The Red Shoes

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948 (8.3*)
One of the most beautifully shot films to have come from the Powell and Pressburger collaberation, known as "The Archers".

Moira Shearer plays a new ballet discovery whose life begins to eerily parallel one of her characters, whose dancing is enhanced by a pair of magical red shoes. She is soon torn between the love of her life and her love of dancing. Still one of the best films ever about dancing itself, this film has never become dated due to the artistry of Powell.

Director Michael Powell was an early technicolor specialist in the 30's before becoming a director and it shows in his films such as this one and Black Narcissus. Together, he and Pressburger usually shared directing credit, though it's understood that Pressburger was normally the screenwriter and Powell the director. This was recently voted #5 in a poll of all-time U.K. films by a panel of film pros there. In fact, Michael Powell had six films in the top 30. (which include Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and A Canterbury Tale)

Read more...

A Canterbury Tale

Micheal Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944, bw (8.4*)
This newly restored high definition version of this British wartime film should remind everyone what a classic film it remains. Absolutely beautiful to look at, the films closing sequence contains some of the most beautiful black and white images in popular films.

The story uses Chaucer's classic Canterbury Tales as inspiration, updating it to wartime England; The three travelers to Canterbury are a local girl whose husband is missing in action, who's come here to work; an American GI sergeant interested in the local scenery; and a British sergeant stationed nearby for pre-invasion training. The three become involved in the "glue bandit" crime when the girl becomes a victim of what has to be the most bizarre crime in cinema mysteries. Along the pilgrim road to Canterbury we see the British countryside around Kent, where Powell was born. We are also shown perhaps the most jubilant and whimsical children's mock battle ever captured on film. It's more than a road film, or a local travelogue, though parts are obviously in "Major Exposition" style, to all Powell to relate the history of the area to the audience, a history of a road that goes back 1000 years.

Powell chose two real soldiers for the army sergeant roles, and this was filmed without any major stars at all. Perhaps the soldiers are a little amateurish as actors, but there's no doubt they are real soldiers. On the dvd from Criterion, they've included scenes added to the American release of the film, a perplexing new opening with Kim Hunter on a rooftop in New York discussing this area of England with Sgt. John Sweet, the American soldier in the film. This was her only scene, yet she shared star-billing with all the film's real actors! This is ranked #537 on our Top Ranked survey, #334 on the critics consensus 1000, and deserves the higher ranking in my opinion. It's a small and unassuming film, yet has the Powell/Pressburger magic working.

The film's page at Criterion

Read more...

Black Narcissus

Micheal Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947 (8.5*)
This is one of the most visually stunning films ever made. At the time, it broke new ground in the use of Technicolor, and won Oscars® for cinematographer Jack Cardiff and art director Alfred Junge. The story is a simple one: a group of nuns, led by new a new Mother Superior played by Deborah Kerr, are sent to a remote Himilayan village in India because a local general has donated a large house to them for use as a school and medical clinic.

The location is a daunting castle-like stone building halfway up some steep mountains, overlooking the valley and road below. It was built by a king to house his wives in an isolated locale where they couldn't run away or otherwise misbehave. The nuns are at first excited by the response of the locals, whom they truly desire to help. Soon however, hardships, the spiritual setting, and other temptations begin to erode the faith of some and raise questions of their ultimate survivability. This film is more about locale affecting people than any other picture in memory.

To make this an even more amazing work of art, the entire picture was shot at Pinewood Studios, England using sets, and matte or background paintings! The restoration to dvd has brought back the brilliant lighting and color, copied by Cardiff, a painter, from the art of Vermeer and Rembrandt; "clean light" was one element he mentioned in an interview on the dvd. Being an early trained Technicolor expert actually got Cardiff this job, as this was Powell's first film in color. Kerr is excellent as usual, but the film acting laurels are stolen by Kathleen Byron, who slowly disintegrates under the strain in an unforgettable performance. Two Oscars®.

Read more...

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943 (8.2*)Entertaining spoof of traditional 18th century British military aristocracy, which became a mid-war critique of the ‘gentleman’s war’ mentality of previous wars, now being rendered obsolete and ineffective against the Nazis. This version is a restored 1983 one that added back originally deleted footage, so now the running time is over 2.5 hrs, making it an epic comedy; though many call this version a masterpiece of cinema, I think that's overblown. It's more like that generation's Dr. Strangelove, though a lot slower and less innovative. It is to be praised for the stand it took however, actually being critical of the British military's 'old guard'.

Roger Livesey has a career role as General Wynne-Candy, a part originally written for Laurence Olivier but his studio wouldn’t release him to Archer for this film. Deborah Kerr has a field day in three separate roles, one for each generation, as the film covers half a century in a man’s life. Despite some incredible individual scenes (such as a duel that features a rising camera shot from above), down a star for the length hurting the overall pace.

Based on a British newspaper cartoon called Colonel Blimp, which poked fun at the outdated military aristocracy that had ruled during the Crimean and other wars up through WW1. Churchill fought the film’s release, thinking it would hurt morale, and the attempted ban made the film a box office giant as the studio advertised the “film banned by the government”, who then (in a secret memorandum) said the film “is so boring that hardly anyone will sit through it.”

Note: Powell (director) and Pressburger (writer) also did The Red Shoes in 1947, and Black Narcissus (1947) which were better films overall.

Read more...