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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From: Steve Crook

Steve Crook wrote:

>
> In fact at one of them someone asked the
> killer question "Why do the people here
> like Powell (& Pressburger) films?" so
> I thought I'd ask you lot. We went around
> the room all giving a varied but interesting
> set of answers.
>

And I answered myself thus :-

Well it's for many reasons. Their audacity, their quality, the vast body of work (who else turned out so many films of such high quality in such a short space of time?)

It's because they were never afraid to tackle dangerous and unpopular subjects (friendly Germans during WWII) and they never talked down to their audience. There weren't many films that would make you go away with so many ideas buzzing around your head.

They weren't afraid to go for the emotions either. I don't know of another body of films that can take me through the emotional roller coaster that a P&P season can. I've see AMOLAD hundreds of times but I'm still guaranteed to shed a tear at certain points.

And it wasn't just Powell and Pressburger themselves. They gathered around them a team of the very best in the business, actors and technicians. And they worked as a true collaborative team. Yes P&P were in charge and made the final decisions but if anyone had an idea it could be thrown into the discussion and if it was good it would be adopted.


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