Michael Powell

Englishman Michael Powell began directing films in 1931, serving an extended apprenticeship making so-called “quota quickies”, extremely low budget short features that were basically a form of tax avoidance.  He churned out 23 of these in 5 years, learning his craft in the process.

The turning point into prestige and A-pictures came in 1937 with “The Edge of the World”.  Set and shot on a remote Scottish island it reflects Powell’s interest in the culture and mythology of the British Isles and characters of stubbornness and eccentricity.

In the immediate aftermath of its success he was swept up in the need to make propaganda, initially with “The Spy in Black”, a Hitchcockian eve-of-war espionage thriller, and then, upon commencement of the hostilities proper, with a string of shorts and features encouraging stiff upper lip resistance to the hun.  Some of these don’t date too well, but “One of Our Aircraft is Missing” (1942) has grit and a bit more realism, and marked the beginning of Powell’s writing and directing collaboration with the Hungarian born Emeric Pressburger.

Calling their independent production company ‘The Archers’, Powell and Pressburger embarked on an unprecedented series of masterpieces.  The first was “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943), a satire on dead wood and fogyish attitudes in the military that was so loathed by Winston Churchill that the Prime Minister attempted to have it suppressed.  Unfazed, The Archer’s delivered a bizarre, 1940s variation on Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” whose storyline features a villain pouring glue into people’s ears.

“I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945), a stunning character study cum romance in which a strong willed woman’s determination to marry for money is undermined when she is exposed to a remote part of the Scottish coast, sees a return to Powell’s interest in folklore and superstition. In “A Matter of Life and Death” (1946) this is extended to the point of outright fantasy, with a supposedly dead RAF pilot pleading for his life in a celestial court.

“Black Narcissus” (1947), is set amongst a community of nuns as their efforts to establish a convent in the Himalayan mountains comes unstuck because of a combination of sexual repression and jealousy.  “The Red Shoes” (1948), the Archer’s last undisputed classic if far from Powell’s final flirtation with greatness, is the cinema’s ballet film par excellence, laying the ground work for later attempts at integrating opera and dance in “Tales of Hoffman” (1951) and “Oh…Rosalinda! (1955).

The originality of Powell and Pressburger would be extraordinary at any time.  The fact that they flourished during a period of war and rationing, delivering films of visual opulence, uncommon intelligence, unconventional structures and pacing with characters that challenge sympathy, is even more remarkable.   The Archers brought a sense of passion and uncompromising love of art that is unique in British cinema.

Many of the films mentioned above are available for rental at Auteur House.