Powell & Pressburger

[madhair60]

A Matter of Life and Death is one of my favourite films of all time

[gabrielconroy]

I've never seen any of these films but have been meaning to watch three of them for yonks - A Matter of Life and Death, The Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes.

Wonder if it's worth waiting until they're each on in a cinema nearby (or the BFI festival in October), or just to get the jolly old hell on with it and watch them streaming onto my telly.

[studpuppet]

I've never seen any of these films but have been meaning to watch three of them for yonks - A Matter of Life and Death, The Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes.

Wonder if it's worth waiting until they're each on in a cinema nearby (or the BFI festival in October), or just to get the jolly old hell on with it and watch them streaming onto my telly.

AMOLAD looks extraordinary on Blu-Ray - like it was filmed yesterday which is a little bit unnerving in places. If you can find a cleaned up version of it at the cinema, I'd lap that shit up, as I believe the youth of today might counsel.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Watched A Canterbury Tale last night. Wouldn't put it as one of my favourites of theirs but it has a really sweet charm to it, and some beautiful visuals of an idealised Canterbury. And also Charles Hawtrey being his usual prickly self.

Also, massive props to John Sweet, the male lead in the film who was an American Sergeant stationed in the UK during WWII. He wasn't allowed to accept the $2000 acting fee due to US Army regulations and ended up doing the following

Sweet was paid $2,000 for working on A Canterbury Tale, all of which he donated to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a remarkable gesture for the time

[daf]

Still waiting for that to come out on blu ray - one of my favourites!

It's not a P&P film, but if you liked "the vibe" of A Canterbury Tale, Tawny Pipit, also from 1944, is well worth a look.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Still waiting for that to come out on blu ray - one of my favourites!

There is an HD version of it available via The Criterion Channel (I found a 1080p rip of it). Not the greatest print tbh but I'm comparing it to the other P&P restorations which are all 10/10. Looks really good in places.

[daf]

Good to know - hopefully it'll make it's way on to BD at some point (I don't generally stream anything as it's not as convenient for my TV set-up)

[phantom_power]

A Pressburger in Europe is called a Royale with Cheese anyway.

A Powelle With Cheese surely?

[rjd2]

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230615-the-life-and-death-of-colonel-blimp-the-war-film-that-churchill-tried-to-ban

Fun read, not actually seen this one but shall seek it out now!

[lauraxsynthesis]

Still waiting for that to come out on blu ray - one of my favourites!

It's not a P&P film, but if you liked "the vibe" of A Canterbury Tale, Tawny Pipit, also from 1944, is well worth a look.

I hadn't heard of Tawny Pupit but have watched now. Yes very ACTesque!

[lauraxsynthesis]

A trailer and other bits for the major P&P festival from BFI later this year.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/unveiled-cinema-unbound-creative-worlds-powell-pressburger

I'll be getting BFI membership for this one.

[daf]

I hadn't heard of Tawny Pupit but have watched now. Yes very ACTesque!

I've got a bit of a weakness for this sort of charming 1940s 'keep calm and carry on' life on the home front type of film.

The fact that they were doing all this while there was a real life war going on is all the more remarkable. Unlike later films looking back on this period, they had no guarantee that they would win the war, and the threat of invasion in the background gives everything an added layer of poignancy - knowing they were possibly capturing this way of life for the last time.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I was in a charity shop in Camden today and picked up The White Swan on dvd, Powell's Russian tv series which appears to be one of the last things he directed, has anyone seen it, and if so is it any good?

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

really need to watch some more (only seen matter of life and death!). my ex was hugely huuuugely into them so they have a certain binding to them and their character for me.

[sevendaughters]

A Matter of Life and Death is one of my favourite films of all time

have twice blubbed at the "I love you June, you're life and I'm leaving you" line

[lauraxsynthesis]

I was in a charity shop in Camden today and picked up The White Swan on dvd, Powell's Russian tv series which appears to be one of the last things he directed, has anyone seen it, and if so is it any good?

I've not heard of it! I bet Nick Dando, in the P&P Facebook group will know all about it. At the IKWIG weekend last year we were in the quiz team together and he knew all the answers.

PS how do we find out about your comic?

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've not heard of it! I bet Nick Dando, in the P&P Facebook group will know all about it. At the IKWIG weekend last year we were in the quiz team together and he knew all the answers.

PS how do we find out about your comic?

I did post in the facebook group about it but haven't had a response yet, but hopefully someone will do so at some point, in the meantime I'll give the first episode a go in the next couple of days to see what it's like.

And I've just pm'd you about the comic now. :)

[Ignatius_S]

That sounds like a restored version of A Woman for All Time. It was an incredibly troubled Anglo-Russian production and was originally released as a heavily-edited film (actually, there might have been more than one). The one I saw was about two hours and poor - a lot was to do with technical reasons; the sound synchronisation and dubbing were absolutely dire. Powell wasn't the sole director and I think on the film he was credited as produced.

[sevendaughters]

BFI doing a big P&P season later in the year

[Ignatius_S]

BFI doing a big P&P season later in the year

Indeed - LS linked to it earlier in this thread, but don't think we can mention it enough!

I'm particularly excited by not one, but two new books, which were announced for October.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Following on from my finding this in a charity shop last weekend, here's a brief review of the first episode of The White Swan.

This opens with a sepia tinted monologue as James Fox wistfully reminisces about ballet dancer Anna Pavlova and comments about their relationship saying things like "We could speak silently with ease" and "We who knew her remember her as a being who was truly divine", and to be honest it does feel a little cliched, a little over the top.

Still, at least it doesn't last for long as the episode jumps back to 1890, where a very young Anna is able to spy on ballet dancers rehearsing and is desperate to become one herself, and this is only amplified when she sees a production of Sleeping Beauty. Her parents quickly give in, but when she's not immediately brilliant her teacher scolds her which causes Anna to get naked and have freezing cold water poured over her to prove she can undergo any kind of physical trauma. It's an odd scene, and I have to admit the nudity did make me feel a little uncomfortable as it goes on for so long.

Thankfully there's a time jump and Anna's now a professional dancer aged 20, and is given advice from fading star Matilda, who claims "Only those who laugh at ourselves survive". Not that the women do much laughing as they train and are shouted at a lot, though there's plenty of smug and superior men around who mock the state of ballet, and spending time with these pompous idiots isn't that fascinating. Eventually James Fox turns up but he doesn't look that different from the opening scene, even though it's meant to be decades earlier, and all he seems to do is creepily watch Anna dance.

This leads to much more rehearsal footage, before the 1899 version of Gizelle is restaged, and that's where this shines, especially when the camera is in the thick of the action, there's some really lovely footage as they dance around it, along with close ups which for the first time suggested there was a really talented director behind this. Not that it doesn't look pleasant throughout, but it's standard period drama "pleasant", and though the cast are all fine, there's no great performances that elevate the material, at least not so far, anyhow.

Unfortunately the script is quite weak in places, there's lots of bad dubbing and while some of the cast speak with a Russian accent, some stick with their real ones, so one moment an East European girl is chatting with a cockney type and it seems bizarre. The sound mixing is fairly dodgy too, and it's impossible not to think about the actor performing this in a studio somewhere.  I'm not sure if I'd watch any more of this if it wasn't for Powell's involvement, but I do plan to finish the rest of it, though I imagine it'll be an episode a week as if I were to binge it I've a feeling my response might be far less charitable.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Indeed - LS linked to it earlier in this thread, but don't think we can mention it enough!

yeah can't bloody wait!

[lauraxsynthesis]

The audience for the BFI season may end up skewing more young and female after the new series of Good Omens has turned out to be a massive P&P tribute.

I've got my BFI membership so will beat the queues. 

[lauraxsynthesis]

If anyone wants a nice day out in Kent geeking out about A Canterbury Tale (1944), the almost annual walk is on this year: https://actfordwich2023.eventbrite.co.uk

[Mobbd]

As some of you know, I'm into BBC arts documentary strands like Arena. Anyway, I found this:

[daf]

Showing of 'The Small Back Room' on Talking Pictures TV at 3:15pm.

As well as being a pre-Black Narcissus team up of Byron (swoon!) and Farrar, it features a young Sid James (as 'Knucksie' the barman) in what must be one of his first film appearances (though he still looks like an old pickled walnut!)

Do not miss!

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

just thinking about how black narcissus is one of the most powerfully sinister erotic movies. everything with sister ruth scrambles you inside out.

[Minami Minegishi]

If anyone wants a nice day out in Kent geeking out about A Canterbury Tale (1944), the almost annual walk is on this year: https://actfordwich2023.eventbrite.co.uk

I just watched this for the first time today and its now easily one of my favourite P&P films. It's such a strange little film, and not at all the jolly hickey sticks, pastoral romance I was expecting. It has a very odd, almost (but not quite) folk horror vibe based around the most silly of events (the glue in the hair). It's a fascinating insight into war time Britain, and has a moment almost completely lifted by Kubrick for his infamous 'murderous bone turning into an orbiting space bomb' edit.

[gilbertharding]

It seems almost crass to say it, but I like The Battle of the River Plate. No-one else has mentioned it.

[PlanktonSideburns]

just thinking about how black narcissus is one of the most powerfully sinister erotic movies. everything with sister ruth scrambles you inside out.

Fuck yes it's one of the most rampant performances I've even seen in a film. Would love to billow about a haunted monetary lobbing people off cliffs in a sexy way - I've not seen it in a bit, the prescice plot Escapes me