The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

"Pity?"

"Pity when you get home and people ask you what you've seen in England and you say, 'I saw a movie in Salisbury... and I made a pilgrimage to Canterbury and saw another one.'"

"You've got me all wrong. I know that in Canterbury I have to look out for a cathedral."

"Do look out for it. It's just behind the movie theater, you can't miss it."

sorry

I loved A Canterbury Tale but I've only seen it once & long ago so cannot be too helpful about it. I'm not sure that there is anything profound underlying its mysticism but it is quintessentially English and beautifully done. I need to see this film again, it's the only major Archers film I haven't seen several times and I suspect it'd be at least my second favourite.

A Matter of Life and Death, Peeping Tom (not Pressburger, from memorty) and Black Narcissus all excellent, but I've never managed to get much enthusiasm up for Colonel Blimp despite it probably being regarded as among their best (if not their best?).

I admire it most for its beautiful, and somewhat eerie evocation of a centuries-old way of English life.

I saw Jack Cardiff a few weeks ago, and he told some great stories. And apparently Michael Powell loved almost every suggestion that he got from people. "Wonderful! Let's do it!" or something to that effect - he said exactly the same phrase every time.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002153/

Anyway, no, that wasn't a death tribute - that was the prelude to his Honorary Oscar. (Which, IIRC, is the only honorary one ever awarded to a technician.)

am hoping A Canterbury Tale gets a repeat shortly (the ch4 matinees seem to repeat on a yearly basis - things are turning up again now that i watched this time last year, The Spy In Black being one of them).

Red Shoes was on in the last month or so too but i think i was helping hopkins move house.

monday 19th 13:15: the elusive pimpernel
tuesday 20th 13:00: a canterbury tale
thursday 22nd 13:20: ill met by moonlight

Destroy: Powell's autobiography, rivaled only by Isaac Asimov's in length and tediousness.

The Pressburger bio that came out several years back was pretty good though. Maybe the guy who wrote it was his nephew or grandson?

And has anybody seen any of Powell's quota quickies? I have this strange memory of being in a hotel and a movie called something like Rynox came on the television and then it said "Directed by Michael Powell," but I had to go out so I didn't watch it. The beginning was nothing special.

http://telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/08/13/bfdvds13.xml&menuId=564&sSheet=/arts/2005/08/13/ixfilmmain.html

The Powell & Pressburger Box Set:
Battle of the River Plate;
A Canterbury Tale;
49th Parallel;
I Know Where I'm Going;
Ill Met by Moonlight;
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp;
The Red Shoes;
A Matter of Life and Death;
They're a Weird Mob
Granada Ventures, DVD (9 discs), £17.99; only in HMV

18 quid is a good deal.
"only in HMV"?

I saw A Canterbury Tale last year, then went to Canterbury with the Vicar and Rener! It was a bit like, in the film.

I seem to have had half an eye on I Know Where I'm Going so many times.

A Matter Of Life and Death will always be the central picture for me.

including the HMV website (where it's still 40 quid). i guess this is an instore deal or the website's old. (or the guardian and the times were both wrong)

I saw a (WWII?) lifeboat movie that was shot by Jack Cardiff once that was pretty interesting- google tells me it was called Western Approaches.

Is it only £17.99 if you pick it up "in store"? I'm not familiar with HMV as I'm not from the UK. But damn, I want this.

No, the radio subplot involves her fiancé. Checking up on this led me to discover that Petula Clark has a small role in the movie.

not even then according to starry who popped out at lunchtime. appears both papers were incorrect.

Next Sunday is The Red Shoes and the TCM premiere of- they said it couldn't be shown on television - Peeping Tom.

oh that is fantastic news!
though I suppose I wouldn't otherwise have ever seen Age of Consent if it hadn't been paired with AMOLAD on the DVD

you can't go wrong with any of the classic Archers. I might recommend a b&w one if you've just seen Red Shoes or Blimp, so Eric otm

Age of Consent!

Wild, huh? Here's Kehr on the set: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/movies/homevideo/06dvds.html

reading that made me want to rewatch the opening to AMOLAD immediately

I need to watch it again. Parts of it reminded me of the Lubitsch Heaven Can Wait, which was too aw-shucks for me.

if you mean AMOLAD, it does drag in the final act with the big trial (Heaven Can Wait is a bit slow too, especially for Lubitsch), but I love the set up and everything that happens on Earth. And Livesey's camera obscura is quintessential P&P visual bravura: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1075290/Matter-Of-Life-And-Death-A-Movie-Clip-Camera-Obscura.html. Also fun to see Marius Goring in such a different role from Red Shoes.

if you meant Age of Consent... I don't remember much of it

I watched Criterion's blu-ray of AMOLAD last night and it is absolutely stunning--the upgrade really brings home what a visual achievement it is. What I said in my previous post about the trial still stands, but the rest is pure joy.

I've only watched the first 20 minutes, but there's also an odd but compelling special feature, a 1986 episode of the South Bank Show, that functions as something of a miniature adaptation of A Life in Movies.

enjoyed Black Narcissus but didn't like The Red Shoes as much

The Small Back Room was on tv over the weekend. I've not watched it yet and can't remember if I've seen it before.

If you saw it I think you would have remembered it.

The Small Back Room is the next film of theirs I'm planning to watch

yes, then read my archived review.

NYers: The Small Back Room is showing at the Film Forum on August 26, part of Marty Scorsese & Jay Cocks' double feature festival (paired w/ the '26 silent The Magician)

half an hour into SBR and it's still not ringing any bells.

saw The Red Shoes again. the hyper-stylization annoyed me at first, but I was more drawn in seeing it again. the climactic ballet sequence was beautiful

watched The Small Back Room today. I liked your review Morbs

Thanks. As I still own the Bluray, I may not make the NYC screening (tho I need to see that silent), but we'll see.

don't have anything to add to the discussion about A Canterbury Tale except to say that I just saw it now for the first time and enjoyed it

liked hearing the Toccata and Fugue in the cathedral near the end

I rewatched A Matter of Life and Death and had no memory that the first person Niven meets after his bailout is a nude shepherd boy (cut for US release btw).

My favorite detail of that great first Niven-Kim Hunter scene is that he's cracking bad jokes while he's using his last moments to quote every poet he can think of. "Andy Marvell, what a marvel!"

My only caveats are that all that US vs UK stuff in the celestial trial is just weird now (apparently the film office asked them to make a film about Yank-Brit unity), and

S
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you can see Roger Livesey's death coming from his second scene.

Bbc2 have been showing a few of these as matinees (and a bunch of other decent b&w films as well *)

Life and death today
River plate on Saturday
Blimp on Monday

(* Wooden horse, 633 squadron, triple cross, Odette, man who never was)

nude shepherd boy, hmm

haven't seen it yet

The number of nude shepherd boys I was exposed to my fully clothed boy life astonishes me to this day.

lol

(apparently the film office asked them to make a film about Yank-Brit unity)

really liked Peeping Tom

Talking Pictures TV
Thu 16 Apr 2020
02:20
The Wild Heart 1952. Drama.
Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. Stars Jennifer Jones, David Farrar & Cyril Cusack. Hazel, a child of nature, turns to a book of spells and charms when she has problems.

(this, is turns out, is Gone To Earth, which is one i haven't seen)

A different cut of Gone to Earth iirc. It's been on Talking Pictures before so there's a good chance it'll be on at a more reasonable time in the future. Haven't watched it right thru either.

Consequently, Selznick had the film re-edited and some extra scenes shot in Hollywood under director Rouben Mamoulian to make the version known as The Wild Heart (1952). Selznick's changes were mostly additions to the film: a prologue; scenes explaining things, often literally, by putting labels or inscriptions on them; and more close-ups of his wife, Jennifer Jones.

There's a bit more, but spoilers so I left it out.

the accents in that film are both charming and all over the place

watching The Battle Of The River Plate on bbc2. they are issuing commands on the boat using a bugle, different tunes for different commands.

Kathleen Byron's birthday today.

Well, had a chance to see -- for the first time even -- the restored Red Shoes just now at the local Alamo as a one off. Hell of a thing.

:)

Every time I watch it, it gets better

and for a while it was my least favorite P&P.

That’d be 49th Parallel for me (a perfectly good movie)

Oh! Right. Olivier.

Saw Thelma Schoonmaker talk Powell at the BFI yesterday - she showed a few clips, including one from an adaptation of Bartok's Bluebeard, upcoming on blu and BFI Player, which Powell did for a German company after Peeping Tom and which looks absolutely stunning, a real Mario Bava/Hammer horror colour palette and fascinating to see them reach for the same sumptousness of their big productions on a shoestring budget.

There's also a book out, an exhibition (Scorsese loaned the Red Shoes!) and of course they're showing tons of their movies, including a lot of early quota quickies.

RYNOX?

What?

It's showing on 10 Nov https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=rynoxhotelsplendide

RYNOX was the quota quickie you always seemed to hear about, believe it was thought lost until the nineties. I seem to recall it popping up on television once while I was in a hotel but I didn’t have the time or sense to watch it.

I think it's on the bfiplayer too, if that's available outside the UK?

I see a streaming channel called BFI Player Classics which has some kind of more limited selection.

Dunno if a VPN will work with this? https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-rynox-1932-online

https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/cutting-edge-thelma-schoonmaker-on-powell-and-pressburger-scene-by-scene

thanks for that James, good read. also alerted me to the fact that a restored I Know Where I'm Going is on at the NFT today. fortunately it's sold out. i say fortunately, because i really i ought to be doing a load of work, and a 12:30 showing of one of my all time favourite films would not have been conducive.

On the bonus features to Bluebeard's Castle there's a short piece about him making a prototype of Earthsea
https://www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/2011/01/23/michael-powells-wizard-of-earthsea/

Really hope Gone To Earth will get a bluray soon.

It had one on Kino Lorber that seemed to quickly go out of print!

I guessing the BFI will do it eventually, but Bluebeard's Castle must have been a higher priority because it was so rarely seen