The Masters  
The Powell & Pressburger Pages

Dedicated to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and all the other people, both actors and technicians who helped them make those wonderful films.

A lot of the documents have been sent to me or have come from other web sites. The name of the web site is given where known. If I have unintentionally included an image or document that is copyrighted or that I shouldn't have done then please email me and I'll remove it.

I make no money from this site, it's purely for the love of the films.

[Any comments are by me (Steve Crook) and other members of the email list]

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Events & Excursions


If you want to join in (or present) any of these, or similar events or excursions, then please email Steve or contact the location mentioned. Similarly, if you would like to submit a report of an event or screening (even if it wasn't listed here) then that can be added to this web site.


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13 December

ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne are showing They're a Weird Mob on Saturday December 13th at 4pm

See their web site for details and tickets.

There's also an article about the film in The Age. That is mainly talking about John O'Grady and talks to his son.


30 November
Don Henson tells us:

Those who are in or near York on the 30th November can pop in to City Screen in the centre to see to see A matter of Life and Death. The programme helpfully does not a time for the showing - best to look at their website a week ahead. They describe it a 'new restoration', and 'a funny, romantic and moving film that richly deserves the label of masterpiece'. Who am I to disagree!

See their web site for details and tickets


30 November

Middletown's Celluloid Society returns this weekend with its second year of cult and classic films shown for free.

"I Know Where I'm Going," Nov. 30. The revered British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ("The Red Shoes") made this 1946 movie about a young woman who journeys to a Scottish island to marry a wealthy businessman.

All films start at 2 p.m. except "Barry Lyndon," which will start at 1 p.m. Attendees must be 18 or older.

WHAT: Celluloid Society films
WHERE: Middletown Public Library, 125 S. Broad St., Middletown, OH
WHEN: "I Know Where I'm Going" 2 p.m. Sunday Nov. 30.
COST: Free


21 - 27 November
Nick Waller tells us:

Just a note for your PnP listing to say I spotted AMOLAD is on in Bristol this coming week -
The Watershed, 1 Canons Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX UK
Info/Tickets: 0117 927 6444 / 0117 927 5100
www.watershed.co.uk
Mon 24 Nov at 20:40
Tue 25 - Thu 27 Nov at 17:40 and 20:30


18 November
Nicky Smith tells us:

Violette Szabo day at the NFT

Tues 18th Nov - 10.30 -17.00. tickets £18.00 (including a 'light lunch'). Join talks and screenings and learn about the wider context for the story of Violette Szabo and of Churchill's SOE. They're showing Carve her Name with Pride, introuduced by Virginia McKenna at 14.00 though I'm not sure if that's included in the ticket price (you can certainly buy tickets separately for it)

Note: The P&P connection is of course that Leo Marks knew and worked with Violette.

I've been contacted by the chap organising this.
Some more details:
I can now confirm the details of the event I've helped the British Film Institute in London set up for November 18th at the BFI Southbank.

There's information on the www.bfi.org.uk web site - go to What's On / BFI Southbank and then click on the November 18th box of the Events calendar.

You'll see that it's possible to attend for the whole day, or just come along for the 2pm screening with guests Virginia McKenna, Lewis Gilbert, and Tania Szabo; this will be followed by a Q&A. The morning talks and discussion which will cover the film's "historical and cultural context" and SOE. I've pasted speaker details below - this should be a very interesting morning and it's hoped that several other SOE historians and writers will attend.

I plan to record audio of the morning sessions and a podcast will be available soon afterwards.

In the BFI's Delegate Centre there will be impressive displays of SOE items which are very kindly being arranged by Clive Bassett, co-founder and trustee of The Carpetbagger Aviation Museum

After the film screening and Q&A we have the use of the Delegate Centre until 7pm. This will be an opportunity for 'delegates' including members of the SOE Discussion Group to get together informally, and during this time there will hopefully also be the opportunity to watch a documentary not yet broadcast in the UK.

Those wishing to socialise when the formal events are finished can do so over drinks or a meal in the BFI's Benugo bar & restaurant (close to the Delegate Centre) which will be open until 11pm. There are also plenty of other bars and restaurants close by.

By all means email or call me if you need to know more.

Kind regards,
Martyn Cox

"Violette Szabo and the Special Operations Executive" - SPEAKERS:

Dr Juliette Pattinson is a social and cultural historian of Twentieth Century Britain and Europe, with particular interests in gender, personal testimonies and war.

Her publications include: Behind Enemy Lines: Gender, Passing and the SOE in the Second World War (Manchester University Press, 2007); "'Turning a pretty girl into a killer': Women, violence and clandestine operations during the Second World War"; and in F. Alexander & K. Throsby, Gender and Interpersonal Violence: Language, Action and Representation, (Palgrave, 2008).

Dr Pattinson will discuss the establishment of the Special Operations Executive, the decision to include female agents, the recruitment process and the 'type' of female agents sought, their motivations, their training, the work they were allocated to undertake in France and their experiences of captivity. At each stage of her talk Dr Pattinson will refer to Violette Szabo to illustrate how representative she was of the women recruited for the organisation.

Sarah Helm was a reporter on the Sunday Times and Diplomatic Editor for the Independent before becoming Jerusalem and then Brussels correspondent for the same paper. A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE was her first book. (Ravensbrück is due out in 2010.)

Sarah Helm will look at the controversies surrounding the SOE when it was closed down after the war and the various attempts made to tell acceptable versions of SOE's wartime work. The official history of the SOE came to be written against much opposition and there were various films, books and newspaper articles after the war attempting to "sell" its story.

Sarah will look at the background to the film Carve Her Name With Pride and the investigation of Vera Atkins, the former F Section officer, and Maurice Buckmaster, the F Section head. She will also discuss the claims that the film misrepresents and sanitises the life of Violette Szabo. The talk will include some aspects of Szabo's SOE work and why her capitivity and her death have remained hidden. It will also refer to contemporary documents and photographs.

Martyn Cox (co-chair) is a freelance writer, producer, director who has become a passionate WW2 oral historian and built up an archive of more than eighty filmed interviews with WW2 veterans. Most were involved with SOE and other clandestine work - see www.our-secret-war.org. Martyn is also the Associate Producer of, the Channel 4 documentary Behind Enemy Lines: The Real Charlotte Grays, co-produced a five part series about the FANYs for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, and has written on the subject of SOE and the FANYs for several publications and web sites.


3 November

The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre, Dumfries is showing A Matter of Life and Death on Monday 3 November at 19:00

See their web site for details and tickets


28 October
John tells us:

The Kings College in the Strand, will be showing I Know Where I'm Going! on Tuesday 28th October 2008, 5.15pm. Should be in 35mm.

See their web site for details.


23 October

The Phoenix in East Finchley is showing A Matter of Life and Death on Thursday 23 October at 11am.

See their web site for details and tickets.


22 - 23 October
Lord Brett tells us

Heads up for Powell and Pressburger fans, as Bradford's Pictureville Conima is screened Black Narcissus on October 22nd and 23rd.

See their web site for details.


20 October
Liz Stamps tells us:

The Mary Webb Society have arranged a screening of GTE at the Civic centre in Wellington Shropshire. That's on Monday 20th October at 7pm.

See their web site for details and tickets.


16 October

Once again the Magnolia Theatre (in Dallas, TX) will set aside four showtimes this month (Oct.) for Turner Classic Movie simulcasts on one of their big screens, utilizing their cutting edge digital projection technology. And they'll be showing the movies for free, so just go ahead and can the rolling eyes routine.

...
See Baghdad the way it used to be (in the imaginations of Western film producers, that is) - and spell it the way it used to be spelled, by leaving out the "h" and taking in a screening of The Thief of Bagdad (1940), directed by a veritable committee of auteurs including (most notably) Ludwig Berger and Michael Powell. This one screens on Thurs., Oct. 16 at 9 p.m.
...


14 October
Barbara Siek tells us:

The Edinburgh University Film Society will screen Black Narcissus on Tues. 14th Oct., 7:30 pm at the Pleasance Theatre.

See their reviews.

See their web site for details.


14 October
John tells us:

Michael Powell double-bill -
The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1971) + His Lordship (1932)

At 2.30pm in the Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square London WC1
Free admission


11 October
Tipu tells us:

I had gone to Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive last Friday & read in their film program book that they are showing The Red Shoes on Saturday Oct 11th at 3pm. This is part of their "Movie Matinees for All Ages" series.

See their web site for details and tickets.

According to PFA:
"Our ongoing Saturday series is a great way to introduce youngsters to the joys of the big screen.and to rediscover them yourself. This season we feature two films by David Lean, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, along with the Powell/Pressburger drama The Red Shoes. After the film, join us in the PFA Theater courtyard for Fentons ice cream and conversation with fellow moviegoers."


6 October - 24 November
Paul Smith tells us:


The Kansas City Public Library presents True Brits: the British Film Series throughout the fall 2008 with a three-month long stretch of free film screenings in the Stanley H. Durwood Film Vault at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

True Brits features Sir Alec Guinness in the lead role followed by a cast of films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as well as a special guest appearance by David Thomson - "the greatest living film critic and historian".

All screenings take place on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. and are co-sponsored by KCPT and its BritCom Club.

Pop culture exalted him as Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Sir Alec Guinness had already earned international acclaim through memorable roles - as a one-man ensemble cast in the top-notch Ealing Studios comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets and later as the leader of The Unholy Five in The Ladykillers. Against Type: the Eclectic Alec Guinness looks back on the man in all his dramatic versatility on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. throughout September 2008 in the Stanley H. Durwood Film Vault at the Central Library.

This first installment of True Brits features: Oliver Twist (1948) on September 8; Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) on September 15; The Ladykillers (1955) on September 22; and Damn the Defiant (1962) on September 29.

Known collectively as "the Archers", director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger produced a series of cinematic masterpieces - demonstrated by innovative Oscar-winning special effects in Thief of Bagdad, storm-swept cinematography in I Know Where I'm Going and the film-school essential Peeping Tom. Their collaborative genius has influenced prominent American directors including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wes Anderson. Bullseyes: A Powell & Pressburger Retrospective hits the target every Monday at 6:30 p.m. throughout October and November 2008 in the Stanley H. Durwood Film Vault at the Central Library.

This installment of True Brits features:
6 OctoberContraband (1940)
13 OctoberThief of Bagdad (1940)
14 OctoberDavid Thomson: A Personal Introduction to Michael Powell
20 OctoberA Canterbury Tale (1944)
27 OctoberI Know Where I'm Going (1945)
3 NovemberBlack Narcissus (1947)
10 NovemberThe Red Shoes (1948)
17 NovemberThe Small Back Room (1949)
24 NovemberPeeping Tom (1960)

All screenings start at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library.

Amid the Bullseyes component of True Brits, the Kansas City Public Library welcomes film expert David Thomson for a presentation called A Personal Introduction to Michael Powell on Tuesday, October 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library.

Thomson will share his personal and critical perspective on seminal filmmaker and friend Michael Powell, whom he describes as a sublime yet devious and essential director whose work educated audiences as much as filmmakers.

The Atlantic Monthly has called Thomson "the greatest living film critic and historian". He is author of the new book Have You Seen...? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films, a thorough yet personal listing of essential films intended for cinephiles as well as film novices.

Thomson's books will be available for sale by Rainy Day Books, and the author will sign copies purchased at the event.

A 6 p.m. reception precedes this event. Admission is free. Call 816.701.3407 to RSVP or visit us online. Free parking is available in the Library District Parking Garage at 10th and Baltimore.


4 October 2008
Susan Kaufman tells us:

Charles and I are planning a film night as a fund raiser for the West Somerset Railway. How would you feel about advertising something non-P&P on your web site? Anyway, I've attached the details just in case anyone is dying to see Train of Events (starring P&P favourite Valerie Hobson).

See West Somerset Railway Association - Dinner and Film Evening for more details


1 October
Barbara Siek tells us:

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at Northwestern University, Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL, U.S.
Wed, Oct. 1, 7:00 PM

See their web site for details and tickets

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
(Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943, U.K., 163 minutes, 35mm)
The epic tale of Clive Candy is a testament to Powell and Pressburger's magnificent talents as stylists and visual storytellers and an expansive meditation on the tension between friendship and enmity, love and heartbreak, obligation and desire. Made in wartime England, its filming was disrupted by Churchill, who tried to stop it altogether and banned the directors from access to any army equipment - he later suppressed the film's release. Initially controversial, Colonel Blimp is now seen as the great British film of the WWII era.

Its characters would defy any propaganda machine: Candy is a dim, buffoonish, strangely endearing soldier and the film traces his bumbling life from the Boer War to the present. Exceedingly British, the sumptuously shot Colonel Blimpis ultimately a comedy of manners, as Roger Ebert has observed, but no other war film is as historically broad and philosophically complete. As warm in its tone and as keen in its observations as Swope's photography.

The Photography of John Swope and Hollywood's Depiction of World War II

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope in the Block Museum's Main Gallery September 19 November 30, 2008.

Block Cinema, a collaboration of Northwestern University's School of Communication and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, screens classic and contemporary films. Block Cinema is dedicated to providing the Northwestern campus, the North Shore, and Chicago with a quality venue for repertory cinema.


25 September - October

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) is being screened at the NFT (BFI Southbank) in London in September and October:

The September programme includes a few screenings of what they say is a "New Print" of AMOLAD. I expect they mean a new print struck off the same interneg, not that they've done a full restoration from the original elements.

Thu25Sep20:45NFT1
Fri26Sep14:30NFT3
Fri26Sep18:30NFT1
Fri26Sep20:45NFT1
Sat27Sep15:50NFT1
Sat27Sep18:10NFT1
Sat27Sep20:30NFT1
Sun28Sep15:50NFT1
Sun28Sep18:10NFT1
Sun28Sep20:30NFT1
Mon29Sep20:40NFT2
Tue30Sep18:30NFT1
Tue30Sep20:45NFT1
Wed1Oct20:30NFT3
Thu2Oct18:10NFT3
Thu2Oct20:30NFT3
Fri3Oct18:10NFT3
Sat4Oct15:45NFT3
Sat4Oct20:30NFT3
Sun5Oct15:50NFT3
Sun5Oct18:00NFT3
Sun5Oct20:30NFT3
Mon6Oct20:30NFT3
Tue7Oct20:30NFT3
Wed8Oct20:45NFT1
Thu9Oct18:00NFT1
Thu9Oct20:45NFT1
Fri10Oct18:30NFT1
Fri10Oct20:45NFT1
Sat11Oct15:30NFT1
Sat11Oct18:30NFT1
Sat11Oct20:45NFT1
Sun12Oct15:50NFT3
Sun12Oct18:10NFT3
Sun12Oct20:50NFT3
Mon13Oct18:10NFT3
Mon13Oct20:40NFT3
Tue14Oct14:00*NFT3
Tue14Oct18:10NFT3
Tue14Oct20:20NFT3
Wed15Oct18:10NFT3
Wed15Oct20:30NFT3

* 'Seniors' matinee, with introduction and discussion
I'll try to find out who's doing the introduction and leading the discussion on the 14:00 screening on Tue 14 Oct. And how old you have to be to count as a 'senior'

NFT3 is their "bijou" screen. It seats just 134 people
NFT1 is their main screen which seats 450
NFT2 is their intermediate screen which seats 162 people

See their web site for details and tickets


12 September - 16 November
Christoph Michel tell us:

I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that the Munich Filmmuseum will be showing a bunch of PnP films in September, October and November. With its emphasis on MP they decided to call it "Das Kino des Michael Powell" ('The Cinema of MP'). It can't take the place of a proper PnP retrospective but it's not too bad either (I've left the dates in German):

WhatWhen
The Edge of the World12. September 2008, 21.00
16. September 2008, 18.30
The Spy in Black13. September 2008, 21.00
Smith
Contraband
14. September 2008, 21.00
The Thief of Bagdad17. September 2008, 18.30
19. September 2008, 21.00
49th Parallel20. September 2008, 21.00
An Airman's Letter to his Mother
One of Our Aircraft is Missing
21. September 2008, 21.00
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp26. September 2008, 21.00
A Canterbury Tale23. September 2008, 18.30
27. September 2008, 21.00
I Know Where I'm Going!24. September 2008, 18.30
28. September 2008, 21.00
A Matter of Life and Death7. Oktober 2008, 18.30
10. Oktober 2008, 21.00
Black Narcissus8. Oktober 2008, 18.30
11. Oktober 2008, 21.00
The Red Shoes12. Oktober 2008, 21.00
14. Oktober 2008, 18.30
The Small Back Room24. Oktober 2008, 21.00
Gone to Earth25. Oktober 2008, 21.00
The Tales of Hoffmann15. Oktober 2008, 18.30
26. Oktober 2008, 21.00
Oh ... Rosalinda!!7. November 2008, 21.00
The Battle of the River Plate8. November 2008, 21.00
11. November 2008, 18.30
Ill Met by Moonlight9. November 2008, 21.00
Peeping Tom12. November 2008, 18.30
14. November 2008, 21.00
Age of Consent15. November 2008, 21.00
Herzog Blaubarts Burg
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
16. November 2008, 21.00
(Introduction: Sibylle Nabel-Foster)

The entry for Age of Consent needs clarifying as the programme quotes a running time of 106 minutes BUT it names both Stanley Myers and Peter Sculthorpe as composers. I should be able to find out shortly which version they'll be screening.


6 September

The Seattle Asian Art Museum is showing The Thief of Bagdad at 1.30 pm on 6 September in the Stimson Auditorium.

See their web site for details and tickets


31 August

This year's PaPAS A Canterbury Tale film location walk will be held on Sunday, August 31 in Fordwich, just off the Margate road (A28) to the west of Canterbury. We will meet at on Fordwich Quay at 1 pm. There are very few public parking spaces in Fordwich village. Please find one on or off the road leading from Sturry to Fordwich. For details of bus and rail services to Sturry (¾ mile from Fordwich) visit www.stagecoachbus.com and www.nationalrail.co.uk. Please check the National Rail website the day before you travel to ensure that there are no timetable alterations due to engineering works etc.

See this web site for details


20 August

Metro Cinemas in Seattle, WA are showing Black Narcissus on Wed, 20 August at 7 & 9pm.

See their web site for details and tickets


17 August

Tilda Swinton's film festival in Narirn, The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema Of Dreams starts on Friday (15th) and runs until Saturday 23rd

They're showing IKWIG on this coming Sunday (17th) at 2pm
Accompanied by another quixotic lady - Björk in Spike Jonze's video for It's Oh So Quiet!


7 - 21 August
John Leach tells us:

The NPL (National Physical Laboratory) Film Society, will be presenting:

7th August Black Narcissus
14th August The Tales of Hoffmann
21st August Ill Met by Moonlight

These are showing at 7.00pm in the NPL Scientific Museum, Bushey House,Teddington. (Entrance off Queens Road).

Shown from DVD and projected onto a screen with a DLP projector.
There is no charge for admission, and nothing to join, just turn up.
Watch and go!


13 July
Andrew Moor tells us:

The Edge of the World is the Sunday 'Breakfast Club' choice at Cornerhouse Manchester on Sun 13th July at 12:00. Fork out for the 'with breakfast' option and get a tasty full english before or after the film!

See their web site for details and tickets.


6 July
Chris Watts tells us:

Here in Dorking we are holding a Vaughan Williams Festival to mark the 50th anniversary of VW's death.

The festival runs from Thursday 3 July to Sunday 6th July.

On the Sunday, at 2pm there will be a showing of Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel for which VW wrote the score. The showing is at the Dorking Halls Premier Cinema.

More details from the festival web-site at www.rvw50.org which includes prices (£5 with concessions at £4, since you ask), downloadable advance booking forms, instructions how to get there, a map and much, much more.


2 July
Sibylle Nabel-Foster tells us:

Bluebeard's Castle will be shown at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. It will be in Cinema Arlecchino in the afternoon. Exact timing still to be defined.

I will go to Bologna and give a short introduction (5-10 minutes) to the making of "Bluebeard's Castle"! Maybe Mr. Horst Jaedicke the coproducer of SWR TV will be present at the screening as well - he lives in Italy near Rapallo.

See their web site for details.


1 July
Mark Fuller tells us:

Hoping....fingers crossed and all that....to be there this year. Never made it to Bologna before, but everyone who has, tells me the events are fantastic. The day before Bluebeard there's a screening of Blackmail (silent version) with the premiere of an orchestral score by Neil Brand...his first....open air in the Piazza Maggiore, and the orchestra of the Bologna Opera....Rossini's old orchestra apparently.

If I get there, I will report back...

See their web site for details.


9 June & 14 June
Kerry Pitts tells us:

The program for the 2008 Sydney Film Festival (4 - 22 June 2008) was out yesterday. In the 62 page large format program, there are two pages devoted to Deborah's retrospective, entitled "From Kerr to Eternity". The films to be screened are : An Affair to Remember; Black Narcissus ; From Here to Eternity ; The Innocents ; The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ; The Sundowners ; Tea and Sympathy -and a really rare screening of "Love on the Dole" - probably the first time in nearly 70 years that this film has been shown on the 'big screen' in Australia.

There's a nice write-up on each film, concentrating on Deborah's performance. Small photos accompany each film, with a big photo of Deborah and Lancaster in 'Eternity'.

It all sounds fantastic! And I'm especially pleased to see that both 'Black Narcissus' and 'The Innocents' are being screened in Sydney's most beautiful theatre, the gorgeous art deco State Theatre, a worthy venue to celebrate these two amazing films, and Deborah's astonishing career.

Date Time Film Location
8 June 12:00 Love on the Dole (1941) GU George Street
9 June 12:00 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) GU George Street
14 June 14:10 Black Narcissus (1947) State Theatre
15 June 16:00 From Here to Eternity (1953) GU George Street
16 June 18:15 Tea and Sympathy (1956) GU George Street
17 June 18:15 An Affair to Remember (1957) GU George Street
18 June 18:15 The Sundowners (1960) GU George Street
21 June 14:15 The Innocents (1961) State Theatre

See their web site for details and tickets.


8 June - 13 July
Richard Layne tells us:

The Barbican is holding a small P&P season on Sundays in June & July (a "directorspective", apparently, a word presumably dreamed up by whoever named the "movieum"). They're only showing the predictable films, unfortunately, but some are in Cinema 1 which is a fairly huge screen.

See their web site for details and tickets.

The Directorspective: Powell & Pressburger
Title Date Time Place Comments
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (U) 8 Jun 15:00 Cinema 1 Powell and Pressburger's satirical view of British military life
A Canterbury Tale (U) 15 Jun 15:30 Cinema 2 Wartime classic inspired by Chaucer!
I know Where I'm Going (U) 22 Jun 16:00 Cinema 1 A modern folktale set against a bleak landscape infused with symbolism
A Matter of Life And Death (U) 29 Jun 16:00 Cinema 1 Much loved Wartime fantasy
Black Narcissus (PG) 6 Jul 16:00 Cinema 1 Emotionally charged tale with a dazzling, dramatic climax
The Red Shoes (U) 13 Jul 15:30 Cinema 1 Richly stylised and colourful film spectacle


5 & 7 June 2008

49th Parallel is showing the the NFT (BFI Southbank) as part of their David Lean season

Thu 5 Jun 18:15 NFT2
Sat 7 Jun 18:00 NFT2

See their web site for details and tickets


5 June 2008
Jo Comino tells us:

Dear Steve

Glad to see that you've already got the information about the 2 x screenings of Gone To Earth at Borderlines Film Festival on the Powell and Pressburger Pages.

Could I also draw your attention to to a couple of performances of Gone To Earth: Remembered and Revisited? It's the live show involving reminiscence, original music, song, archive footage of the filming, music, dance and Shropshire dialect presented by the Lordshill Project. Toured by Arts Alive (the live events wing of Flicks in the Sticks), performances to take place at:
Wigmore Village Hall on Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm and at
The Edge in Much Wenlock on Thursday 5 June, 7.30pm.

More details at Artsalive web site

Many thanks

Jo Comino
Company Secretary
Borderlines Film Festival
borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk


20 May 2008
Andrew Smaje tells us:

I Know Where I'm Going! will be screened at the Little Theatre, Bath on Tuesday 20 May.

See their web site or call 0871 704 2061 for details.


16 - 24 May 2008

Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYC, NY
Saint and Sinner: The Tempestuous Career of Jennifer Jones
May 16 - 24, 2008

The story of the beautiful and mysterious Jennifer Jones is, on some level, a familiar one: the ambitious but pliable girl who meets the perfectionist overachieving movie executive. But "The Girl," as super-mogul David O. Selznick referred to Jones at the start of their long association, was no ordinary country girl.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as Phylis Isley, the daughter of a show business family, Jones always knew what she wanted - a career in the theater - but what she got was something else. Beneath the shy veneer and wholesome all-American image lurked a disturbing intensity and unexpected sensuality, as well as an enchanting charm.

She ascended to overnight stardom in 1943 in The Song of Bernadette, receiving a dream onscreen billing: "Introducing Jennifer Jones, through the arrangement of David O. Selznick." An Oscar later, Jones became Selznick's Galatea. His obsession with her extended to every aspect of her performances: the hue of her makeup, the arrangement of her hair, the cut of her costumes, even suggestions of corsets that would accentuate her small waist. His memos on his film projects were legendary and most especially those devoted to his newest discovery and later his lover and wife.

Meanwhile, Jones subjected her characters to Method-like scrutiny, bringing detailed, affecting performances to her unforgettable vixens in Duel in the Sun and Ruby Gentry and the doomed lost girls of Portrait of Jennie and Gone to Earth. Surprisingly, she also lit up the screen as a comedienne in Cluny Brown and Beat the Devil and showed a special affinity for Emma Bovary in Minnelli's underrated screen version of Flaubert's classic novel.

With a comment seemingly from left field, the protean Henry Miller best tapped into her special allure, referring to the "other-worldly world" in which she seemed to reside onscreen - "a world not unknown to tigers, llamas, unicorns and the like. Thank God I have not yet seen all the films in which Jennifer Jones starred... To me she is like a coin fresh from the mint, whether playing the angel, the minx or just her thousand year old self."

Program:
Cluny BrownFri 16 May 18:15
Sat 24 May 16:40
Beat the DevilTue 20 May 15:30
Wed 21 May 18:15
CarrieSun 18 May 20:30
Tue 20 May 13:00
Duel in the SunFri 16 May 20:30
Wed 21 May 15:30
Gone to EarthSat 17 May 20:15
Mon 19 May 13:00
Good Morning, Miss DoveSun 18 May 16:30
Fri 23 May 18:00
Love Is a Many-Splendored ThingSat 24 May 14:30
Madame BovaryWed 21 May 13:00
Wed 21 May 20:15
Portrait of JennieSun 18 May 18:40
Mon 19 May 15:15
Ruby GentryFri 16 May 15:00
Sat 17 May 16:50
Since You Went AwaySat 17 May 13:30
Fri 23 May 14:30
The Song of BernadetteSun 18 May 13:30

See their web site for details.


13 April 2008
Mark Fuller tells us:

Night of the Iguana & Black Narcissus
Sun 13 Apr, 2.30pm & 5.00pm
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

See their web site or call 0117 917 2300 for details and tickets.


21 - 27 March 2008
Deborah Allison tells us:

I thought you might like to know that The Boy Who Turned Yellow will be showing at Cinema City, Norwich every afternoon from Fri 21 March - Thu 27 March 2008 at Cinema City, Norwich. It is not a new print and we have been advised the colours have faded over the years. However, as this film is not (to my knowledge) available on DVD it represents a rare chance to see this delightful film.

Tickets are not on sale yet but should be available in the next week or so from www.picturehouses.co.uk or call 0871 704 2053.


8 - 20 April 2008
Thelma Schoonmaker tells us:

You may already know this, but if not, the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival will be honoring Powell and Pressburger by screening 11 of their films between April 8th and the 20th of this year.

Here is contact information:

Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente
Tel. (+54 11) 4328 3454
Av. Roque S. Pena 832 6o of.5
C1035AAQ Bs. As. - Argentina

www.bafici.gov.ar

They are going to show:
One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
The Small Back Room (1949)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955)
The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
Gone to Earth (1950)
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) - of course

I have been invited to attend, but cannot.


6 & 13 April 2008

Gone to Earth is being screened twice in Worcestershire (& Shropshire) cinemas as a part of the Borderlines Film Festival. It was shot in Shropshire by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the late 1940s and the pair viewed the rushes at the Regal.

At the time, stars David Farrar and Jennifer Jones also stayed at the Swan in Tenbury, which is now closed down, and locals became film extras.

Borderlines director David Gillam said: "I feel proud that Borderlines can bring a beautiful British classic like Gone To Earth back to the cinema where it was very first seen. It feels like we're making a circle complete." The Regal cinema recently opened in time for the festival, which is Britain's largest rural film festival, following last summer's devastating floods.

Sunday 6 April; 2.00pm at The Courtyard, Hereford
Sunday 13 April; 4.30pm at the Regal, Tenbury Wells

See their web site for details and tickets.


15 March 2008
Jo Comino tells us:

Dear Steve

Glad to see that you've already got the information about the 2 x screenings of Gone To Earth at Borderlines Film Festival on the Powell and Pressburger Pages.

Could I also draw your attention to to a couple of performances of Gone To Earth: Remembered and Revisited? It's the live show involving reminiscence, original music, song, archive footage of the filming, music, dance and Shropshire dialect presented by the Lordshill Project. Toured by Arts Alive (the live events wing of Flicks in the Sticks), performances to take place at:
Wigmore Village Hall on Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm and at
The Edge in Much Wenlock on Thursday 5 June, 7.30pm.

More details at Artsalive web site

Many thanks

Jo Comino
Company Secretary
Borderlines Film Festival
borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk


9 March 2008

Bradford's National Museum of Photography holds a Widescreen Weekend every year in the Pictureville Cinema, the only place in Europe where one can see Cinerama in its original format. The Festival runs this year from 8-10 March and includes a very rare screening of Michael Powell's Honeymoon (Luna de miel) where it will be presented by restorer Charles Doble.

Sunday, 9 March at 18:00
Pictureville Cinema
See their web site for details and tickets


27 February 2008
Paula Vitaris tells us:

As part of its Spanning the Globe: International Classics Since the 1950s film series, the Film Studies Department at Emory University, Atlanta will screen a 35mm print of Peeping Tom on Wednesday, February 27.

Wednesday, February 27
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell. UK. 1960. Color. 101 min.)
Released the same year as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom also focuses on the perverse pleasures of voyeurism and scopophilia inherent to film viewing. Powell's film, however, both more emphatically indicts the spectator and exposes the vulnerability of the voyeuristic position. Initially decried critically, and often credited with demise of Powell's career, new interest in the film was generated with the rise of spectatorship theory and feminist film theory especially.

Go to www.filmstudies.emory.edu, click on the Calendar link, then scroll down till you get the series program. It's quite an impressive group of films from around the world. :)

Are there any PnP'ers in the Atlanta area (besides me) who would be attending this screening of Peeping Tom?


21 February - 3 March 2008

The Tales Of Hoffman
A favourite of directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese and George Romero, Powell and Pressburger's romantic adaptation is a feast of music, dance, and visual effects, an exhilarating opera film.

Vancity International Film Centre
1181 Seymour St., Vancouver
604-683-FILM.
www.vifc.org
Thursday, Feb 21 at 7:00 pm.
Monday, Feb 25 at 8:30 pm.
Monday, Mar 3 at 7:00 pm.
Monday, Mar 3 at 9:15 pm.

See their web site for details and tickets.


20 February 2008
Natacha Thiéry tells us:

Dear Steve,
I keep on spreading the word, now and then!

La prochaine séance du séminaire "Cinéma et Seconde Guerre mondiale: images, traces, présences", aura lieu le mercredi 20 février 2008, de 17h à 19h30, à l'Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art, Galerie Colbert, 2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris - Salle Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc.
Nous aurons le plaisir d'entendre:
Natacha Thiéry (Metz): "Michael Powell et le cinéma de propagande britannique"
Patricia-Laure Thivat (CNRS/Arias): "Cinéma hollywoodien des années quarante : propagande ou divertissement ? Présentation du volume collectif "Image Cinéma", No 61-62-63-64, juillet - décembre 2005."
Les présentations des communications sont en pièce jointe.

Ou, en Anglais:
The next session of the seminar "Cinema and World War II" will be held on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, from 17h to 19.30, at the National Institute for the History of Art, Galerie Colbert, 2 Vivienne Street, 75002 Paris - Salle Claude-Nicolas de Peiresc Fabri.
We will have the pleasure of hearing:
Natacha Thiéry (Metz): "Michael Powell and the British propaganda film"
Patricia-Laure Thivat (CNRS / Arias): "Hollywood Cinema in the forties: propaganda or entertainment?" Presentation of the collective volume "Picture Film", No. 61-62-63-64, from July to December 2005.


19 February 2008
Thomas Lay tells us:

The Chicago Reader reports that the next stop for Bluebeard's Castle in its American tour will be the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on 19 February. The Chicago Reader report includes a piece about the film by Bertrand Tavernier.

See their web site for details and tickets.


19 February 2008

A Canterbury Tale (1944) (Shown on film): The CHFG returns with possibly the most underrated film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes) - a lyrical, near-plotless evocation of the spell cast by the English countryside. A group of random travelers find themselves in a small village beset by a villain who's been putting glue in girls' hair. A mysterious film, and one that seems slight until it creeps up on you. B+ Tues., Feb. 19, 7:30pm.

Chestnut Hill Film Group
Free. Screening room at the Chestnut Hill Branch of the Free Library, 8711 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. 215-248-0977. www.armcinema25.com


25 January 2008
Thelma Schoonmaker tells us:

On January 25th I hope to go to Los Angeles County Museum if possible to introduce Bluebeard's Castle and The Tales of Hoffmann.

See their web site for details and tickets


22 January 2008

TCM (US) are showing The Red Shoes (1948) at 03:30 (Eastern)


22 January 2008
Thelma Schoonmaker tells us:

On January 22nd I will be introducing Bluebeard's Castle and Black Narcissus at the Seattle Art Museum. On the next day I will be introducing The Last Temptation of Christ.

See their web site for details and tickets.


20 January 2008
Michael Eyers tells us:

I've just stumbled across the following listing. It's a bit short notice I'm afraid:
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
Sunday 20 January 2008 3:30pm
Dundee Contemporary Arts
152 Nethergate
Dundee
DD1 4DY

Tel - 01382 909 900

See their web site for details


18 January 2008
Jim Mannix tells us:

Love this site, visit it regularly. I chair a film group and we are always viewing the films/videos of the Powell/Pressburger cannon...and by chance... A Matter of Life and Death is to be screened at the Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor , New York on January 18th.

See their web site for details.


17 January 2008

TCM (US) will be showing various of the early films of Michael Powell that were made at Teddington. They are to be introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker

The ones we know about so far are:
Time (EST) Title
09:45 Something Always Happens (1934)
13:45 Crown vs. Stevens (1936)


16 January 2008

TCM (US) is showing The Edge of the World (1937) at 09:00 (Eastern)


16 January 2008
Barbara Siek tells us:

AMOLAD screening at the National Media Museum in Bradford on Wed. 16 January, 8 pm in the Cubby Broccoli Cinema. Cinematographer Jack Cardiff was scheduled to talk but had to cancel due to ill health. I'm truly sad to hear this.

See their web site for details or contact the Cubby Broccoli Cinema on 0870 70 10 200


11 January 2008
Diane Friedman tells us:

I am going to give a talk on the neurology within AMOLAD at the Indiana University Experimental Film Series in Bloomington when they show AMOLAD and Jean Cocteau's Orpheus on January 11.
The winter schedule is not on the web site yet. Good map though, especially for anyone coming all the way from Wales or Lee Wood House or Beyond!!!!

Too bad this didn't coincide with the visit of the Dalai Lama this past October. Now wouldn't that have been a very interesting audience discussion?

Hope all is well. Christmas is coming........

Steve's note:
For those that don't know her, Diane wrote the paper A Matter of Fried Onions about the medical conditions identifiable in AMOLAD and how well the symptoms and diagnosis fit in with an actual condition that would be one possible explanation for what Peter experiences.

She has done a lot more research since she wrote that paper and continues to be amazed by the accuracy of the medical knowledge shown. Knowledge that was only known to a few very specialised people in 1945/46. P&P really did do their research thoroughly.

Diane is based in the Indianapolis area but came over to join us in Bangor (the one in Wales) for the Michael Powell Centenary Conference organised by Andrew Moor.

Highly recommended.

5 Jan: Diane tells us that this has been rescheduled until the summer


6 January 2008
Tom Ruben tells us:

Not to be outdone by Boston, the Riverside in Hammersmith, West London, are showing Black Narcissus on Sunday afternoon, January 6th. It's part of a Deborah Kerr tribute double bill:-

3:00 Love on the Dole 5:00 Black Narcissus

See their web site for details and tickets


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