Powell and Pressburger

In Moonrise Kingdom, Tilda Swinton plays a social worker in...

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:37:02 -0300

In Moonrise Kingdom, Tilda Swinton plays a social worker in Sixties’ America. She said she modelled her character’s imperious look on the Frau von Kalteneck character played by Ursula Jeans in the classic British movie The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp. (Dailymail)

While Anderson has spoken about how Francois Truffaut, Ken Loach and Alan Parker’s films centered around children influenced “Moonrise Kingdom,” he also revealed a broader influence:the filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger.

“For many years some of the movies that have most inspired me especially in a visual way are the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger films,” he said. “…so much of that work is about making these visual…quite artificial films and there’s something very exciting about what they’ve made that’s in front of the camera, and you know the ‘Red Shoes’ in particular is the subject matter too, but you know one of my favorites is ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp‘…and also ‘Black Narcissus’; [it’s] about a woman in the Himalayas and they did it all on a soundstage.”

Perhaps Anderson was describing how artifice - like what many critics complain about in his films - can be equally emotional and poignant when artfully constructed. “You really are transported to that place but you feel that someone has made these things and they’re very emotional, moving films,” the filmmaker said, also noted that their approach to music is very influential. “I also would say Powell and Pressberger, are a very good inspiration for music as well. ‘The Red Shoes’ is a movie where there’s a very long sequence where the music was written first and the movie was made to the music, I mean it was a dance so it makes sense. In our movie this Benjamin Britten music that we use — a lot of the movie was choreographed to it and we drew a lot of the scenes and semi-animated them in advance. So we sort of knew where the cuts were going to be based on the music.” (The Playlist)

21 Essays: The Second Fantasy Dialogue by Lee Price

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:57:14 -0300

21 Essays: The Second Fantasy Dialogue by Lee Price: Cut to Hitchcock and Powell at the pub after a...

idlesuperstar: I could spend the rest of the year picking...

Sat, 19 May 2012 20:54:00 -0300

idlesuperstar:

I could spend the rest of the year picking favourite scenes from P&P films, because there’s just that many.

This is one of those many.

21 Essays: The First Fantasy Dialogue by Lee Price

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:40:18 -0300

21 Essays: The First Fantasy Dialogue by Lee Price: (Alfred Hitchcock enters the crowded...

Michael Powell, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cinematic Reputation

Thu, 17 May 2012 20:18:00 -0300

Michael Powell, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cinematic Reputation

Homages, Ripoffs, and Coincidences: Mark Lewis vs. Hugo Cabret

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:33:10 -0300

Homages, Ripoffs, and Coincidences: Mark Lewis vs. Hugo Cabret

'I fell in love with Martin Scorsese's hero'

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:40:00 -0300

'I fell in love with Martin Scorsese's hero': Thelma Schoonmaker talks to Horatia Harold about her...

movie poster spotted at the Castro Theatre, the legendary...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:24:00 -0300

movie poster spotted at the Castro Theatre, the legendary repertory movie palace in San Francisco. February 24, 2012. by Mike M.

War Starts at Midnight

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:05:44 -0300

seekandspeak: US one-sheet for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The idea behind this and the UK...

Thelma Schoonmaker and Michael Powell on their wedding day in...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:26:00 -0300

Thelma Schoonmaker and Michael Powell on their wedding day in 1984

Actually, Kingsley resembles the late, great English director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes), who, like Méliès, was another movie genius past his prime and nearly forgotten until Scorsese resurrected his reputation. So it should come as no surprise that Scorsese would find a way of connecting Powell to Méliès in this valentine to French cinema.

Scorsese even played matchmaker by setting up Powell romantically with his friend Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E., who became Powell’s bride and Scorsese’s longtime editor. She has collaborated with Scorsese on more than 20 projects over a career spanning 44 years, editing every feature film of his since Raging Bull (1980), for which she won her first Oscar. In fact, with her subsequent Academy Awards for cutting two other Scorsese films (2004’s The Aviator and 2006’s The Departed), Schoonmaker is in a four-way tie for the most Oscar-laden picture editor with Michael Kahn, A.C.E., Ralph Dawson and Daniel Mandell.

“Hugo has deep resonance for Marty because it’s about a great filmmaker who has fallen on hard times and is forgotten,” Schoonmaker tells Editors Guild Magazine. “Marty has restored the reputations of so many filmmakers––mainly my late husband’s––and the film is a wonderful distillation of that. But, of course, that is why he was drawn to the story in the first place; the chance to show this genius, who is thrown aside, and then to show his greatness.”

Everything about Hugo is influenced by Powell, particularly the emotion and the portrayal of silent cinema, which obviously had a powerful influence on the English filmmaker. “All of Michael’s special effects people were trained by Méliès, the inventor of special effects,” she continues. “He always talked to me about them, like Papa Day, who worked on Thief of Bagdad and so many others. It was just wonderful for me to see again what Méliès’ great genius was all about.”

Schoonmaker cites a scene in Hugo as an example: “An explosion occurs and people disappear, and Méliès shows you exactly how that was done. Well, you look at Red Shoes and Anton Walbrook looking at himself in the mirror and smashing his hand in the mirror. It was [a substitution trick] done exactly the same way. So it’s this wonderful echo that’s going on.”

Thelma Schoonmaker and the Movie Magic of ‘Hugo’

oldhollywood: Above, the bell ringing scene in Black Narcissus...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:35:03 -0400

oldhollywood:

Above, the bell ringing scene in Black Narcissus (1947, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) as shot on the studio lot; below, the final scene with the addition of Walter Percer Day’s glass matte painting of the Himalayas.

(via)

Photo

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:55:50 -0400

Black Narcissus (1947)

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:32:39 -0400

Black Narcissus (1947)

Imre József Pressburger, Born: December 5, 1902 in Miskolc,...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:35:00 -0400

Imre József Pressburger, Born: December 5, 1902 in Miskolc, Austria-Hungary

victoriastation: I Know Where I’m Going! (Powell and...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:48:55 -0400

victoriastation:

I Know Where I’m Going! (Powell and Pressburger, 1945) #BestOfBritish #Film

I was at last night’s screening of Blimp at Film Forum wiht...

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:33:00 -0400

I was at last night’s screening of Blimp at Film Forum wiht Martin Scorcese introducing, and I got there early to get a good seat. It’s a small cinema and I knew there’d be a line. I asked the few peiple who were standing nearby if they’d come to see Blimp, and all of them knew nothing about the film. They’d come because Marty was introducing it and wanted to see him! But at least they got to see the film as a bonus!
Before Marty there was a short film presentation on the restoration given by a woman whose name I forget. They showed several before and after clips and went into quite some detail discussing the state the print was found in and the amount of work required to restore. They showed before and after clips of the German beer hall scene and the difference was truly striking. I want to go back and look at my DVD, because even there it such a visually arresting scene, but the estoration was magnificent. The bright blue coats of new guests walking in, the brilliant red of the skirt of the woman pouring the beers.
I forget some of what Marty said. I kept taking mental notes, but when the film started, I was lost and forgot most of it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him, so if I’m repeating what he’s said a dozen times, apologies. He told a story about how he and Robert DeNiro were talking about ways to tradically transform his physical form for Raging Bull, where he gains large amounts of weight, and so naturally Blimp came up in the discussions. DeNiro said he’d like to talk to Michael Powell about what Roger Livesey went through, and so Marty asked MP to dinner one night, telling him he wanted to introduce him to DeNiro. About halfway through the dinner, MP, who was sitting next to Marty, leaned over and whispered, “I thought you said DeNiro was gioing to be here?” Of course, he was, he was sitting on the other side of MP, but was so self-effacing in public he virtually disappeared. DeNiro did get to ask MP about the Livesey’s transformation, but all Marty claims MP said was, “It’s called acting.” (Isn’t Gielguld or someone also supposed to have said that to DeNiro about Raging Bull?).
Marty also talked about his own first experiences watching Blimp, the buthchered 90-minute version in black and white on TV in the 50s. He said he saw this again, in color, in the late 70s, and talked about the reconstitution of the film back to its original 163-minute form for the 1983 version. It was these negatives, if I remember rightly, that were used as the basis of the restoration.
Well, the restoration! I always thought the DVD looked really fine, with sharp, bright colors and excellent sound, and wondered if a restoration was even needed, but this new version is something else. Some of the moments were a pure revelation. For example, when Clive walks into the convent at Bonne Amie (sp?) the quality of light when he first sees the rows of nurses is astonishing. There are some close-ups of Deborah Kerr’s face when she becomes luminous, and the play of emotion is tangible. There was moment after moment which came alive in a new way, and that’s hard to do for a movie that is, well, so alive in the first place. Also, the sound restoration was beautiful. I was there with a friend who had never seen it before, and was awestruck at the end. The man sitting beside me let out a loud “Wow” when the end credits began rolling, and there were similar exclamations from other audience members, and the credits were met by a round of applause. So I think Marty drawing in the unknowing New York crowds did a great service by introducing this movie to many who would never have seen it otherwise.

Ranbir

On the set of Black Narcissus

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:41:20 -0400

On the set of Black Narcissus

Daily Viewing. From "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" on Notebook | MUBI

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:27:00 -0400

Daily Viewing. From "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" on Notebook | MUBI: “Seeing Colonel...

besieging: A Canterbury Tale - Michael Powell, Emeric...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:38:02 -0400

besieging:

A Canterbury Tale - Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger (1944).

bonsdrinque: David Farrar, “The Small Back Room” (via...

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:00:06 -0300

bonsdrinque:

David Farrar, “The Small Back Room” (via ladyspiggott)