TimR

That is very nice to hear. So you have met him. It was a pleasure to watch him in his interview on the Criterion supplement.

TimR

Yes, disgraceful indeed. Old Joe Senior could be a scoundrel. As you say, though that idiotic statement did end his own political career.

Bob's comments about isolationism are nicely woven into the script - making the point without a self-conscious "speech"

TimR

Yes, I see that I had been reading about the disappointing reception of "A Canterbury Tale" and the controversy surrounding "Colonel Blimp" and I made an incorrect generalization. I am reading through Michael Powell's autobiography now (difficult to put down) and I can see how many of their films were successful at the time.

Steve Crook

See John Sweet in Canterbury, 2000. There was a special screening of the film on a wet Thursday morning, but still about 300 people turned up. John and Sheila had their Red Carpet moment as they were welcomed into the theatre.

The next day we took him back around the locations where he'd made the film all those years before. It was while he was in the area that Nick Burton (now sadly deceased) did the interview on the Criterion DVD. We had plenty of chances for some very nice chats with John and I'm still in email contact with him.

Steve

TimR

Yes, I have watched it several times now - simply and beautifully done.

As I am reading Powell's own book now, I am starting to understand his view of Americans and why this sequence is so effective and charming.

It is interesting to me that this most British (and, I think (correct me if I am wrong) most English) of directors uses his extraordinary imaginative gifts to enter into the mind of an American, and within a film that is dedicated to capturing the spirit and history of England - and to potray him with such touching accuracy. The problems with the portrayal are entirely on the surface; idiom and nuance and, especially, humor are so unique to nations - and even within nations. The mistakes there are trivial. Pressburger was a Hungarian writing in English, and portraying yet another nation from within, and did it with such care and discernment.

What masters they were.

Bob is a type that still exists in the US today, although unfortunately he is far less commonly found than was true then.

He is, to use a very old fashioned term, one of nature's gentlemen. He does not have the education and breeding and social training, but he has the integrity and the spirit and the honor of a gentleman. It is unimaginable that he would do anything deliberately dishonorable or dishonest.

His voice is too loud at times. He is less patient than he should be. He is sometimes unaware of nuance. But that is all exactly true to his type. I have always preferred the James Stewart and Gary Cooper characters to the Clark Gable or the John Wayne (although I do enjoy their films) Bob is not quite in that league: they are an idealized type. He is the type itself.

I know that this film is nostalgic for many British. It is also nostalgic for me, and for some of the same reasons. It is also sad to watch, and for the same reasons.

This quality comes through again and again. At the beginning of the film, I thought "Bob will not put the move on Allison". I was correct. He knows she loves someone else and he might love someone else as well. She is a lady (word that has vanished) and a man like that, who calls her "ma'am", would not push himself.

Then in the scene where he first meets Colpepper and talks about watching movies in every town, Colpepper is slightly patronizing and says how sad it would be if he returned to the US and said all he saw of England were films.

Bob picks up on the condescension, but also on the fairness of the comment. This is just right: his face barely registers the comment, but he changes his tone slightly.

But he does NOT apologize. He tells Colpepper gently "You've got me all wrong. I know there's a cathedral..."

That is precisely how an American of that type would respond. He is patient with the condescension, but he is shrewd and observant and makes it politely clear that Colpepper is, perhaps, judging an American book by its cover.

It is so perceptive and well done that I said "Oh!" out loud while watching it the first time.

Steve Crook

I certainly think so
And what an unusual pairing. Who'd have thought it would work?

Powell was a classic Englishman, the son of a Kent farmer, with ancestors on his mother's side being Shropshire farmers. But he was a voracious reader as a child and with that, and his love of the movies, he certainly knew that there was a world beyond these shores.

And when his father got him the job working for Rex Ingram in France he was right where he wanted to be, and needed to be. The exposure to all those European and American films and people gave him something that was quite unusual for an Englishman at the time, a world view.

Then there was Emeric. The son of a Jewish farm manager in Hungary. The nearby town where he went to school, Temesvar, Hungary became Timisoara, Romania with the settlement of territories at the end of WWI. So he was en exile from an early age. He had to learn a different language to complete his schooling and so going to University in Germany and having to learn another language for that didn't seem too much of a jump. But due to various things he couldn't complete his time at University and after a short spell back at home he went to Berlin to try to make a living as a writer. He was very poor for a while there, sleeping rough and often going hungry. But then he sold his first story to a German newspaper and he began to make a living as a writer in this foreign language.

He then got a job at the UFA studios, the biggest in Europe, writing scripts and as a script doctor helping other people tighten up their scripts. But when the Nazis came to power in 1932 he was told that he'd have to leave UFA and he soon decides it'd be best if he left Germany.

So he went to Paris and after a short while he learnt French well enough to write some film scripts there as well. But the Nazis followed him there so he made the move to England.

Emeric was getting used to learning different languages by now so he even managed to learn English (no mean feat for a non-native speaker) well enough to work as a scriptwriter. Working for Alexander Korda he was brought in on a project to rewrite a script for The Spy in Black and that's where he met Michael Powell.

So you had the very English Englishman with the world view and the well travelled, exiled, Hungarian who had the advantage of the outsider, looking in - and they made the perfect match

And remember that even though he grew up in and around Canterbury, Michael always said that A Canterbury Tale was much more Emeric's film than his. He said that any failings in it were due to his not really understanding what Emeric was saying in the script. Although Michael knew the locations and could make a visually appealing film he always felt he didn't put the story across as well as he should have done.

Steve

Steve Crook

Beautifully done, isn't it? It always makes me smile.
And Colpeper's response to Bob's "I know there's a cathedral", "You can't miss it, it's just behind the cinema" is perfectly delivered.

As you say, it's slightly condescending, but in a friendly, joking way. Colpeper has already decided that he likes Bob so feels able to tease him.

As if anyone could miss the cathedral in Canterbury

Steve

penfold

I was in the BFI Library last week, and have copied their cuttings files of all the contemporary reviews of ACT, Blimp and IKWIG. It will be a few days, but I'll type them up, Steve will put them on the PnP site, and we'll let you know when they're ready....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

As promised, now available for perusal on the PnP website (Thanks Steve) contemporary reviews of ACT from around 20 trade, national and regional papers....
Contemporary reviews of "A Canterbury Tale (1944)"

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

TimR

Oh, very nice. Thanks to you and Steve.

Steve Crook

And I hope that those people that said they were put off by John Sweet's accent will also read those and note how many of the critics in 1944 thought he was wonderful, his accent and his acting, and prophesied great things for him in Hollywood.

It was his 92nd birthday recently and I emailed him a birthday greeting that included some of those reviews with a link to the rest of them.

He did try acting professionally when he had finished doing his bit for freedom and democracy. But it didn't work out, so he went back to teaching and really enjoyed the life he led.

Steve

TimR

The interviewer is dead? I'm sorry. I just watched the interview again last night and was impressed by his respect and thoughtful questions. He must have died at a relatively young age.


I have just read through them. All of the actors received fine reviews, but Sweet was singled out in several of them.

It was interesting to read Powell's comments in his own book. He noted that Sweet probably had a happier and more fulfilling life as a teacher in Ohio than he would have as an actor. Of course, I would have enjoyed seeing him in other films.

"A life well lived" 92! God bless him.

How glad I am that I found this forum.

Steve Crook

It was quite tragic. He had a brain hemorrhage and died about 6 months later, aged just 56.

Nick Burton was the head of the department of media at Canterbury Christ Church University. He was one of the good guys and will be sorely missed.

It was Nick who, when they decided to name all the buildings at CCC, insisted that the building housing the media centre must be called The Powell Building. They tried to get him to choose a name beginning with some other letter of the alphabet to fit in with their naming scheme. But Nick was insistent that there could only be one possible name for a building to do with the teaching of anything related to cinema, in Canterbury. So The Powell Building it became.

There was a big opening ceremony back in October 1999. Thelma Schoonmaker & Sheila Sim did the official opening and there were lots of other interesting people there. As well as Nick, that's when I first met Columba Powell. Thelma gave a very good illustrated lecture showing how P&P films were absorbed by and influenced Marty Scorsese. That's also when Paul Tritton told us all that he'd contacted John Sweet and he played an audio greeting from John.

Nick also instigated the Powell Research Centre which has managed to interview quite a few of the people involved in making the films. It's a useful exercise for students, sending them out (with a bit of supervision) to interview someone. As well as that Nick inspired quite a few of the lecturers at CCC to make P&P (or just P) the subject of their research. We saw the results of some of this at the Michael Powell Centenary Conference at Bangor (North Wales, not Maine) where 4 papers were presented by people from CCC.

There was also the wonderful Michael Powell Festival in 2004 where as well as screening a lot of the films, they also set up an exhibition in a gallery in Canterbury. A glorious 8 days in October 2004

I remember how, just before that Festival, Nick came on our ACT walk and we persuaded (bullied) him and Ian Christie into taking the parts of Colpeper & Bob Johnson in a re-creation of the discussion about the merits of cinema - in Fordwich Town Hall. For a pair of high powered academics they put on a good performance.

Ah, so many happy memories. Thanks Nick.

The University has instigated an annual Nick Burton Memorial Lecture, the first of which was given by Thelma last December. Just after they made her an honorary Fellow of the University

Steve

penfold

Lord, was it that long ago??!!

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

TimR

I'm very sorry, and quite surprised - I was thinking about what a gracious gentleman he was as I watched the interview. One gentleman interviewing another.

He has obviously left an impressive and moving legacy. I am still new to the art of Powell and Pressburger. It is evident that there is a whole world that I had no idea existed.