Powell and Pressburger

[Fellwanderer]

All I can say is that if I could only choose one non-JA film it would have to be ACT - pure magic for me.

[Steve Crook]

I've got COL BLIMP, CONTRABAND and BLACK NARCISSUS (sp?) on order. Mr SmartyPants has a thing for Deborah Kerr, however. I don't know how I'll address that issue - I used to stretch out on a couch with a blanket thrown over me when he came home, just to see if he'd run into rooms searching for a wheelchair.



Do I need to find a nun's habit now? Which is a shame - I'm 7 months along and even my French Upstairs Maid costume isn't quite as fetching... hmmm...

Add Gone to Earth to the list for another great romantic heroine in Jennifer Jones as the child of nature.



Deborah isn't actually in Contraband, her scenes were cut. There wasn't much of her anyway, she was just a girl selling cigarettes in a night club. But Contraband is still well worth watching with the lovely Valerie Hobson & Conrad Veidt flirting their way through it.



Steve

[penfold]

I've got COL BLIMP, CONTRABAND and BLACK NARCISSUS (sp?) on order. Mr SmartyPants has a thing for Deborah Kerr, however. I don't know how I'll address that issue - I used to stretch out on a couch with a blanket thrown over me when he came home, just to see if he'd run into rooms searching for a wheelchair.



Do I need to find a nun's habit now? Which is a shame - I'm 7 months along and even my French Upstairs Maid costume isn't quite as fetching... hmmm...

Once you recover your figure you might need to find a WW2 ATS uniform, if you let his lordship see Col. Blimp....there is something about a woman in uniform...not just nuns...

[ChristineCB]

When I don my Lovely Rita uniform, he always confuses my sleeve braid and gold birds on my epilets as outranking him. Him, a mere sergeant. Peppy, he might be, but still... or maybe it's that bag across my shoulder?

[Third Man]

It's amazing to see, for me!!, who was actually influenced by Powell and Pressburger films. I think it's pretty common knowledge that Martin Scorsese is a fan and parts of the fight scenes in 'Raging Bull' were inspired by the way 'The Red Shoes' was shot during the ballet scene and how about Gene Kelly who looks like he was overwhelmed by it because parts of his final ballet scene in 'An American in Paris' look so familiar it could be construed as plagiarism.

Perhaps more surprisingly for me was to find out that George A Romero was a early admirer of their work and anyone who has seen Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978) will notice the direct influence of make-up used on some of the zombies to some characters from 'Tales of Hoffmann', especially the uncanny resemblance between Léonide Massine''s character Schlemil and Scott H. Reiniger's part as Roger during his metamorphosis into a zombie in 'Dawn of the Dead'.



Simon

[Steve Crook]

It's amazing to see, for me!!, who was actually influenced by Powell and Pressburger films. I think it's pretty common knowledge that Martin Scorsese is a fan and parts of the fight scenes in 'Raging Bull' were inspired by the way 'The Red Shoes' was shot during the ballet scene and how about Gene Kelly who looks like he was overwhelmed by it because parts of his final ballet scene in 'An American in Paris' look so familiar it could be construed as plagiarism.

Perhaps more surprisingly for me was to find out that George A Romero was a early admirer of their work and anyone who has seen Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978) will notice the direct influence of make-up used on some of the zombies to some characters from 'Tales of Hoffmann', especially the uncanny resemblance between Léonide Massine''s character Schlemil and Scott H. Reiniger's part as Roger during his metamorphosis into a zombie in 'Dawn of the Dead'.



Simon

Gene Kelly screened The Red Shoes for the big wigs at MGM to show them how a commercial film could include a long ballet sequence. It was only after that that they let him include the ballet in An American in Paris.



George A. Romero gives a nice interview on the Criterion DVD of The Tales of Hoffmann explaining what it is he likes about it and why that is the film that made him realise he could become a film-maker.



There are a lot of others who have said how they've been influenced by P&P or who just greatly admire them. Some are the names you'd expect, some are quite surprising. See my list of Famous Fans



Steve

[Dave Rattigan]

Thanks for your input, everyone. The discussion has certainly whetted my appetite sufficiently for me to give P&P another try. :)

[Fellwanderer]

Thanks for your input, everyone. The discussion has certainly whetted my appetite sufficiently for me to give P&P another try. :)

Good decision! Discussions here during the first few months I was a member altered my perception of the P&P films. I quite enjoyed them before but looked at them more closely and now think many of them are excellent.

[ChristineCB]

Turner Movie Classics spent Wednesday with a handful of Brit films during the day, and the handful of folks who idly visit during the day ended up eating MY popcorn in front of A CANTERBURY TALE. None knew the film. None saw the beginning, but no one left, and six hours later, it was still the topic around the table.



Small story, small people, no worlds were saved or lost.



One of the great aspects of THIS forum - not just this thread - is that I get to read the Why's and Why-Not's, and it makes so many films more enticing to me. Thanks for that.

[Steve Crook]

Turner Movie Classics spent Wednesday with a handful of Brit films during the day, and the handful of folks who idly visit during the day ended up eating MY popcorn in front of A CANTERBURY TALE. None knew the film. None saw the beginning, but no one left, and six hours later, it was still the topic around the table.



Small story, small people, no worlds were saved or lost.



One of the great aspects of THIS forum - not just this thread - is that I get to read the Why's and Why-Not's, and it makes so many films more enticing to me. Thanks for that.

A Canterbury Tale is a wonderful example. There's no major plot - but there's a great story. As the viewer you soon find out who the glue-man is, although the other characters don't find out until later. So it soon becomes a Whydunnit rather than a Whodunnit. But most of the glue-man story is a bit of a red-herring, or a MacGuffin. The real purpose of the film is to explore the characters, not just the stars but those in smaller roles as well. And of course the countryside. The landscape should really have a credit as another character.



It was made at a time when it was known that the good guys would win the war. They wanted to explore just what it was that everyone was fighting for. But they didn't say that everything must be set in aspic and preserved exactly as it was. It was an occasion for major change. So they wanted people to look to the future but to remember the past.



When it came out it was received well enough, but it wasn't a huge hit. P&P had mis-judged it slightly. Everyone was too busy finishing off the war and dealing with the immediate aftermath to be concerned about such things. It's only in the years since then, now that people have more time to consider such things, that it's really been appreciated.



Steve

[smiffy]

A Canterbury Tale is a wonderful example. There's no major plot - but there's a great story. As the viewer you soon find out who the glue-man is, although the other characters don't find out until later. So it soon becomes a Whydunnit rather than a Whodunnit. But most of the glue-man story is a bit of a red-herring, or a MacGuffin. The real purpose of the film is to explore the characters, not just the stars but those in smaller roles as well. And of course the countryside. The landscape should really have a credit as another character.



It was made at a time when it was known that the good guys would win the war. They wanted to explore just what it was that everyone was fighting for. But they didn't say that everything must be set in aspic and preserved exactly as it was. It was an occasion for major change. So they wanted people to look to the future but to remember the past.



When it came out it was received well enough, but it wasn't a huge hit. P&P had mis-judged it slightly. Everyone was too busy finishing off the war and dealing with the immediate aftermath to be concerned about such things. It's only in the years since then, now that people have more time to consider such things, that it's really been appreciated.



Steve

I Heartily agree , before I joined this forum I had watched god knows how many films and have always loved the movies. The quality of modern films ( things such as, plot, dialogue, acting ability and overall content) has awakened in me a love for films of the past. P+P are top of the list for me,I love their work although I haven't seen everything yet.These are the type of films you watch and then want to know more about them,conception of the story,characters,locations,direction,production.I now look at films in a different way, it isn't only the ninety or so minutes you see on the screen,and this forum and it's members,(especially the admin and the moderators) have opened up a world of interest , reference, and assistance in films I've never seen .

I was so taken with A C T that I fully intend to take the pilgrimage ,hopefully by next year.I think P+P typify everything that is good about british cinema,I just wish I could express with more eloquence their qualities

[ChristineCB]

As our Texas Thursday folds up, I wanted to write about NOT watching A CANTERBURY TALE again - only the experience of hearing it playing during a post-lunch dishwashing session. I'd caught a few scenes but skipped up to one, then started washing the dishes, back to the telly, as the Traincar Confrontation occurred between the Threesome and the Magistrate.



It's a great scene that only needs the dialog and/or tones of voices to convey so much. If, in fact, the scene had been blacked-out due to a train tunnel's darkness, I believe it would have been just as effective using only those tones and the words.



Yes, it's definitely a WHYdunnit film. In almost every respect. I don't believe it requires that time of humankind, even. I think they could have been damsels and knights, for all it mattered, wondering about back-homes and loves-lost, laying in grassy hillsides overhearing two chaps forge some kind of friendship before a race downhill.



These character studies don't seem dependent on the times, necessarily, or a single event. Maybe not even any one countryside. We're just seeing people and whatever clouds and shadows cross by, well, they are included anyway.



I never realized that this film, much like HIS GIRL FRIDAY, may be such a rich dialog piece that its radio-play could be as compelling. It may need a Friday repeat.

[Steve Crook]

I was so taken with A C T that I fully intend to take the pilgrimage ,hopefully by next year.

Every August bank holiday Sunday, in the afternoon.

We're thinking of doing Canterbury itself this year, althhough we haven't been to Fordwich to see that Town Hall for a while.



Steve

[Third Man]

There are a lot of others who have said how they've been influenced by P&P or who just greatly admire them. Some are the names you'd expect, some are quite surprising. See my list of Famous Fans



Steve

Nice list Steve, is there anywhere on your site that shows influences 'on' Powell and Pressburger. I remember reading Michael Powell was influenced by allot of German expressionism somewhere ( or was it Emeric Pressburger ?) and I immediately recognized at the start of the Antonia section of 'Tales of Hoffmann' that they must of liked a painting by Arnold Bocklin called 'Island of the Dead'.The same island that was the inspiration for 'King Kong's' Skull Island.



I was watching some Max Ophuls films the other day, the way he moved the camera and paid attention to detail reminded me of P&P films.



Simon

[Steve Crook]

Nice list Steve, is there anywhere on your site that shows influences 'on' Powell and Pressburger. I remember reading Michael Powell was influenced by allot of German expressionism somewhere ( or was it Emeric Pressburger ?) and I immediately recognized at the start of the Antonia section of 'Tales of Hoffmann' that they must of liked a painting by Arnold Bocklin called 'Island of the Dead'.The same island that was the inspiration for 'King Kong's' Skull Island.



I was watching some Max Ophuls films the other day, the way he moved the camera and paid attention to detail reminded me of P&P films.



Simon

Nothing much on the site itself but he mentions quite a few in his autobiographies. But really he would absorb influences from everywhere and had been doing so all of his life. From books, theatre, paintings, people & places as well as from other films.

In one place in the first autobiography he writes "As for Luis Bruñuel, my master, the only film-maker I would defer to, from Un Chien Andalou to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie, he has known from the beginning what most of us have only learnt in brief moments of vision and clarity."

Powell worked for quite a while in France and was much more open to European films and film-makers than most other British film-makers.



Pressburger worked at UFA for some time so knew all the German expressionist film-makers and worked with many of them.



But there was also the influence of Hein Heckroth, and Alfred Junge before him, acting as their designers and people like Jack Cardiff as their cinematographers.



Steve

[David M.]

I have always loved the P&P movies and as I collect old British film posters I was wondering if anyone has seen the original British poster for " A Canterbury Tale" as I can only find this US poster from its 1949 American release.

[Chris B]

Hi All,

Colonel Blimp excellent !!! and A Matter Of Life and Death great

thats all folks !! Chris

[theuofc]

I have always loved the P&P movies and as I collect old British film posters I was wondering if anyone has seen the original British poster for " A Canterbury Tale" as I can only find this US poster from its 1949 American release.

Hello, David McC,



THANKS for the wonderful US poster of ACT. I've never seen it, nor alas the original UK one. If anyone has, it'd be Steve C.



All the best,



Barbara



Dirk_Bogarde_Brigade - a Yahoo group

[Steve Crook]

Hello, David McC,



THANKS for the wonderful US poster of ACT. I've never seen it, nor alas the original UK one. If anyone has, it'd be Steve C.



All the best,



Barbara



Dirk_Bogarde_Brigade - a Yahoo group

I think a few might still exist, but they're very rare. Possibly because ACT didn't do very well at the cinemas on first release so nobody kept any. I have a few trade ads and things like that, but no posters for it. Mind you, I don't really collect posters because I don't have the space to hang them. The few I do have are mainly kept in cardboard tubes



You can tell that poster's from the US release because it mentions The Red Shoes and Stairway to Heaven. ACT was released in the UK in 1944 but wasn't released in the US (with the additions) until 1949 by which time TRS & AMOLAD had both been released there. Also, Kim Hunter's name in the credits is another clue.



There's a larger version of that same poster that was shown at the exhibition in Canterbury in 2004. See my report & pics. That one was sent over by Martin Scorsese



Steve

[David M.]

Thank you Barbara and Steve, I went to the report and seen Martin Scorsese's poster, very nice indeed but I think if Scorsese hasn't got a British poster from ACT then nobody has.

Many thanks ,

David.