If you know movies, you probably know Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger— if not by name, than by the indelible images they created in their films. The infinite staircase connecting earth with the afterlife in A Matter of Life and Death; the vibrant reds in the ballet at the center of The Red Shoes; the painterly compositions of Black Narcissus. And if you know movies, you probably definitely know Martin Scorsese, who has discussed the influence of Powell and Pressburger’s films on his own body of work ad nauseam. You could also say that Scorsese— whose lifelong admiration for their films transformed into a personal relationship with Powell later in life— is primarily responsible for revitalizing the productions of the Archers. So having him as the sole narrator guiding the audience through Powell and Pressburger’s filmography in director David Hinton’s Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger elevates the movie slightly above the conventional talking heads documentary.
Made in England begins at the ending, with Scorsese recounting his first viewing of a Powell and Pressburger film— shot in color, even in grainy black-and-white on a tiny television, he was still captivated by its imagination— and his first meeting with Michael Powell sometime after completing his 1973 film Mean Streets. Powell— whose last film, a solo effort titled Peeping Tom, employed the vibrant colors and production design as the Archers’ works in service of an unsettling story about a psychopathic filmmaker, was not at all well-received on its release— had fallen on hard times, and was living in a tiny cottage; Scorsese arranged a meeting with him, idolatry morphing into friendship, Scorsese’s friend and colleague, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, eventually bringing Powell on board his production company American Zoetrope. This way, Made in England, for viewers entering the documentary cold, quickly and efficientlyestablishes its presenter’s credentials and, more importantly, his personal connection to the subjects.
It’s following this introductory segment at the film jumps back to the beginning and picks its way through Powell and Pressburger’s work chronologically. It whizzes through their personal lives, quickly getting to the point where the pair met and began working consistently together, concentrating instead on critical analysis of the themes and techniques they employed in their movies that made them so outstanding, but also recognizing when they didn’t work and why, preventing the movie from ever becoming too reverential. Just as much time is devoted to the Archers’ less-talked-about black-and-white films— such as A Canterbury Tale and I Know Where I’m Going— as their much lauded color films. Even films like their early war drama 49th Parallel and The Small Back Room, an intimate black-and-white drama they made the year following The Red Shoes and which I doubt most anyone except the diehard P&P devotees have ever even heard of, are given their due diligence.
The balance is decidedly tipped in favor of Powell, who Scorsese got to know personally. But occasionally, Powell and Pressburger together are given the opportunity to speak for themselves, archival interviews they conducted later in their lives illustrating their great sense of humor and how well they played off each other. But Scorsese is Made in England’s primary guide, and he leads us through the film armed with a twinkle in his eye and the decades of filmmaking expertise and passion he possesses. It does turn a bit self-indulgent at times, particularly when Scorsese begins relating how specific scenes in a Powell and Pressburger movie inspired a specific scene in one of his; a montage of various Scorsese anti-heroes, intended to be tied in spirit to Anton Walbrook’s single-minded Boris Lermontov in The Red Shoes, feels especially out-of-step with the rest of the film. For those who have already delved into Powell and Pressburger’s filmography, there isn’t really any new information revealed here (how many times have we cinephiles picked apart the shot in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp when the directors choose to pull the camera away from the climactic duel?). Even so, that information is presented in an entertaining format that’s thorough and clear. It’s always nice to revisit films and filmmakers you admire. It’s even nicer when someone who wears their love for them on their sleeve is the one sharing them.
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger had its world premiere at the 74th Berlinale on February 21. Runtime: 131 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 