Hailed as quintessentially British cinema, the films of Powell and Pressburger in fact were born of the creative energy when Michael Powell combined his dynamic direction and editing, with the elegant, incisive writing of Emeric Pressburger, a Jewish Hungarian emigré. Their core creative team, the production company they titled The Archers, was made up of individuals from across Europe, channeling their cross-border collective talents into a filmmography which took flight into complexly woven narratives defined by its lush colors, humanistic ethos and a dream-like romanticism. No filmmography stands on an island of its own making, but the works of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are so elevated over the body of British cinema, that they might be considered as being in a loftier realm. Concurrently, for many decades, this realm that their films occupy was also shrouded in obscurity, neglect, and inaccessibility. This status can be charted back to the box-office failure, and Powell’s critical shunning after the rejection of the themes explored in his then-controversial "Peeping Tom" of 1960. But by that decade, many of the pair’s joint glories from "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" to "The Red Shoes", had been recut then spurned, left to neglect and decay. Martin Scorsese, who's singular and essential restoration work with his World Cinema Foundation, would help to restore and resurrect both "...Colonel Blimp" and "The Red Shoes", for Janus Films and The Criterion Collection. Following these essential restorations, the film press has had a major reassessment of the work, hailing "'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' as one of the great works of art in the history of film", the "sublime celestial romance that is, 'A Matter of Life and Death'", "Dancing for Your Life" in the case of "The Red Shoes", and celebrating "Tales of Hoffmann"'s "over-the-top 1950s neo-Romanticism tipping over into surrealism"
This past year, Martin Scorsese and longtime collaborator and editor, Thelma Schoonmaker paid tribute to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in the pages of Sight & Sound, as well as dedicating a personal tribute to the filmmakers’ legacy, in the form of the documentary, “Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger”. Scorsese went further, proclaiming his admiration and love of their art, "Kings of the Movies: Martin Scorsese on Powell & Pressburger". But he and Schoonmaker have hardly been the sole champions of the riches the two directors gave to the world. Beginning in the 1970s, critics, scholars, and curators began reviving and reclaiming the films, and in the ensuing decades, Powell and Pressburger have influenced creatives ranging from Derek Jarman, to Matthew Bourne, Kate Bush, Darren Aronofsky, and Tilda Swinton, finding inspiration their "Cinema of Rejecting Hatred and Fear". With last year's "Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger" the BFI aimed to introduce the work of The Archers to a new generation of imaginations, filmgoers and creatives, in the largest and most wide-ranging exploration of the legendary writer-producer-director team to be theatrically presented. This same retrospective was then announced to tour US and Canada, with a date at Seattle's SIFF Cinema. For this, we can thank programmer Greg Olson, who continues his essential work after "Fate of SAM Film Series Unclear as Museum’s Longtime Film Curator Laid Off", with the elimination of his position at Seattle Art Museum. It should also be noted, that in addition to the loss of Olson specifically as the programmer of the longest running film noir series in America, the position has remained unfilled. Instead, the plan at SAM appears to be, to bring cat videos, guest chefs, and miniature golf to the museum. Subsequently, in the years since, Olson has rented SIFF Cinema as a guest programmer, bringing his film noir, Italian, and Fellini series to their screens. Now this fall, he has collaborated with the BFI to present “Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger”, with a very special screening of "A Matter of Life and Death" featuring Thelma Schoonmaker in-person, as well in attendance at Scorsese's "Raging Bull", the following night.
