The Michael Powell Centenary Conference
2nd - 4th September 2005, Bangor University, North Wales
Report by: Steve Crook
Day 3: Sunday 4th September 2005
Sunday started with the usual choice of papers. I decided that I'd have to miss out on:
Colin Sell (University of Essex):
Powell, the Pastoral and the Piper
Robert Shail (University of Wales, Lampeter):
Obsession and Destruction: Examining Michael Powell's 'Visionary Male'
Colin has kindly made his paper available:
Word document
Instead I went to hear the papers by:
Steve Chibnall (De Montfort University):
C.O.D. - Michael Powell's Quota Quickies
Steve Masters (University of Sunderland):
Hunting the Woman: Gender and Desire in Gone to Earth and The Company of Wolves
Steve Chibnall has already done some good work on the Quota Quickies and Powell's other early films (they weren't all Quota films) and continues to do so. He's currently working on a book on British B-films with Brian Macfarlane.
Steve Masters gave an interesting comparison between the hunting of the woman in GTE and The Company of Wolves which made a lot of people say that'd have to have another look at The Company of Wolves (Being a P&P conference, most of us knew GTE quite well).
After another break for tea we all went in to hear another plenary session by
Ian Christie (Birkbeck, London) talk about Late Powell.
This was one of the most unexpected of presentations because Ian brought along so many goodies to show us. Like some video footage of Powell working with the Dartmouth students on The Wizard of Earthsea, some of the El Amor Brujo ballet from Luna de miel (1959), footage of Micky & Emeric on a trip to Israel to do some research for the proposed Salt of the Earth (another un-made film project) and a short clip from Herzog Blaubarts Burg (1964). It's always a pleasure to hear Ian lecture on any subject, but especially on Powell (and Pressburger).
Then we wrapped things up with a panel discussion with Ian, Lesley, Natacha, Robert Murphy & Andrew all saying what they thought of the weekend. I think everyone agreed that it was a most interesting weekend with a useful variety of people and opinions.
We all said our good-byes and thank-yous and then it was back to Bangor station for a load of us to catch the train back home. We had to leave Le&luml;la & Llorenç at Bangor as they had time-restricted tickets (odd, on a Sunday) and had to catch a later train. Natacha, Diane & Mary left us at Chester. We had to wait for a while at Crewe for the London train but we all eventually got home, tired but happy
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