Submitted by
Alan head
The following is an article from the current Criterion newsletter, I
thought it would be of interest to the list....
CRITERION STAFF
Karen Stetler, our senior Special Edition producer, has been with Criterion
and Janus Films for more than ten years. She has produced some of our more
celebrated discs, and has had the opportunity to meet and work with some
fascinating people. One of the highlights of her career was working on
Powell and Pressburger's THE RED SHOES:
I have been producing special editions for The Criterion Collection since
1990, beginning with our laserdisc of Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. Since
then I have worked on our releases of many other great films including,
Dead Ringers, Monty Python's Life of Brian and most recently Stanley
Donen's Charade.
One of my favorite experiences was producing the special edition of Powell
& Pressburger's gorgeous Technicolor classic, The Red Shoes, which we
recently released on DVD. The films of Powell & Pressburger have always
been a cornerstone of The Criterion Collection. The first two director
commentary tracks ever produced (by any company) were Michael Powell's
tracks for the Criterion laserdiscs of Black Narcissus and The Life and
Death of Colonel Blimp - released in 1988! Joined by Martin Scorsese,
Powell reminisced about his long career in the British film industry.
Those of us who have been at Criterion since the beginning have always
cherished his opening thought on Black Narcissus: "This is Michael Powell,
dreaming and remembering about Black Narcissus."
Sadly, both Powell & Pressburger had passed away by the time we began work
on The Red Shoes, but we aimed to produce the most extensive special
edition of the film possible. In collaboration with British film scholar
Ian Christie, we created a commentary track that would combine his analysis
of the film with interviews of the surviving members of "The
Archers"(Powell & Pressburger's acclaimed production group). Most of these
people were well into their 80's with accomplished careers behind them,
but
they all had strong memories of shooting this seminal film. We recorded
Jack Cardiff and Marius Goring in London and took a field trip to the
English countryside to talk with the exquisite Moira Shearer. We included
some previously recorded comments by the composer, Brian Easdale and
comments from Martin Scorsese, who discussed how the film has inspired him
and other film directors.
I was also lucky to have the generous support of The Powell and Pressburger
families, especially that of Michael Powell's widow, film editor Thelma
Schoonmaker. She suggested we include Powell and Pressburger's 1978
novelization of The Red Shoes and helped me to cut it down to a workable
length. She asked actor Jeremy Irons to read the novel aloud for an
alternate audio track. Despite his busy schedule shooting Die Hard with
a
Vengeance, he spent several days recording a spirited reading of this
little known book.
We worked closely with The British Film Institute and Rank Film
Distributors to locate many rare archival materials from the film and the
elements for our beautiful new video transfer, personally supervised by
Jack Cardiff. When the production was finished The British Film Institute
hosted a party for everyone who had helped with the disc. What a treat
to
see Jack Cardiff, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, and Brian Easdale together
in the same room!
For me, this project was a great opportunity to learn first hand about the
creative spirit of Powell & Pressburger, two of the most admired English
filmmakers in cinema history. The brilliance of their collaborative spirit
was still evident through the memories of the other Archers, and I will
forever feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet and work with
them.
[The
original Criterion P&P pages
are available here.
They are no longer on Criterion's own web site]
