With the documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, David Hinton is the ostensible director of Martin Scorsese’s intimate and authoritative survey of cinematic titans who for were for too long lost to obscurity: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. However, the work belongs to Scorsese as he speaks particularly about Michael Powell on three levels: early influence and fascination, as his mentor and friend, and then gives a biographical and analytical overview of Powell and his partnership with writer, producer, and dramaturge Pressburger.
How does a New York born Italian American become entranced by a partnership outwardly defined by the term ‘English Romanticism’? By sitting too close to the television watching their films on repeat in black and white so many times they become part of his visual architecture. Scorsese was diagnosed with asthma in childhood meaning he spent much of his time inside his Queens apartment with his parents and brother soaking in whatever was shown on television. Due to rights issues American films were often not sold or syndicated to television stations, so there was an abundance of British movies. His favourite films, the ones that transcended their genre(s) and preached the emotionality of cinematic possibility belonged to The Archers (their production company).
Young Marty also attended the cinema as often as he could with his father and brother – and the first film he saw by The Archers, with the logo in colour was the magical, surrealistic, dance horror 1948’s The Red Shoes which played every week in NYC cinemas for over a decade after its release. The psychodrama of compulsion to create, to live and die for the chance to be an artist. In 1970 he saw Powell’s complete confession of the horror of trying to capture life through a camera lens, 1960’s Peeping Tom. A confession which made Powell an Un-person in British cinema, thrusting him into obscurity and near poverty.
Unknown to Powell and his former cinematic partner, Pressburger, a young generation of American filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola “judging the works without baggage,” were developing a cinematic language which incorporated the metaphysical melodramas, wartime propaganda films, sincere satires, and technicolor ‘composed cinema’ of The Archers. “They were mythical beings to us,” says Scorsese.
When Martin Scorsese had the opportunity to go to England, he tracked down Michael Powell who he was told was living somewhere in a caravan in the countryside. A far cry from the days where an Archer film was premiered for the British monarchy. Scorsese’s unbridled enthusiasm for Powell’s work touched him and the two began corresponding, but further than that, Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola brought Powell to the United States via Coppola’s American Zoetrope studio. The result was a close friendship between Martin and Michael, one that was further cemented when Powell married Scorsese’s filmmaking partner, editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Martin Scorsese gives the audience brief biographical information about Michael Powell, born in Kent in 1905, under the shadow of the glorious Canterbury Cathedral, who “ran away to join the circus” of filmmaking in his twenties working with Irish director Rex Ingram on his silent films. From there Powell moved into making ‘quota quickies’ until in 1937 one of his films, Scotland set The Edge of the World attracted the notice of Alexander Korda. Through Korda he met the man who would be his working partner for years, but his close friend for life: Hungarian Jewish refugee screenwriter Emeric Pressburger.
Although biography plays a necessary role in the documentary for defining how Michael and Emeric balanced their working relationship (always with respect and deep love for each other’s genius) and speaks of how Scorsese relates both their personalities; it is balanced with sensibility and how that informed their craft.
Scorsese breaks down the humanism within their work. The sections of artifice in films such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp which is set against the sincerity of the intimate yearning of the soldier at the heart of the film. In many of Powell’s films he notes that the hero (or even the villain in Peeping Tom) is often puzzled and innocent when he interacts with people. Yet, understanding people is something Powell and Pressburger managed through connection to the gamut of grand and defining emotions and observation of the everyday.
Martin dissects specific scenes and how they influenced his works. How The Red Shoes and the choice to cut away from an important duel in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp inspired films as disparate as Raging Bull and The Age of Innocence. How the use of colour inspired scenes in Mean Streets (too much red Powell noted), or how characters trapped in obsession or monomania – like Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) in Black Narcissus, Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) in The Red Shoes, or made monster serial killer Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) in Peeping Tom.
Scorsese looks at the duo’s great successes and their flops with the same critical and appreciative eye. There are films where Powell and Pressburger dealt with extreme studio interference such as Gone to Earth starring Jennifer Jones newly married to David O. Selznick who stalked the production. Then there are the films where “the fizz was flat” like Pressburger’s pet project the operetta Oh… Rosalinda!! and Ill Met By Midnight.
Scorsese’s analysis of Powell and Pressburger’s combined invented technique ‘Composed Film’ which begins with a ten-minute sequence in Black Narcissus and follows through to The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann where music, facial gestures, and movement replace traditional dialogue, is an ecstatic history lesson in total cinema.
Although the documentary skews more towards Powell than Pressburger because of Scorsese’s personal relationship with the former there is some glorious archival footage of the two men discussing their partnership and there is no doubting the fondness they sustained for each other.
Martin Scorsese worships at the altar of the Church of Cinema with humility and self-awareness. To spend time with a great director sharing his wisdom, intelligence, and abiding reverence for The Archers is attending a sermon given with wit, grace, and love. Art informs, inspires, and transforms – Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger will leave you feeling replete with all three.
Director: David Hinton
Featuring: Martin Scorsese, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Producers: Nick Varley, Matthew Wells
Music: Adrian Johnston
Cinematography: Ronan Killeen
Editors: Margarida Cartaxo, Stuart Davidson
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