Powell and Pressburger 1272902 224900001 2008-07-10T22:23:49Z Ed Fitzgerald 169140 [[WP:UNDO|Undid]] revision 224865124 by [[Special:Contributions/SWik78|SWik78]] ([[User talk:SWik78|talk]]) {{Infobox Defunct Company | company_name = The Archers | company_logo = [[Image:Archers-AMOLAD-Logo.jpg|235px|The Archers logo from ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]''.]] | slogan = | fate = [[Partnership (UK)|Partnership]] ended | successor = | foundation = [[1943 in film|1943]] | defunct = [[1957 in film|1957]] | location = [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]] | industry = [[Production company|Film production company]] | key_people = [[Michael Powell (director)|Michael Powell]]<br/>[[Emeric Pressburger]] | products = ''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp|Life and Death of Colonel Blimp]]''<br>''[[A Canterbury Tale]]''<br>''[[I Know Where I'm Going!]]''<br>''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]''<br>''[[Black Narcissus]]''<br>''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]''<br>([[:Category:Films by Powell and Pressburger|among others]]) | num_employees = }} '''Powell and Pressburger''' was the [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British]] film-making partnership of director '''[[Michael Powell (director)|Michael Powell]]''' and writer '''[[Emeric Pressburger]]''', also known as '''The Archers'''. They made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s, and in {{fy|1983}} were recognized for their contributions to [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British cinema]] with the [[BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award]], the most prestigious award given by the [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]]. [[:Category:Films by Powell and Pressburger|Their collaborations]] were mainly written by Pressburger, with Powell directing. Unusually, the pair shared a [[Screenwriter|writer]]-[[Film director|director]]-[[Film producer|producer]] credit for most of their films. <!--spacing, please do not remove-->> ==Early films== Michael Powell was already an experienced director, having worked his way up from making [[silent movies]] to the [[World War I|WWI]] drama ''[[The Spy in Black]]'' ({{fy|1939}}), his first film for Hungarian émigré producer [[Alexander Korda]]. Emeric Pressburger, who had come from [[Hungary]] in {{fy|1935}}, already worked for Korda, and was asked to do some rewrites for the film. This collaboration would be the first of nineteen, most of which would be made over the next 18 years. After Powell had made two further films for Korda, he was reunited with Pressburger in [[1940 in film|1940]] for ''[[Contraband (film)|Contraband]]'', the first in a run of Powell and Pressburger films set during [[World War II]]. The second was ''[[49th Parallel]]'' ({{fy|1941}}), which won Pressburger an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Best Story. Both are [[Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock]]-like thrillers made as anti-German [[propaganda]]. ==Birth of The Archers== {{Rquote|right|'''He knows what I am going to say even before I say it &mdash; maybe even before I have thought it &ndash; and that is very rare. You are lucky if you meet someone like that once in your life.'''|'''Pressburger on Powell'''|<ref name="ALIM">Powell 1986</ref>}} {{Rquote|right|'''He'd stood the story on its head, he'd turned a man into a woman and a woman into a man, he'd altered the suspense, he'd rewritten the end... I was rejoicing that I was going to be working with someone like this.'''|'''Powell on first meeting Pressburger'''|<ref name="ALIM" />}} The pair adopted a joint writer-producer-director credit for their next film, ''[[One of Our Aircraft is Missing]]'' ({{fy|1942}}). In {{fy|1943}} they formed their own production company, Archers Film Productions and adopted a distinctive [[archery]] target logo which began each film. The joint credit "Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger" indicates their total joint responsibility for their own work and that they weren't beholden to any studio or other producers. In a letter to [[Deborah Kerr]], asking her to appear in ''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp|Colonel Blimp]]'', Pressburger explicitly set out 'The Archers' Manifesto'. Its five points express the pair's intentions: # We owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss. # Every single foot in our films is our own responsibility and nobody else's. We refuse to be guided or coerced by any influence but our own judgement. # When we start work on a new idea we must be a year ahead, not only of our competitors, but also of the times. A real film, from idea to universal release, takes a year. Or more. # No artist believes in [[escapism]]. And we secretly believe that no audience does. We have proved, at any rate, that they will pay to see the truth, for other reasons than her nakedness. # At any time, and particularly at the present, the self respect of all collaborators, from star to prop-man, is sustained, or diminished, by the theme and purpose of the film they are working on. They began to form a group of regular cast and crew members who were to work with them on many films over the next twelve years. Hardly any of these people were ever under contract to The Archers. They were hired film by film. But Powell and Pressburger soon learnt who they could work well with and these people enjoyed working with them. When Raymond Massey was offered the part of the Prosecuting Attorney in ''A Matter of Life and Death'' his cabled reply was "For the Archers anytime, this world or the next."<ref name="ALIM" /> Powell and Pressburger also co-produced a few films by other directors under the banner of '''The Archers''': ''[[The Silver Fleet]]'' ({{fy|1943}}), written and directed by [[Vernon Sewell]] and [[Gordon Wellesley]], based on a story by Emeric Pressburger,<ref>{{imdb title|0036356|The Silver Fleet}}</ref> and ''[[The End of the River]]'' ({{fy|1947}}) directed by [[Derek N. Twist]] to which both Powell and Pressburger contributed uncredited writing.<ref>{{imdb title|0039356|The End of the River}}</ref>. Both Sewell and Twist had worked with Powell & Pressburger previously on other films and were being given their first chance as directors. The remainder of the war saw them release a series of remarkably inventive films: *''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp]]'' ({{fy|1943}}) *''[[The Volunteer]]'' ({{fy|1943}}) a short propaganda film *''[[A Canterbury Tale]]'' ({{fy|1944}}) *''[[I Know Where I'm Going!]]'' ({{fy|1945}}) *''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' ({{fy|1946}}) ==The collaboration== Generally, Pressburger would create the original story (for all their films from 1940–1946 plus ''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'') and write the first draft of the script. They would then pass the script back and forth a few times &ndash; they could never work on it together in the same room. For the actual dialogue, Pressburger would know what he wanted the characters to say but Powell would often supply some of the actual words. They would both act as producers, perhaps Pressburger slightly more so than Powell, since he could sooth the feathers ruffled by Powell's forthright manner. They became their own producers mainly to stop anyone else poking their noses in, since they had a considerable degree of freedom, especially under Rank, to make just about any film they wanted. The direction was nearly all done by Powell, but even so The Archers generally worked as a team, with the cast and crew often making suggestions. Pressburger was always on hand, usually on the studio floor, to make sure that these late changes fitted seamlessly into the story. Once the filming was finished, Powell would usually go off for a walk in the hills of Scotland to clear his head, but Pressburger was often closely involved in the editing, especially of the way the music was used. Pressburger was a musician himself and played the violin in an orchestra in Hungary. When the film was finally ready and Powell was back from the Highlands, it would usually be Powell that would be the front man in any promotional work, such as interviews for the trade papers or fan magazines. Because collaborative efforts such as Powell's and Pressburger's were, and continue to be, unusual in the film industry, and because of the influence of the [[auteur theory]], which elevates the director as a film's primary creator, Pressburger has sometimes been dismissed as "Michael Powell's scriptwriter", but Powell himself was the first to say, in many interviews, that he couldn't have done most of what he did without Pressburger. ==Post-war success and decline== *''[[Black Narcissus]]'' ({{fy|1947}}) *''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'' ({{fy|1948}}). Their most commercially successful film. *''[[The Small Back Room]]'' ({{fy|1949}}) *''[[The Elusive Pimpernel]]'' ({{fy|1950}}) *''[[Gone to Earth (film)|Gone to Earth]]'' ({{fy|1950}}). A substantially re-edited version was released in the [[United States|US]] as ''The Wild Heart'' ({{fy|1952}}) by co-producer [[David O. Selznick]], after a court battle with Powell and Pressburger. The film was fully restored by the British Film Archive in {{fy|1985}}. *''[[The Tales of Hoffmann (film)|The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' ({{fy|1951}}) ==End of the partnership== In the early 1950s the Powell and Pressburger began to produce fewer films, with notably less success. This may have been because they switched from making films for the British [[Rank Organisation]] to the Hollywood-led [[Alexander Korda]]. The Archers' productions officially came to an end in 1957, and the pair separated to pursue their individual careers. The separation was quite amicable and they remained devoted friends for the rest of their lives. *''[[Oh... Rosalinda!!]]'' ({{fy|1955}}) *''[[The Battle of the River Plate (film)|The Battle of the River Plate]]'' ({{fy|1956}}) *''[[Ill Met by Moonlight]]'' ({{fy|1957}}) ==Later collaboration== The pair would reunite for a couple of films, neither of which matched their earlier successes. *''[[They're a Weird Mob]]'' ({{fy|1966}}) *''[[The Boy Who Turned Yellow]]'' ({{fy|1972}}) ==Awards, nominations and honours== Four of their films are among the [[BFI Top 100 British films|Top 50 British films of the 20th century]] according to the [[British Film Institute]], with ''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'' placing in the top 10. {| class="wikitable" |- ! '''Year''' ! '''Film''' ! '''Award''' ! '''Powell''' ! '''Pressburger''' |- | {{fy|1937}} || ''[[The Edge of the World]]'' || Presented at the [[Venice Film Festival]] || {{Tick}} || |- | {{fy|1943}} || ''[[49th Parallel]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture#1940s|Best Picture]] || {{Tick}} || |- | 1943 || ''[[49th Parallel]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] '''winner''' for [[Academy Award for Best Story#1940s|Best Writing, Original Story]] || || {{Tick}} |- | 1943 || ''[[49th Parallel]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay#1940s|Best Writing, Screenplay]] || || {{Tick}} <small>with [[Rodney Ackland|Rodney&nbsp;Ackland]]</small> |- | 1943 || ''[[One of Our Aircraft Is Missing]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay#1940s|Best Writing, Original Screenplay]] || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1948}} || ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' || '''Winner''' Danish [[Bodil Award]] for Best European Film || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | 1948 || ''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'' || Nominated for [[Venice Film Festival]] Golden Lion || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1949}} || ''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture#1940s|Best Picture]] || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | 1949 || ''[[The Red Shoes (film)|The Red Shoes]]'' || [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay#1940s|Best Writing, Original Story]] || || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1951}} || ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann (film)|The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' || [[Cannes Film Festival]] nominated for Grand Prize of the Festival || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | 1951 || ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann (film)|The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' || '''Winner''' Silver Berlin Bear from [[Berlin International Film Festival]] as Best Musical || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1957}} || ''[[The Battle of the River Plate (film)|The Battle of the River Plate]]'' || [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA Award]] nominated for Best British Screenplay || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1959}} || ''[[Luna de miel]]'' || [[Cannes Film Festival]] nominated for Golden Palm || {{Tick}} || |- | {{fy|1970}} || || Partial retrospective of their films at the [[BFI Southbank|National Film Theatre]] || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1978}} || || Made [[Doctor of Letters|Hon DLitt]], [[University of East Anglia]] || {{Tick}} || |- | 1978 || || Made [[Doctor of Letters|Hon DLitt]], [[University of Kent]] || {{Tick}} || |- | 1978 || || Retrospective of their extant works at the [[BFI Southbank|National Film Theatre]] || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1980}} || || [[Dartmouth College|Dartmouth Film Award]] || {{Tick}} || |- | {{fy|1981}} || || [[BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award]] || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1982}} || || Awarded Career Gold Lion from the [[Venice Film Festival]] || {{Tick}} || |- | {{fy|1983}} || || Made [[Fellow#Professional_societies|Fellows]] of the [[British Film Institute]] (BFI) || {{Tick}} || {{Tick}} |- | {{fy|1987}} || || Awarded Hon Doctorate, [[Royal College of Art]] || {{Tick}} || |- | 1987 || || Akira Kurosawa Award from [[San Francisco International Film Festival]] || {{Tick}} || |} Powell and Pressburger, the people and their films have been the subject of many documentaries<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/FAQ/FAQ272.html Documentaries about them]</ref> and books<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/FAQ/FAQ273.html Books about them]</ref> as well as quite a few doctoral theses. ==Critical opinions== {{rquote|right|'''Michael Powell's gift was that he saw things with terrible clarity. Perhaps his films have been waiting for DVD all along'''|'''Entertainment Weekly<br />11 January 2002'''<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/Micky/EW-20020111.html Entertainment Weekly]</ref>}} {{rquote|right|'''There is not a British director, working in Britain, with as many worthwhile films to his credit as Michael Powell.'''|'''A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema<br />by David Thomson, 1975'''<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/Micky/Thompson.html A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema]</ref>}} British film critics gave the films of Powell and Pressburger a mixed reaction at the time, acknowledging their creativity but sometimes questioning their motivations and taste. For better or worse, The Archers were always out of step with mainstream British cinema.<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/43_Blimp/Contemporary/index.html Contemporary reviews of ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943)]</ref><ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/Contemporary/index.html Contemporary reviews of ''A Canterbury Tale'' (1944)]</ref><ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/45_IKWIG/Contemporary/index.html Contemporary reviews of ''I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945)]</ref><ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/46_AMOLAD/Contemporary/index.html Contemporary reviews of ''A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946)]</ref> From the 1970s onwards, British critical opinion began to revise this lukewarm assessment, with their first [[British Film Institute|BFI]] retrospective in {{fy|1970}} and another in {{fy|1978}}. They are now seen as playing a key part in the history of British film, and have become influential and iconic for many film-makers of later generations, such as [[Martin Scorsese]], [[Francis Ford Coppola]], [[George A. Romero]], [[Wes Anderson]] and many more<ref>[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Famous.html Famous fans of Powell & Pressburger]</ref>. <br clear="all"> ==Regular cast & crew== Powell and Pressburger reused actors and crew members in a number of films. Actors who were part of The Archers' "stock company" include: {{col-begin}} {{col-2}} * [[Esmond Knight]] * [[Cyril Cusack]] * [[Ralph Richardson|Sir Ralph Richardson]] * [[David Farrar (actor)|David Farrar]] * [[Googie Withers]] * [[Marius Goring]] * [[Pamela Brown (actress)|Pamela Brown]] * [[Sir Laurence Olivier]] * [[Roger Livesey]] * [[Anton Walbrook]] {{col-2}} * [[Conrad Veidt]] * [[Deborah Kerr]] * [[Eric Portman]] * [[Finlay Currie]] * [[Kathleen Byron]] * [[Léonide Massine]] * [[Robert Helpmann]] * [[Valerie Hobson]] {{col-end}} Notable crew members include: * [[Cinematographer]]s: [[Erwin Hillier]], [[Jack Cardiff]] and [[Christopher Challis]]. * Production and costume designers [[Alfred Junge]] and [[Hein Heckroth]]. * Composers and musicians [[Brian Easdale]], [[Allan Gray (composer)|Allan Gray]], [[Sir Thomas Beecham]] and [[Miklós Rózsa]]. [[David Lean]], who would later become a well-known and influential director himself, edited ''[[Forty-Ninth Parallel]]'' and ''[[One of our Aircraft is Missing|One of our Aircraft...]]''. ==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist}} ===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * Christie, Ian. ''Arrows of Desire: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger''. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. ISBN 0-571-16271-1. * Christie, Ian. ''Powell, Pressburger and Others''. London: BFI ([[British Film Institute]]), 1978. ISBN 0-85170-086-1. * Christie, Ian and Moor, Andrew, eds. ''The Cinema of Michael Powell''. London: BFI (British Film Institute), 2005. ISBN 1-84457-094-0. * Macdonald, Kevin. ''The Life and Death of a Screenwriter''. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. ISBN 0-571-16853-1 * Moor, Andrew. ''Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces''. London: [[I.B. Tauris]], 2005. ISBN 1-85043-947-8. * Powell, Michael. ''A Life In Movies: An Autobiography''. London: Heinemann, 1986. ISBN 0-434-59945-X. * Powell, Michael. ''Million Dollar Movie''. London: Heinemann, 1992. ISBN 0-434-59947-6. {{refend}} ==External links== * [http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/pilgrims/ The Archers] at the [[British Film Institute]] * [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444768/index.html The Archers] at BFI's screenonline.org.uk * [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0103153/ The Archers productions] from the [[Internet Movie Database]] * {{imdb name|id=0003836|name=Michael Powell}} * {{imdb name|id=0696247|name=Emeric Pressburger}} * [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=154725|111805&afiPersonalNameId=null Michael Powell] at [[TCM Movie Database]] * [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=155162|47359&afiPersonalNameId=null Emeric Pressburger] at [[TCM Movie Database]] * {{senses|id=directors/02/powell|name=Powell and Pressburger}} * [http://www.powell-pressburger.org/ The Powell and Pressburger Pages] * [http://www.suspense-movies.com/directors/powell-pressburger/ The Action/Suspense Movies of Powell & Pressburger] * [http://www.britmovie.net/Back-room-boys/Production-teams/the-archers.html Powell and Pressburger on Britmovie.net] <!--spacing, please do not remove--> {{Powell and Pressburger}} [[Category:Cinema of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Film production companies of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Films by Powell and Pressburger| ]] [[Category:Celebrity duos]] [[Category:British screenwriters]] [[Category:British film producers]] [[Category:British film directors]]