Well I've just got back from an amazing time at Canterbury Christ Church
University College.
I've just called in to give you all the very latest, stop press news &
then I'm off to get a bit of sleep (it's been in short supply recently).
Because I got it all (except where I changed tapes) on the tape recorder
I'll have to go through it over the next few days & transcribe it (well,
the important bits anyway) but thought I'd send out a few highlights
straight away.
Kathleen Byron wasn't there. It was just a hope as her name was mentioned
as having their last function.
Thelma Schoonmaker & Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough) were there of course.
Well, as the guests of honour, how could they not be? :)
Lord Dickie wasn't there. I asked Sheila (on Friday) if he was coming and
she said he'd have loved to have done but had a charity function in Wales
so they'd split up for the weekend.
Noreen Ackland (editor on PT & Queen's Guards & assistant editor
on TRS, Hoffmann, Pimpernel & Ill Met) was apparently due to come but
couldn't make it so sent her best wishes.
Also in attendance ... (on Friday & Saturday)
Prof Ian Christie, P&P expert.
Paul Tritton, the man writing the book about ACT
Jim Pople - 2nd assistant editor on ACT (I'd met him at Fordwich)
Nick Burton - Head Radio, Film & Television Studies Dept at CCCUC.
Myrtle Paton, widow of Bill, Powell's right hand man.
and a crowd of about 50 people for the naming ceremony itself on Friday.
As we were all settling down for Thelma to do her dedication I looked
around at the crowd & thought I recognised a face and YES it was
Columba Powell !!
Nick Burton welcomed us all and introduced the special guests. He then
read out a message from Martin Scorsese that Thelma had brought which
said (I'll transcribe it from the tape later) how he felt that Micky
would be so very proud to have such a building named after him, especially
in the area he grew up in and loved.
The dedication & naming ceremony itself was fairly short & lovely.
A few short speeches, then Thelma pulled the cord to unveil the plaque
which will go outside the building. It was actually unveiled inside,
a sensible precaution I suppose as it turned out to be quite pleasant
weather but you can never tell in England in October :)
Thelma's lecture after the dedication was about how Scorsese had been
influenced by Powell with lots of direct examples. Of course Scorsese
always did things his own way but when she ran the pairs of clips one
after the other the connection was (fairly) obvious. Even where it
wasn't she assured us that "Marty always insisted this was his Powell
homage in this film".
I've got the full details on the tape but does anyone care to make any
guesses before I transcribe them? Remember this is where something in
a Scorsese picture is a (fairly) direct connection or reference to
something in a P&P picture.
I'll give you the example of the "swish pans" from TRS as Vicky dances
Swan Lake at the Mercury Theatre. The camera blurs each time she turns.
It's only when she stops that we can see the audience & see that
Lermontov is sitting there.
Compare this to the sequence in Casino (1995) where De Niro explains how
it works with the dealers watching the punters, the shift managers
watching the dealers, the pit bosses watching the shift managers and so
on up to the eye in the sky (CCTV) watching De Niro. As each "watcher"
is named the camera does a similar pan to that person. In fact they were
all separate takes & Thelma joined the blurry bits together. She finished
with an extract from her working version of Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
- due to be released in the US on the 22nd. Gosh, a sneak preview of the
next Scorsese movie, we were honoured :)
A fascinating talk with a film clip to support each example. She pointed
out that there was plenty more that Scorsese just admired (or loved) but
these were to show the direct influences.
So that was the end of Friday. Down through a quiet(ish) city centre to
the hotel, a quick pint & a munch, a few thoughts about the questions
I wanted to ask people (now that I knew who was there) then off to bed.
I woke before the alarm on the Saturday. How could I sleep with another
great day ahead :)
A leisurely breakfast & a dawdle through the city. I nipped into the
Cathedral & had another look at what a wonderful job they did in
reproducing it in the studio. As I had the CCCUC brochure in my pocket
and it had the picture of Micky & Emeric on the steps leading to the
organ I stood at the top of the steps to compare them.
It's pretty darned good :)
It's not quite a perfect copy (unless they've changed some of the
Cathedral pillars since 1944 <G>) but it's so close that even someone
who knew the Cathedral wouldn't guess. Of course if they knew the
Cathedral they might spot that there ain't no organ up those steps
- but never mind :)
OK, so back into the college by 10:30 for coffee, general mingling &
chat to everyone else there. Time for a bit of a chat especially with
Myrtle Paton about all sorts of P&P stuff- lovely lady.
Nick Burton gave us the (planned) schedule of events and told us how
he'd become interested in P&P (we weren't born this way were we?
<G>)
then introduced Peter Vujakovic. Up until then he'd been the only unknown
name in the program which said he was "Principal Lecturer in Geography
at CCCUC." and would talk about "People, Place & Landscape - The cultural
geographies of Powell and Pressburger."
Full details when I've transcribed them but briefly it was all about the
way the countryside was portrayed in P&P films (and some others) with
reference to the people of the countryside as well as the land itself.
Lots of cross referencing, especially to Kipling's "Puck of Pooks Hill"
The Ian Christie took the stand and gave us a lovely talk about the
context of the film in the time when it was made. How much of it was at
the behest of the Ministry of Information (Wartime propaganda people) and
the sorts of things they were trying to get films to show then.
We all know (I trust) that AMOLAD was made after a request from the MoI
to try to smooth over the strained relations between Britain and the US
at
the time but I never thought of ACT as (partly) attempting to do the same
job. Ian's a great lecturer and so knowledgeable it's always a pleasure
to hear him.
A break for lunch at 1 o'clock. Nick Burton said "We've told the Students
Union (just next door) to expect you and there are plenty of sandwiches
laid on". So we then had a classic example of how in this country we so
often manage to muddle through a crisis. That's right, there had been
a communication breakdown somewhere & the Students Union wasn't expecting
about 80 people to descend on them expecting to be fed !! But we managed
:)
After "lunch" Paul Tritton spoke about how he'd got involved and the work
he'd done in tracking down surviving members of the cast & crew in
preparation for his book. He then played us an audio tape with a greeting
from John Sweet :)
That lovely man is now 81 and living in North Carolina. He sent a recent
picture as well and you'd know him instantly. Especially if you ignored
the wrinkles and the white hair and beard & just looked into those eyes.
As the tape played and with "then and now" pictures of him up on the screen
... ah it was wonderful.
Lady A then took the stand. She said how she'd prepared a nice little
introduction since Nick asked her to do this a while ago but having
just listened to everyone else she thought everything she had planned
to say had either been said or sounded trite in comparison. So she threw
away her notes & just told us her experiences. Not long out of RADA
she'd done a few theatrical performances, but not many, when her agent sent
her along to The Archer's offices. There she met Michael Powell ...
"and my life changed" (again, full details to follow)
She said how Micky had just "fixed her with those blue eyes" for a while
then she'd sat there while he expounded on how he saw the film. She was
hooked.
She seems to have been one of the fortunate ones (as were they all) in
that Powell treated them all quite well, but still drove them hard to
achieve perfection. But she says there were few unhappy moments.
Mind you, her first day wasn't too auspicious. She told us that she'd been
a land army girl for a while & really could do most of the work on the
farm. She could drive a tractor but had never had to drive a horse &
cart before. On her first attempt she demolished a gate that she was meant
to take the cart through so they had to wait while a new gate was built.
Don't ya just love her? :)
She's a sweet little lady (photos ASAP) and makes a nice pair with Thelma.
Both of similar size, build & both with a similar head of white hair.
Then we had the screening. The BFI print. But for a new building there
are a few things they now know they'll have to sort out. Like installing
a 35 mm projector (or even two) !! They had to bring in a projector &
as it's a 2 reeler we had a short intermission (but no ice cream) while
they changed reels. Anyway, a great chance to see such a wonderful film
on (reasonably) decent equipment.
Another slight goof was that somehow they had the screening down in the
schedule as being from 2:45 - 4:15, an hour & a half. A bit tricky as
it runs for just over 2 hours - so we over-ran the schedule :)
They closed with a Q&A session with all the guests & speakers answering
questions. Again, all on the tapes & will be transcribed ASAP.
While we were mingling I managed to collar a few people for chats. I
told them (those that didn't already know me) who I was & about this
group
and although there were quite a few shudders when I mentioned the Internet
most liked the idea of the group.
I spoke to Columba and mentioned how Melbury Road had recently been on
the market. He had heard & said it was WAY out of his price range. He
then told me that he & his lady are living at Lee Cottages, Avening
!!
Where Powell lived with Pamela Brown. It seems there are a pair of
cottages there and they own one. The other's up for sale and he's
thinking about buying it to use as a museum.
Shall we have a whip round to help?
Although he seemed a little shy in a large group he opened up as we chatted.
He liked the idea of this group & said he'd only just got online and
not
too successfully. So I took of my Toxophile's hat & put on my professional
hat (I make my crust as a systems analyst/designer/programmer) and gave
him a bit of (free) advise as to a course of action to follow. I handed
out cards quite liberally to everyone and told him to call me if he still
had problems. So we might meet him online soon.
I grabbed Nick Burton, busy though he was, and thanked him for the invite.
When I said who I was he said he'd seen me earlier & spotted the gleam
of an enthusiast in my eye so he thought that must be the same person who
wrote those emails & letters begging to come along :)
I chatted to Sheila (Lady A) as I said above, asking her about Dickie
and her memories of the film. She certainly seemed to have had quite a
good time making it and was "something special". OK, maybe they didn't
fully understand it at the time, but they certainly realised it was
"different, odd but very good".
I spoke to Thelma & she said that "Marty would love the idea of P&P
fans around the world like that" and that she'd tell him. I asked (a bit
of
a long shot as she didn't work on it) if she knew about the names in the
cast
list of Boxcar Bertha.
Were there actually characters called "M. Powell & Emeric
Pressburger" in the film? There aren't in my copy, well if there are they
aren't mentioned by name. She said she'd ask Marty & try to get back
to me.
Well that's about it for now.
As I said I'll transcribe the tapes (& get the pictures developed)
& circulate the best bits ASAP.
I'm off to beddy-byes now having had a WONDERFUL time. I think the
"state of bliss" is so good I'll be smiling for a week or more :)
Steve
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