburger and Powell who got his break working for an American studio in France. I guess the experimental side of their movies is not so British...

No

In the commentary track to THE SMALL BACK ROOM, Charles Barr talks about the prominence of drinking coffee in this film, as well as in BLACK NARCISSUS, as opposed to the traditional British drink of tea, and then goes into a riff about Powell being a gourmet and both of them having Continental tastes.

Don’t think I’d ever heard Pressburger speak until I saw the doc.

No Taster’s Choice Freeze-dried for The Archers

https://cinemacats.com/the-small-back-room-1949/

This 111 minute DCP version of GONE TO EARTH has clearly been restored since the 82 minute WILD AT HEART version they showed seven years ago.

Sorry, THE WILD HEART

Reminds me that I geeked out and listened to an audio adaptation of BLACK NARCISSUS with Cyril Cusack’s daughter Sinéad as Sister Clodagh.

Xpost Looks kind of interesting - had no idea he was a novelist as well until I saw the doco. What struck me watching the doco was how all these quintessentially British movies of the 40s were made by Hungarian emigre Pressburger and Powell who got his break working for an American studio in France. I guess the experimental side of their movies is not so British...

Kinda but you also have to take into account that when the Archers were working the UK as a film industry was much more open to foreign talent, there was a lot of give and take with the continent and elsewhere. The Kordas, Cavalcanti, René Clair...

my other half has read Pressburger's novel and says it is very good

my other half has read Pressburger's novel and says it is very good

oops so interesting I had to post it twice!

it was a kindle-daily-deal a month or so ago (but only kindle, it didn't filter down to the kobo-friendly stores)

Kinda but you also have to take into account that when the Archers were working the UK as a film industry was much more open to foreign talent, there was a lot of give and take with the continent and elsewhere. The Kordas, Cavalcanti, René Clair...

Think Pressburger may have actually written more than one novel

Xpost Yes good point, and I guess also that not all the films of their imperial phase were so quintessentially English - I can imagine The Red Shoes as a late 40s French movie. Can't really see A Canterbury Tales transposed to Rouen or wherever though!

Parts of ACT aren't so very far from e.g. Vigo

been a long time since I've seen it, but perhaps Clouzot's Le Corbeau?

Got my eye on GONE TO EARTH and THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL this weekend

Guess there is also a version of this series in LA right now.

These BFI notes linked by MoMA are pretty good.

Although sometimes the story changes a bit. Here Powell is quoted as saying the germ of the idea of BLIMP was from Emeric, but elsewhere he says the suggestion came from David Lean.

been a long time since I've seen it, but perhaps Clouzot's Le Corbeau?

also a very distinctively weird movie that I liked, in many ways they both directors were at odds with over-censorious arseholes from right-wing/fascist regimes, but still managed to make a great movie

https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2016/04/04/pontesbury-woman-talks-about-her-familys-time-on-film/

Because I saw GONE TO EARTH yesterday.