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MADE IN ENGLAND
THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER
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PRESENTED BY
MARTIN SCORSESE
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DIRECTED BY
DAVID HINTON
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I was born in 1942
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and I developed asthma
at about three years old.
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And that meant that I couldn't run around
and play as much as other children,
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and so I found myself
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sitting in front of the TV,
watching movies.
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Some of the very first moving images
that I can remember seeing
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are from The Thief of Baghdad.
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Whip yourself, winds of heaven!
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Whip till you wail aloud!
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I didn't know it then, but Michael Powell
was one of the directors on that film.
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And for a kid,
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there could be no better initiation
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into the Michael Powell mysteries.
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This was a picture made
by a great showman
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and every image
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filled me with wonder.
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The power a movie can hold,
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it absolutely enthralled me.
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My eyes!
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I'm blind!
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Of course, what I was seeing then
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wasn't a glorious
Technicolor print of the film
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but actually a very poor
black and white version
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on a 16 inch screen
on our family TV.
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And yet
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it still had the power to grip me
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and stay with me
forever in my mind.
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American films, yes.
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Even Italian films, neorealist films
I saw on television.
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But the interesting thing about
television at that time
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was that many of the films
that were shown on American TV
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were British films.
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Because American distributors
would not sell to TV.
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But apparently British distributors would.
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And that's why
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British Cinema for me,
was so formative.
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I used to get excited by the different
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logos of the different
British film companies.
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But there was one which
held out a very special promise.
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That was the target of The Archers
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A PRODUCTION OF THE ARCHERS
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that heralded a Powell Pressburger film.
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And by the time I was ten or eleven,
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I'd be watching Powell Pressburger
films endlessly on TV.
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They were shown a lot.
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There was one called
The Tales of Hoffmann.
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Which is not an obvious film
you'd say for a child to enjoy.
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It's basically a 19th-century opera, but
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I just didn't watch it once,
I mean, I watched it
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repeatedly and obsessively.
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It was on this program
called Million Dollar Movie
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which showed the same film all week,
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twice every evening
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and three times on the weekend.
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But the thing was
that I was hypnotized by it.
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And those repeated viewings
taught me pretty much
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everything I know about
the relation of camera to music.
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And even now,
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music and images from that picture
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often run through my mind.
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In fact
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I think the Powell Pressburger
films have had
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a profound effect on
the sensibility that I bring
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to all the work I was able to do.
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I was so bewitched by them as a child
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that they make up a big part
of my film subconscious.
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Now going to the cinema with my father
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was also a very important
part of my childhood.
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The nicest theaters then were spectacles
in themselves, great movie palaces
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and the screens were huge.
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And they filled you with hope
and expectation of wonder.
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And one film
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that fulfilled all those expectations
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was The Red Shoes.
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It was the first time I saw
The Archers logo in color.
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And of course, I particularly
remember the ballet sequence.
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Wanting to know how they made
the dancer turn into a scrap of newspaper.
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These days I'm told
that Powell Pressburger
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represents something called
'English Romanticism'
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But I don't really know what that is.
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To me, the overwhelming
impression of their films
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has always been to do with color,
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light
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movement and a sense of music.
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And even as a child,
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I was certainly struck by
the theatricality of The Red Shoes.
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The cinematic theatricality.
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The design of actors in the frame,
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the surprising ways
they looked and they moved.
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The dramatic angles and lighting.
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You got the sense that
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anything could happen in a film like this.
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And I was riveted by the mystery
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and the hysteria of the picture.
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The experience was so intense, in fact,
that first viewing of The Red Shoes
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may be one of the origins of
my own obsession with cinema itself.
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When I became a student
and then a young filmmaker
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Powell and Pressburger
remained a constant fascination.
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But we could only see their films
in very incomplete forms.
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Very degraded versions, bad copies.
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But we knew there was something special
going on with these movies.
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And we became fascinated by
the distinctive signature on the films.
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Written, produced and directed
by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
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Now a shared credit like that
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was really unheard of and
we wanted to know who did what,
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who said cut, who said action?
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It was all a mystery.
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In those days, the only sources
of information were books
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and magazines, maybe.
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And we read about British directors,
of course,
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like David Lean and Carol Reed
and Alfred Hitchcock.
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But there was rarely, rarely
a mention of Powell Pressburger.
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So in effect,
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they became mythical beings
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to myself and my friends.
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Then finally in 1970
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I got to see a 35mm color print
of Peeping Tom.
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Which had become a legendary work
among film students and filmmakers.
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It'll be two quid.
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I was an obsessive young filmmaker
watching a film
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about an obsessive young filmmaker
who is also a psychopath.
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It's a horror movie
with no blood.
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Where the object of terror
seems to be the film camera itself.
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No!
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When I first saw it, it was
hard for me to believe
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that such a raw and
provocative film was made
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by the same Michael Powell
who had made The Red Shoes.
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But indeed, it was.
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And he dared to do what no one else
had really dared before him.
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To show how close moviemaking
can come to madness.
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How it can devour you
if you let it.
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By this time, I was
making movies on my own.
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And in 1974, after I made
Mean Streets, I went to England
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and I found myself at a cocktail party
given by a man named Michael Kaplan.
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And I was asking him
about this, this mystery.
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Now, do you know of a Michael Powell?
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Does he exist?
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Is there such a person?
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And he said "Oh, yes,
he's living in a caravan somewhere."
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Well, that turned out
to be an exaggeration.
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He was actually living
in a cottage in Gloucestershire,
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but he'd fallen on very hard times.
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He'd been pretty much forgotten
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and abandoned by
the British film industry
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and he could barely even afford
to heat his own house.
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But of course, I wanted to meet him
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and a drink was arranged.
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So suddenly there I was
talking to Michael Powell.
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Who was amazed that someone
wanted to discuss his pictures with him.
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He had no idea that his work
had been an inspiration to me,
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and Brian De Palma,
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and Coppola and so many
others of the new generation.
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Of course, I speak fast and
I was very energetic and very excited.
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I was bombarding him with questions.
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And he didn't say much.
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Michael didn't say much.
He was very reserved.
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Very quiet in his answers.
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But later, I discovered
that he was moved by the meeting.
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Because he wrote in his autobiography
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that during that meeting,
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he felt the blood course
through his veins again.
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The other day,
I ate a ricochet biscuit.
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Well, that's the kind of biscuit
That's supposed to
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Bounce off the wall
Back in your mouth
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If you don't bounce back...
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You go hungry!
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After our meeting, I arranged
for Michael to see Mean Streets.
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And he sent me a letter
praising the film.
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Except...
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he said that I use too much red.
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I GOT TIRED OF THE RED
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Too much red?
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I didn't point out to him that his films
had something to do with this too.
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Look at all the red he uses.
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Anyway, we started to write to each other
and eventually he came to New York.
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He was introduced to a lot of people
and he was invited to become
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the senior director in residence
at Zoetrope,
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Francis Coppola's company in L.A.
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And his life sort of turned around.
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I got a sort of routine here. I...
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I work on my autobiography in the morning
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and about 11 o'clock,
I walk over to the studio.
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I stop the traffic this way.
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If I did it in New York,
they'd run right over me.
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You can get away
with anything in California.
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Believe it or not
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this magnificent building
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was built by Dr Kalmus of Technicolor,
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for Technicolor.
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Wonderful art deco building.
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Those were the days.
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Glorious Technicolor!
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Morning Colonel.
Anything for me?
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OK.
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Michael was born in the village
of Bekesbourne, Kent in 1905,
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and grew up in the countryside,
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the son of a hop farmer.
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His career in the movies began
when he was twenty.
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Went on holiday, got a job in
a film company in the south of France
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and never came back.
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He started work as
a general dogsbody
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at the Victorine Studios in Nice
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where the American director Rex Ingram
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was making epic silent films for MGM.
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I was with a big American company
working in Europe,
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discipline was lax
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and I had the run of all the departments.
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And I always think it was
his apprenticeship with Ingram
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that made Michael aim
for grandeur in his pictures.
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Lush images, heightened emotions
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00:15:08,938 --> 00:15:12,355
and a preference for shock
and spectacle over realism.
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And quote "good taste" unquote.
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Now, while working with Ingram
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he also did acting and stunt work
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in a series of comedy shorts
that they called The Riviera Revels.
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But here he is in 1927
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throwing himself into the role
of an innocent English tourist.
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Michael returned to England in 1928
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and he went into partnership with
the American producer Jerry Jackson
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to make 'quota quickies.'
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These were short features which
were made very fast, very cheap,
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Are you there Bob?
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God! It's us. My light's out.
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And Michael learned
his trade as a director
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by hammering out
more than 20 of them.
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Light's gone out.
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Full astern.
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Port or starboard?
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My God!
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It's the phantom light.
The one they all talk about.
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Where the devil are we?
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Wait a moment, Mr. Owen.
We're just off the North Stake rocks
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Bring us down again!
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Warn the engine room.
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This one is The Phantom Light.
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That was a near one.
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You're right, Sir, it was.
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By 1937 Michael had acquired
the experience and the confidence
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to make his first really personal work.
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The Edge of the World.
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It's about a small community on
a remote island off the coast of Scotland.
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It was a great leap forward for Michael.
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A beautiful committed and poetic film.
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And on the strength of it,
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he was given a contract by
the producer Alexander Korda
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at Denham studios.
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Korda put Michael to work on
a film called The Spy In Black.
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00:18:41,771 --> 00:18:51,480
[They whisper in German]
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00:18:52,188 --> 00:18:56,313
Introducing him at a script conference
to a writer called Emeric Pressburger.
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Emeric felt in his pocket
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00:18:59,438 --> 00:19:02,813
and he produced his version of the script.
255
00:19:03,730 --> 00:19:04,730
This is it.
256
00:19:06,271 --> 00:19:09,105
It was a nice little
rolled up piece of paper
257
00:19:09,105 --> 00:19:12,355
and he unrolled it
and he read the first scene
258
00:19:13,188 --> 00:19:15,105
and I was spellbound.
259
00:19:15,105 --> 00:19:17,313
I just listened while
he went on reading
260
00:19:17,313 --> 00:19:20,355
and unfolding it and unfolding it
and unfolding it.
261
00:19:21,938 --> 00:19:24,105
He'd stood the story on its head.
262
00:19:24,105 --> 00:19:27,063
He turned a man into a woman,
a woman into a man.
263
00:19:27,063 --> 00:19:29,855
He'd altered the suspense,
he'd rewritten the end.
264
00:19:30,730 --> 00:19:33,688
I looked at this producer,
he was purple in the face.
265
00:19:33,688 --> 00:19:36,355
I looked at the writer,
he was prepared to faint.
266
00:19:36,771 --> 00:19:38,021
And I was just rejoicing
267
00:19:38,021 --> 00:19:40,396
that I was going to work
with somebody like this
268
00:19:40,396 --> 00:19:43,230
and that I wasn't going
to let him get away in a hurry either.
269
00:19:43,563 --> 00:19:45,480
Have you heard The Soldier's March?
270
00:20:01,688 --> 00:20:03,688
I say, that medal ribbon?
271
00:20:03,688 --> 00:20:05,230
I don't seem to recognize it.
272
00:20:05,230 --> 00:20:06,313
What is it?
273
00:20:06,938 --> 00:20:09,646
The Iron Cross, second class.
274
00:20:10,146 --> 00:20:11,146
Second class.
275
00:20:12,688 --> 00:20:14,438
Then you must be a prisoner of war.
276
00:20:15,021 --> 00:20:16,063
No.
277
00:20:17,271 --> 00:20:18,313
You are.
278
00:20:18,980 --> 00:20:20,063
Oh dear.
279
00:20:20,938 --> 00:20:23,646
Emeric Pressburger,
like Alex Korda
280
00:20:23,813 --> 00:20:26,938
was a Hungarian but also
very much a European.
281
00:20:27,730 --> 00:20:30,230
And he went to university
in Prague, and Stuttgart.
282
00:20:31,063 --> 00:20:35,021
Then my father died
and my student years have finished.
283
00:20:35,230 --> 00:20:36,938
And I had nothing.
284
00:20:39,396 --> 00:20:42,146
And so I came to Berlin
285
00:20:42,313 --> 00:20:44,855
and I wanted to write.
286
00:20:44,855 --> 00:20:47,896
I sent film story after film story,
287
00:20:48,355 --> 00:20:51,271
and everything came back,
until one day,
288
00:20:51,688 --> 00:20:54,521
one story didn't come back.
289
00:20:55,396 --> 00:20:58,438
Emeric was eventually
hired by the script department
290
00:20:58,438 --> 00:21:00,063
of the famous UFA studios.
291
00:21:00,730 --> 00:21:03,396
This was the greatest
European studio of its era.
292
00:21:03,813 --> 00:21:06,605
It's the home of Fritz Lang
and German expressionism.
293
00:21:06,896 --> 00:21:09,230
And Emeric spent
several happy years there.
294
00:21:13,438 --> 00:21:16,730
Here he is in 1932, you can
glimpse him right on the set
295
00:21:16,938 --> 00:21:18,980
here of an UFA production
in Budapest.
296
00:21:25,355 --> 00:21:27,771
Emeric was however Jewish
297
00:21:28,313 --> 00:21:31,313
and the rise of the Nazis
forced him to flee Berlin.
298
00:21:32,063 --> 00:21:34,730
First for Paris
and then for London
299
00:21:34,938 --> 00:21:38,563
where he arrived in 1935
on a stateless passport.
300
00:21:42,063 --> 00:21:46,563
Emeric described his arrival in England
as like being born at the age of 33.
301
00:21:49,396 --> 00:21:51,271
He knew nothing about British life
302
00:21:51,521 --> 00:21:53,938
and he had to learn
the English language from scratch.
303
00:22:00,521 --> 00:22:02,521
Meeting Michael was
a great blessing for him
304
00:22:02,521 --> 00:22:05,105
because he was someone
who responded immediately
305
00:22:05,355 --> 00:22:07,063
to his novel script ideas.
306
00:22:08,730 --> 00:22:13,021
Do you think that it was
something specifically European
307
00:22:13,271 --> 00:22:16,230
or even Hungarian
that you responded to?
308
00:22:16,521 --> 00:22:20,021
No, it was a beautiful mind
I responded to.
309
00:22:20,688 --> 00:22:22,271
He didn't have to be Hungarian.
310
00:22:22,605 --> 00:22:27,605
I have never met a person
who not only understood
311
00:22:27,855 --> 00:22:29,521
what I was driving at
312
00:22:29,855 --> 00:22:34,313
but guessed already
half of it before I said it.
313
00:22:34,605 --> 00:22:35,688
That's Michael.
314
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,896
I don't think that that happens
very often in one's lifetime, but this is
315
00:22:42,896 --> 00:22:43,896
how it...
316
00:22:43,896 --> 00:22:45,021
how I felt.
317
00:22:45,980 --> 00:22:48,521
The partners soon developed
the collaborative method that
318
00:22:48,521 --> 00:22:50,563
they would use for the next 20 years.
319
00:22:51,521 --> 00:22:53,771
Emeric would always
write the original script
320
00:22:53,771 --> 00:22:56,230
which established the shape of the scenes
321
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,771
and the pair would then work
together on the dialogue.
322
00:23:00,396 --> 00:23:03,563
They were perfectly in tune
about what they wanted to express.
323
00:23:03,896 --> 00:23:04,980
And they never argued.
324
00:23:05,730 --> 00:23:07,480
Do we have a go at each other?
325
00:23:07,938 --> 00:23:09,230
Not really.
326
00:23:09,521 --> 00:23:12,730
No, we trust time.
327
00:23:14,313 --> 00:23:15,730
In a few hours time
328
00:23:18,188 --> 00:23:20,521
he sees that I was right.
329
00:23:23,646 --> 00:23:25,188
London is calling.
330
00:23:25,896 --> 00:23:27,938
London, calling to the world.
331
00:23:28,146 --> 00:23:30,396
Calling to a world at war.
332
00:23:32,521 --> 00:23:35,313
When Britain went to war
with Germany in 1939
333
00:23:35,521 --> 00:23:39,355
the film industry survived
by committing itself wholeheartedly
334
00:23:39,563 --> 00:23:40,563
to the war effort.
335
00:23:43,188 --> 00:23:45,646
These are not Hollywood sound effects.
336
00:23:45,646 --> 00:23:48,563
This is the music they play
every night in London,
337
00:23:48,855 --> 00:23:50,313
the symphony of war.
338
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:56,855
For Powell and Pressburger
339
00:23:57,271 --> 00:24:00,771
this was the most important event
of their professional lives,
340
00:24:00,771 --> 00:24:02,688
giving a striking new depth
341
00:24:02,938 --> 00:24:04,813
and a sense of purpose to their work.
342
00:24:13,105 --> 00:24:15,021
So the curtain rises on Canada.
343
00:24:17,313 --> 00:24:18,355
Down!
344
00:24:23,563 --> 00:24:24,605
Swines!
345
00:24:24,605 --> 00:24:25,896
Filthy swine devils!
346
00:24:25,896 --> 00:24:26,938
Jahner!
347
00:24:30,521 --> 00:24:34,396
49th Parallel tells
the story of six fugitive Nazis
348
00:24:34,563 --> 00:24:36,230
making their way across Canada.
349
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,021
Every British film now
had a specific propaganda aim.
350
00:24:41,521 --> 00:24:43,063
And the intention here
351
00:24:43,230 --> 00:24:45,646
was to urge America into the war.
352
00:24:45,646 --> 00:24:47,021
Run, Les! Run!
353
00:24:47,188 --> 00:24:51,563
By bringing the horrors of the Nazi threat
right onto America's doorstep.
354
00:24:57,605 --> 00:24:59,855
It was a big idea for an epic picture.
355
00:25:00,563 --> 00:25:03,688
And in production terms
it was a huge enterprise.
356
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,980
This brought out some of
the differences between the two men.
357
00:25:09,730 --> 00:25:12,480
Emeric was the genius
of story and structure,
358
00:25:12,980 --> 00:25:15,771
while Michael was the dynamo
and the man of action.
359
00:25:15,980 --> 00:25:18,605
Leading his crew to locations
all over Canada.
360
00:25:19,730 --> 00:25:22,355
I was moving against
the seasons all the time.
361
00:25:22,355 --> 00:25:25,646
Emeric was writing the script
back home in London
362
00:25:25,855 --> 00:25:28,188
and I was shooting a lot
of exteriors like this
363
00:25:28,313 --> 00:25:30,896
before the autumn came down.
364
00:25:32,980 --> 00:25:37,313
In one episode, the Nazi seek shelter
among a group of fellow Germans.
365
00:25:37,771 --> 00:25:40,271
A religious community of Hutterites.
366
00:25:40,271 --> 00:25:41,938
Germans!
367
00:25:42,688 --> 00:25:43,938
Brothers!
368
00:25:45,313 --> 00:25:49,688
I asked you to join with me
in paying homage to our glorious Führer.
369
00:25:50,813 --> 00:25:51,896
Heil Hitler!
370
00:25:52,063 --> 00:25:53,355
Heil Hitler!
371
00:25:54,313 --> 00:25:56,730
Now this film insists
on making a distinction
372
00:25:56,730 --> 00:25:59,313
between being a Nazi and being a German.
373
00:26:00,146 --> 00:26:01,646
This was very important to Emeric,
374
00:26:01,646 --> 00:26:04,146
who had spent so many
happy years in Germany
375
00:26:04,313 --> 00:26:06,105
and had so many German friends.
376
00:26:08,938 --> 00:26:11,771
We are not your brothers.
377
00:26:12,146 --> 00:26:16,021
Our children grew up against
new backgrounds, new horizons.
378
00:26:16,605 --> 00:26:19,021
And they are free!
379
00:26:20,105 --> 00:26:23,188
Free to grow up as children,
380
00:26:23,396 --> 00:26:28,021
free to run, to laugh
without being forced into uniforms.
381
00:26:28,021 --> 00:26:33,521
Without being forced to march up and down
the streets singing battle songs!
382
00:26:34,605 --> 00:26:37,480
So here is Emeric making
propaganda for the British.
383
00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:41,563
But instead of simplifying everything
like propaganda usually does.
384
00:26:42,021 --> 00:26:44,688
He's always seeking
to complicate our sympathies.
385
00:26:45,021 --> 00:26:46,521
You're Nazis aren't you?
386
00:26:47,896 --> 00:26:48,896
Aren't you?
387
00:26:49,021 --> 00:26:50,896
I should tell the police about you.
388
00:26:51,605 --> 00:26:53,688
Little girls should be
seen and not heard.
389
00:26:53,688 --> 00:26:55,605
- That'll do.
- What's the matter with you?
390
00:26:56,021 --> 00:26:57,063
That'll do.
391
00:26:57,063 --> 00:26:58,188
Vogel!
392
00:26:59,188 --> 00:27:00,271
Come along, Anna.
393
00:27:00,771 --> 00:27:01,896
I'll take you home.
394
00:27:02,688 --> 00:27:04,355
Herr Leutnant, we can't let them go.
395
00:27:04,355 --> 00:27:06,105
I'd like to see what
you're going to do about it.
396
00:27:06,105 --> 00:27:07,813
- Vogel!
- Yes, Herr Leutnant?
397
00:27:08,063 --> 00:27:09,313
Have you forgotten who you are?
398
00:27:10,771 --> 00:27:12,521
I'll take her home, Herr Leutnant.
399
00:27:15,271 --> 00:27:18,563
Emeric even makes us
feel deeply for one of the Nazis,
400
00:27:18,688 --> 00:27:22,021
a baker when he starts to rebel
against his comrades.
401
00:27:22,813 --> 00:27:24,146
Engine Room Artificer Vogel.
402
00:27:28,646 --> 00:27:29,730
You're under arrest.
403
00:27:35,688 --> 00:27:38,438
You're accused of desertion
and treachery to the Third Reich.
404
00:27:39,271 --> 00:27:40,980
In the absence of
a properly constituted court,
405
00:27:40,980 --> 00:27:42,730
I assume authority
as your superior officer
406
00:27:42,730 --> 00:27:43,813
and sentence you to death.
407
00:27:44,730 --> 00:27:45,730
Have you anything to say?
408
00:27:53,105 --> 00:27:56,480
The sentence will be carried
out immediately in the name of the Führer.
409
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:01,563
49TH PARALLEL IS WAR'S BEST FILM
410
00:28:01,563 --> 00:28:04,563
49th Parallel ended up
a big commercial hit.
411
00:28:05,771 --> 00:28:09,105
And it won Emeric an Oscar too,
for best original story.
412
00:28:09,855 --> 00:28:11,855
Riding high on this success
413
00:28:12,063 --> 00:28:15,438
the partners now decided to form
their own production company,
414
00:28:15,730 --> 00:28:16,771
The Archers.
415
00:28:18,563 --> 00:28:21,646
Well as far as possible,
we tried to share everything.
416
00:28:21,938 --> 00:28:25,313
Of course, directing on the floor
that was entirely my job.
417
00:28:25,313 --> 00:28:28,563
But as far as we could,
we shared every decision, didn't we?
418
00:28:28,896 --> 00:28:29,896
Yes.
419
00:28:29,896 --> 00:28:32,521
Do you have anything to add to that,
Mr Pressburger? That can't be--
420
00:28:32,521 --> 00:28:33,855
Well, I don't think so.
421
00:28:34,105 --> 00:28:39,813
On the whole, as a simple answer,
I would say that Michael directed
422
00:28:40,855 --> 00:28:42,021
on his own.
423
00:28:42,146 --> 00:28:44,896
And I was more the writer.
424
00:28:45,438 --> 00:28:47,355
- And we produce together.
- Yes.
425
00:28:47,771 --> 00:28:50,688
The pair signed a production deal
with the Rank Organization.
426
00:28:50,813 --> 00:28:52,313
J. ARTHUR RANK
PRESENTS
427
00:28:52,313 --> 00:28:54,730
Which gave them the one thing
that they wanted most.
428
00:28:55,855 --> 00:28:58,730
The freedom to control their own work.
429
00:29:00,146 --> 00:29:03,563
Now, for me, one of the most
exciting things about The Archers
430
00:29:03,563 --> 00:29:08,521
is that they were like experimental
filmmakers working within the system.
431
00:29:08,813 --> 00:29:11,771
And it was Rank
who created the conditions for that.
432
00:29:15,855 --> 00:29:17,813
By now was 1942
433
00:29:18,563 --> 00:29:20,438
and the worst of the Blitz was over.
434
00:29:21,396 --> 00:29:24,230
But Britain was still
faring badly in the war.
435
00:29:24,855 --> 00:29:26,563
And it was at this delicate moment
436
00:29:26,855 --> 00:29:29,646
that Michael and Emeric
decided to make a film
437
00:29:29,980 --> 00:29:33,896
satirizing old-fashioned ideas
within the British military.
438
00:29:37,605 --> 00:29:41,521
As you would expect,
they met a lot of official opposition.
439
00:29:41,771 --> 00:29:45,563
Winston Churchill himself
was quite hostile to the idea.
440
00:29:46,063 --> 00:29:50,313
"I'm not prepared to allow propaganda
detrimental to the morale of the army.
441
00:29:50,730 --> 00:29:52,230
Who are the people behind it?"
442
00:29:52,730 --> 00:29:55,230
Churchill, such a wonderful leader,
443
00:29:55,230 --> 00:29:57,646
but he just wasn't a good film critic.
444
00:29:59,521 --> 00:30:01,896
It says a lot about
Powell and Pressburger's confidence
445
00:30:01,896 --> 00:30:04,646
and attitude to authority
that they went ahead
446
00:30:05,021 --> 00:30:06,355
and they made the picture anyway.
447
00:30:06,688 --> 00:30:08,896
This meant they would never get
their knighthoods, of course,
448
00:30:08,896 --> 00:30:11,813
but Britain was still a democracy
449
00:30:12,021 --> 00:30:14,813
and no one actually prevented
them from making the picture.
450
00:30:16,188 --> 00:30:20,480
The central figure of the film's
a British officer called Clive Candy.
451
00:30:21,188 --> 00:30:24,188
He was inspired by the cartoon character
of Colonel Blimp.
452
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,855
You're an extremely
impudent young officer.
453
00:30:31,271 --> 00:30:36,396
But let me tell you that in 40 years time,
you'll be an old gentleman too.
454
00:30:36,813 --> 00:30:38,646
But over the course of two hours,
455
00:30:38,813 --> 00:30:42,313
this two-dimensional caricature
will be transformed
456
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,021
into a rich and complex character.
457
00:30:45,188 --> 00:30:46,188
What's that?
458
00:30:46,646 --> 00:30:48,563
- VC, sir.
- Where did you get it?
459
00:30:48,855 --> 00:30:50,396
South Africa. Jordaan Siding.
460
00:30:51,396 --> 00:30:52,396
You're Candy!
461
00:30:52,396 --> 00:30:53,605
"Sugar" Candy.
462
00:30:53,605 --> 00:30:54,688
Yes, Sir.
463
00:30:55,355 --> 00:30:59,355
The film transports us
back 40 years to 1902
464
00:30:59,771 --> 00:31:02,063
when Candy was
a hot-tempered young officer.
465
00:31:06,980 --> 00:31:09,438
On a visit to Berlin,
he succeeds in insulting
466
00:31:09,438 --> 00:31:12,730
the whole of the German Imperial army.
467
00:31:12,730 --> 00:31:15,938
And as a consequence,
he must fight a duel.
468
00:31:15,938 --> 00:31:17,063
Duel?
469
00:31:20,688 --> 00:31:23,730
The duel is one of my favorite
Powell and Pressburger scenes.
470
00:31:23,730 --> 00:31:25,230
I wish I'd brought my uniform.
471
00:31:25,563 --> 00:31:29,396
Simply for the unique and
unexpected way that they present it.
472
00:31:29,396 --> 00:31:30,521
Would you undo your shirt?
473
00:31:30,813 --> 00:31:31,813
Thank you.
474
00:31:31,813 --> 00:31:35,438
More as a matter of etiquette
than a matter of combat.
475
00:31:35,438 --> 00:31:38,230
Do you want to roll up your sleeve
or will you rip it off?
476
00:31:38,521 --> 00:31:39,521
What's better?
477
00:31:39,521 --> 00:31:41,563
I am not permitted to give advice.
478
00:31:41,730 --> 00:31:42,771
I think I'll rip it.
479
00:31:42,771 --> 00:31:44,021
It is definitely better.
480
00:31:44,021 --> 00:31:45,313
Doctor your scissors, please.
481
00:31:45,313 --> 00:31:48,271
I see here that paragraph 133 says,
482
00:31:48,730 --> 00:31:52,271
"A few hours previous to the duel
it is advisable to take a bath."
483
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:54,771
Only the principles, not the seconds.
484
00:32:02,396 --> 00:32:04,938
The scene also represents
the first encounter
485
00:32:05,230 --> 00:32:07,855
between the two central
characters of the story,
486
00:32:08,813 --> 00:32:12,855
Clive Candy and
Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff.
487
00:32:13,938 --> 00:32:15,313
They have never met before
488
00:32:15,938 --> 00:32:18,730
but they must now do battle
on a point of honor.
489
00:32:18,896 --> 00:32:20,771
[Soldier speaks in German]
490
00:32:20,771 --> 00:32:22,688
Into fighting position, please.
491
00:32:26,230 --> 00:32:27,271
Afterwards
492
00:32:27,813 --> 00:32:29,771
they will become friends for life.
493
00:32:33,896 --> 00:32:34,896
Fertig?
494
00:32:36,896 --> 00:32:37,938
Ready?
495
00:32:38,896 --> 00:32:39,938
Los!
496
00:32:49,563 --> 00:32:51,230
Just as the duel begins,
497
00:32:52,146 --> 00:32:56,521
Michael has the audacity to start pulling
the camera back and up.
498
00:32:57,521 --> 00:33:00,480
It's an act of terrific bravado.
499
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,355
After all this preparation
500
00:33:02,980 --> 00:33:05,938
to retreat from showing the actual fight.
501
00:33:09,230 --> 00:33:12,438
Only a very bold film director
would make that choice.
502
00:33:12,771 --> 00:33:15,563
But for Michael,
the fight itself is irrelevant.
503
00:33:16,730 --> 00:33:18,980
What matters is the meeting
between the two men
504
00:33:19,396 --> 00:33:21,313
and the relationship that comes out of it.
505
00:33:22,605 --> 00:33:24,938
This had a direct influence
on the way that I showed
506
00:33:24,938 --> 00:33:27,230
very little of
the big championship fight
507
00:33:27,230 --> 00:33:29,021
in my movie Raging Bull.
508
00:33:29,646 --> 00:33:32,980
The long Steadicam shot of
Jake LaMotta's journey to the ring
509
00:33:32,980 --> 00:33:35,230
comes straight from
the duel scene in Blimp.
510
00:34:02,563 --> 00:34:06,521
The important thing here
is the destructive road
511
00:34:06,896 --> 00:34:08,938
that Jake took to get to the fight
512
00:34:09,938 --> 00:34:11,438
rather than the fight itself.
513
00:34:14,313 --> 00:34:16,313
- Kretschmar-Schuldorff.
- Yes I know.
514
00:34:16,313 --> 00:34:18,688
After the duel,
Clive and Theo recover
515
00:34:18,688 --> 00:34:21,021
from their wounds in
the same nursing home.
516
00:34:21,021 --> 00:34:22,021
I'm very glad you've come.
517
00:34:22,021 --> 00:34:24,271
Where they both fall in love
with the same woman.
518
00:34:25,313 --> 00:34:26,688
Stop mooning about.
519
00:34:26,980 --> 00:34:29,730
- I'm not mooning about!
- Keep your hair on.
520
00:34:30,271 --> 00:34:33,063
I say, old girl, what's up?
521
00:34:33,313 --> 00:34:35,105
Edith? I say, what's the matter?
522
00:34:35,730 --> 00:34:40,521
I love your Miss Hunter.
523
00:34:47,063 --> 00:34:48,105
You're cuckoo.
524
00:34:48,563 --> 00:34:49,730
You cuckoo
525
00:34:50,396 --> 00:34:52,271
because Miss Hunter
526
00:34:53,521 --> 00:34:54,605
loves me.
527
00:34:56,605 --> 00:34:59,105
Clive turns out to be deeply romantic
528
00:34:59,438 --> 00:35:01,271
and hopelessly inhibited.
529
00:35:01,896 --> 00:35:02,938
A toast.
530
00:35:03,271 --> 00:35:06,938
Here's to the happiness of my fiance
who was never my fiance.
531
00:35:07,355 --> 00:35:10,771
And here's to the man who tried to kill me
before he was introduced to me
532
00:35:14,146 --> 00:35:17,688
- May I kiss the bride?
- Why ask? I did not ask.
533
00:35:21,355 --> 00:35:23,938
- Goodbye, Clive.
- Goodbye, Edith, old girl.
534
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,855
He doesn't even realize
until too late that
535
00:35:29,105 --> 00:35:30,230
he is in love.
536
00:35:31,646 --> 00:35:33,688
I hope we'll meet again sometime.
537
00:35:33,980 --> 00:35:35,146
I'm sure we shall.
538
00:35:38,063 --> 00:35:41,230
And suddenly
he finds that his heart is broken.
539
00:35:43,938 --> 00:35:44,771
LION, EAST AFRICA, 1903
540
00:35:46,813 --> 00:35:47,855
WARTHOG, SUDAN, 1904
541
00:35:49,730 --> 00:35:50,605
RHINOCEROS, EAST AFRICA, 1905
542
00:35:50,938 --> 00:35:54,813
Many, many years of Candy's life
are simply written off
543
00:35:55,188 --> 00:35:57,855
because they are years without love.
544
00:36:00,980 --> 00:36:03,313
It is brutal, funny,
545
00:36:04,396 --> 00:36:05,521
and devastating.
546
00:36:28,313 --> 00:36:31,105
HUN, FLANDERS, 1918
547
00:36:31,105 --> 00:36:32,521
During the First World War
548
00:36:32,896 --> 00:36:35,855
Candy finds another woman
who is the spitting image
549
00:36:35,855 --> 00:36:37,355
of the Edith he has lost.
550
00:36:37,355 --> 00:36:38,438
Nurse?
551
00:36:38,563 --> 00:36:41,146
Do you know the name of the girl
sitting at the end of that table?
552
00:36:41,146 --> 00:36:42,230
Come on, Wynne.
553
00:36:51,021 --> 00:36:52,063
He marries her,
554
00:36:52,521 --> 00:36:56,438
and for a while achieves
a fragile happiness.
555
00:37:02,771 --> 00:37:03,771
Darling?
556
00:37:05,021 --> 00:37:06,063
Don't hum.
557
00:37:07,980 --> 00:37:09,021
Was I humming?
558
00:37:11,021 --> 00:37:12,521
It's a little habit you've got.
559
00:37:13,063 --> 00:37:14,605
There's something important here.
560
00:37:15,146 --> 00:37:16,855
Candy's professional life
561
00:37:16,855 --> 00:37:19,855
is mostly treated satirically
and ironically.
562
00:37:20,021 --> 00:37:21,480
What'll I do if I don't hum?
563
00:37:24,146 --> 00:37:25,938
But his emotional life
564
00:37:26,188 --> 00:37:30,021
is always rendered with sincerity
and tenderness.
565
00:37:47,563 --> 00:37:50,021
Perhaps the most audacious thing of all
566
00:37:50,021 --> 00:37:54,313
is the way that every
important woman in Candy's life
567
00:37:55,105 --> 00:37:58,105
is played by the same actress
Deborah Kerr.
568
00:37:59,105 --> 00:38:01,355
She is his first love, Edith.
569
00:38:02,063 --> 00:38:03,855
Then his wife Barbara.
570
00:38:04,688 --> 00:38:07,813
And then later
his young driver in World War II.
571
00:38:07,813 --> 00:38:09,730
Mind if we try and beat the lights, sir?
572
00:38:09,730 --> 00:38:12,230
This radical casting idea
came from Emeric.
573
00:38:12,230 --> 00:38:13,688
Come on, don't be all night.
574
00:38:13,688 --> 00:38:17,771
And it fills the film with
a constant sense of longing and loss.
575
00:38:19,938 --> 00:38:23,438
And Deborah Kerr was only 20 years old
when she set to work on this film,
576
00:38:23,771 --> 00:38:27,063
but she proved herself already
a master of her art.
577
00:38:29,438 --> 00:38:30,938
And Powell and Pressburger
578
00:38:31,646 --> 00:38:33,730
succeeded in what they
most loved to do.
579
00:38:34,896 --> 00:38:37,438
Take a big risk and bring it off.
580
00:38:40,313 --> 00:38:45,688
I was certainly influenced by Blimp
when I came to make The Age of Innocence,
581
00:38:45,938 --> 00:38:48,938
I'll write to you as soon as I'm settled
and let you know where I am.
582
00:38:48,938 --> 00:38:50,271
Oh, yes, that would be lovely.
583
00:38:50,688 --> 00:38:52,438
Well, I'll see you very soon in Paris.
584
00:38:53,188 --> 00:38:55,021
Oh, if you and May could come.
585
00:38:56,938 --> 00:38:59,938
Because I was drawn into
that film by the love story.
586
00:39:01,771 --> 00:39:05,438
An impossible love between two people
who aren't supposed to fall in love.
587
00:39:05,438 --> 00:39:06,771
Good night, Newland.
588
00:39:07,021 --> 00:39:08,896
Good night, Sillerton.
Good night, Larry.
589
00:39:10,313 --> 00:39:11,730
And it lasts for years.
590
00:39:13,646 --> 00:39:17,396
I believed it was
the same frustrated desire
591
00:39:17,813 --> 00:39:19,188
tinged with regret
592
00:39:20,063 --> 00:39:21,813
that I like so much in Blimp.
593
00:39:26,563 --> 00:39:28,146
I think that's what attracted me.
594
00:39:28,605 --> 00:39:31,105
The fact that emotion is repressed
595
00:39:31,771 --> 00:39:33,521
and that reserve is a must.
596
00:39:35,063 --> 00:39:37,146
I was in love with her.
Your wife.
597
00:39:40,605 --> 00:39:42,021
She never told me.
598
00:39:42,230 --> 00:39:43,396
She never knew.
599
00:39:45,271 --> 00:39:47,396
But I seem to remem--
600
00:39:47,646 --> 00:39:51,021
Oh, Clive, that last day in Berlin,
when I told you
601
00:39:51,021 --> 00:39:52,646
you seemed genuinely happy.
602
00:39:52,646 --> 00:39:54,771
Dash it, I didn't know then.
603
00:39:55,355 --> 00:39:57,771
But on the train, I started to miss her.
604
00:39:58,396 --> 00:39:59,563
On the boat, it was worse.
605
00:39:59,563 --> 00:40:02,688
By the time I got back to London,
well, I'd got it properly.
606
00:40:03,188 --> 00:40:05,355
My Aunt Margaret got
onto the scent straight away.
607
00:40:05,355 --> 00:40:07,480
Women have a nose
for these sort of things.
608
00:40:08,396 --> 00:40:11,438
You may say that she was my ideal.
609
00:40:13,313 --> 00:40:14,313
Sir?
610
00:40:16,521 --> 00:40:18,938
Did you feel sympathetic
to Blimp as a character?
611
00:40:19,438 --> 00:40:21,688
Oh, yes, I identified completely with him.
612
00:40:22,188 --> 00:40:24,896
- Lots of things are exactly like me.
- Such as?
613
00:40:25,355 --> 00:40:26,938
Couldn't be more English.
614
00:40:28,396 --> 00:40:29,521
I was sentimental.
615
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:31,480
And...
616
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:34,771
love women and dogs.
617
00:40:35,188 --> 00:40:39,271
I'd always felt enormously sympathetic
with that kind of man.
618
00:40:39,730 --> 00:40:43,271
Honorable, puzzled, innocent.
619
00:40:43,980 --> 00:40:46,146
I see myself very much like that.
620
00:40:47,980 --> 00:40:52,771
Blimp is Powell and Pressburger's
first really profound and personal film.
621
00:40:53,438 --> 00:40:54,438
And for me
622
00:40:54,855 --> 00:40:56,105
their first masterpiece.
623
00:40:57,771 --> 00:41:01,146
I've watched it so many times
that it's become part of my life.
624
00:41:01,396 --> 00:41:02,730
And the longer I live
625
00:41:04,021 --> 00:41:06,730
the stronger grows my sense
of what the characters are feeling.
626
00:41:08,230 --> 00:41:12,230
It's the film that says the most
to me about growing up,
627
00:41:13,188 --> 00:41:14,188
growing old
628
00:41:14,646 --> 00:41:17,730
and eventually,
having to let go.
629
00:41:25,730 --> 00:41:28,605
The Archer's next work,
A Canterbury Tale
630
00:41:29,230 --> 00:41:32,188
begins like a classic
'Merry England' film.
631
00:41:36,438 --> 00:41:39,063
With Chaucer's pilgrims
on the road to Canterbury.
632
00:41:41,855 --> 00:41:42,980
But then...
633
00:41:43,688 --> 00:41:44,938
a famous transition.
634
00:41:47,396 --> 00:41:50,855
The medieval falcon
turns into a modern Spitfire.
635
00:41:51,730 --> 00:41:53,355
The film that we are about to see
636
00:41:53,355 --> 00:41:57,105
suggests that a connection
to our history is crucial
637
00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,521
to our spiritual wellbeing.
638
00:42:02,188 --> 00:42:05,646
One of the propaganda tasks
at the time was to ask,
639
00:42:05,938 --> 00:42:07,271
what are we fighting for?
640
00:42:09,771 --> 00:42:13,771
And Powell and Pressburger now
sought their answers to that question
641
00:42:14,021 --> 00:42:17,855
in the history and traditions
of the English countryside.
642
00:42:19,021 --> 00:42:22,021
Why don't you keep your beastly carriers
off the Pilgrims Road?
643
00:42:22,813 --> 00:42:24,605
Michael loved his native Kent.
644
00:42:24,855 --> 00:42:27,146
He loved the people
and culture of England.
645
00:42:27,980 --> 00:42:30,563
And in this film,
he wanted to express all that.
646
00:42:30,688 --> 00:42:32,146
Eight o'clock, Bob.
647
00:42:37,230 --> 00:42:40,105
He had a specially deep feelings
for Canterbury Cathedral.
648
00:42:41,021 --> 00:42:44,813
That's where he had sung as a boy
in the King's School Choir.
649
00:42:45,605 --> 00:42:48,063
From the bend,
at the eastern edge of the hill,
650
00:42:48,813 --> 00:42:51,063
pilgrims saw Canterbury
for the first time.
651
00:42:51,230 --> 00:42:52,230
You've seen it?
652
00:42:52,771 --> 00:42:53,771
Yes.
653
00:42:55,438 --> 00:42:56,646
With a friend of mine.
654
00:42:56,938 --> 00:42:58,105
A boy or a girl?
655
00:42:58,605 --> 00:42:59,605
Boy.
656
00:42:59,730 --> 00:43:01,146
I hope he writes to you.
657
00:43:03,896 --> 00:43:04,896
No, he doesn't.
658
00:43:05,063 --> 00:43:07,771
Maybe the mail was lost
by enemy action.
659
00:43:09,063 --> 00:43:10,230
No, Bob.
660
00:43:11,188 --> 00:43:12,188
As it happens,
661
00:43:12,855 --> 00:43:14,521
he was lost by enemy action.
662
00:43:15,771 --> 00:43:16,771
He was a pilot.
663
00:43:17,855 --> 00:43:18,855
Shot down?
664
00:43:19,563 --> 00:43:20,563
Yes.
665
00:43:20,855 --> 00:43:21,855
I'm sorry.
666
00:43:26,980 --> 00:43:30,021
The central characters of the film are,
without knowing it,
667
00:43:30,688 --> 00:43:32,021
modern pilgrims.
668
00:43:32,605 --> 00:43:34,563
Each on their own journey to Canterbury.
669
00:43:36,063 --> 00:43:37,480
They're lost souls,
670
00:43:38,063 --> 00:43:40,438
all in some way adrift and bereft.
671
00:43:41,730 --> 00:43:45,438
All in need of a blessing
to heal and restore them.
672
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:48,480
And here
673
00:43:48,605 --> 00:43:52,480
as the Land Girl Alison
walks in the Kent countryside
674
00:43:53,271 --> 00:43:55,063
the place starts to speak to her.
675
00:43:57,438 --> 00:44:00,646
She hears in the landscape,
the voices and the music
676
00:44:00,980 --> 00:44:02,188
of the old pilgrims.
677
00:44:03,063 --> 00:44:04,230
Her ancestors.
678
00:44:18,063 --> 00:44:20,271
If you stop, listen,
679
00:44:21,355 --> 00:44:22,355
pay attention,
680
00:44:23,063 --> 00:44:24,813
the past will speak to you.
681
00:44:25,980 --> 00:44:27,605
And the voices of the past
682
00:44:27,980 --> 00:44:31,188
will help you to make sense
of your life in the present.
683
00:44:32,438 --> 00:44:33,563
Glorious, isn't it?
684
00:44:38,730 --> 00:44:39,938
Is anybody there?
685
00:44:40,521 --> 00:44:42,271
Michael and Emeric are always trying
686
00:44:42,271 --> 00:44:46,188
to set traps to capture magic,
as Emeric puts it.
687
00:44:46,855 --> 00:44:50,813
They wanna go beyond the representation
of everyday experiences
688
00:44:50,813 --> 00:44:55,438
and find ways to communicate what
is deep and mysterious in our lives.
689
00:44:57,438 --> 00:45:01,980
There's a mysticism here that's quite
new in Powell and Pressburger's work.
690
00:45:01,980 --> 00:45:04,396
There are higher courts
than the local bench of magistrates.
691
00:45:06,271 --> 00:45:07,396
With a light touch
692
00:45:07,896 --> 00:45:10,646
they seek to conjure up
the world of the spirit.
693
00:45:11,688 --> 00:45:14,688
Pilgrims for Canterbury
all out and get your blessings.
694
00:45:14,688 --> 00:45:16,188
Rum sort of pilgrimage for you.
695
00:45:16,896 --> 00:45:20,021
Pilgrimage can be
either to receive a blessing
696
00:45:20,521 --> 00:45:21,646
or to do penance.
697
00:45:21,896 --> 00:45:22,896
I don't need either.
698
00:45:23,355 --> 00:45:24,605
Perhaps you are an instrument.
699
00:45:24,896 --> 00:45:26,146
Do I get a flaming sword?
700
00:45:27,563 --> 00:45:28,855
Nothing would surprise me.
701
00:45:31,980 --> 00:45:34,146
I'll believe that when I see
a halo around my head.
702
00:45:44,271 --> 00:45:46,480
You get a very good view
of the cathedral now.
703
00:46:13,271 --> 00:46:14,855
For all its strangeness,
704
00:46:15,730 --> 00:46:19,605
this is the most humble of
the famous Archers films.
705
00:46:19,605 --> 00:46:21,438
The most restrained and earnest,
706
00:46:21,980 --> 00:46:25,063
and the one most concerned
with ordinary lives.
707
00:46:31,105 --> 00:46:33,521
The central characters
are in the same condition
708
00:46:33,521 --> 00:46:36,271
that most of the audience
would have been in 1944.
709
00:46:37,105 --> 00:46:38,813
Separated from their loved ones.
710
00:46:40,105 --> 00:46:42,105
Dutifully putting up a brave front.
711
00:46:43,021 --> 00:46:44,230
But quietly,
712
00:46:45,105 --> 00:46:47,771
full of fear, loneliness and grief.
713
00:46:50,646 --> 00:46:53,230
One thing that the film
very much wants to do
714
00:46:53,438 --> 00:46:56,563
is offer consolation
to the suffering.
715
00:46:57,271 --> 00:46:59,396
And just when Alison is in despair,
716
00:47:00,188 --> 00:47:02,563
she gets the news that her fiance's father
717
00:47:02,563 --> 00:47:04,646
is in Canterbury looking for her.
718
00:47:04,646 --> 00:47:07,063
For over two weeks now,
he's waited for you here
719
00:47:07,063 --> 00:47:08,313
in Canterbury.
720
00:47:11,355 --> 00:47:12,355
Why?
721
00:47:12,355 --> 00:47:16,855
Because he has news, Miss Allison,
official news about Mr Geoffrey.
722
00:47:16,980 --> 00:47:18,146
He's in Gibraltar.
723
00:47:21,105 --> 00:47:22,105
Miss Alison.
724
00:47:31,938 --> 00:47:34,605
This is a film that says
that miracles do happen.
725
00:47:35,813 --> 00:47:37,605
I must open the windows.
726
00:47:39,188 --> 00:47:40,813
And at the end of your pilgrimage,
727
00:47:42,313 --> 00:47:44,688
you may indeed receive a blessing.
728
00:48:02,438 --> 00:48:06,563
The film finishes with a whole regiment
of troops marching into the cathedral.
729
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:09,063
They're about to go overseas
730
00:48:09,063 --> 00:48:12,021
and we don't know how many
of them will come back.
731
00:48:18,313 --> 00:48:19,688
Here, perhaps
732
00:48:20,105 --> 00:48:22,146
Canterbury Cathedral represents
733
00:48:22,396 --> 00:48:26,271
embattled Britain herself
as a place worth protecting.
734
00:48:26,605 --> 00:48:28,646
A place worth fighting for.
735
00:48:42,313 --> 00:48:45,980
Powell and Pressburger are preachers
as much as propagandists in this film.
736
00:48:46,896 --> 00:48:49,646
The result was their first flop.
737
00:48:50,188 --> 00:48:53,355
The film is just too strange
and elusive for a mass audience.
738
00:49:01,105 --> 00:49:03,563
But the partners were
unshaken by this setback.
739
00:49:03,813 --> 00:49:06,063
There was a period of
profound trust between them
740
00:49:06,063 --> 00:49:08,730
and they knew exactly
where they were going next.
741
00:49:09,730 --> 00:49:13,313
When Joan was only one year old,
she already knew where she was going.
742
00:49:13,521 --> 00:49:15,438
Going right, left.
743
00:49:15,855 --> 00:49:17,230
No, straight on.
744
00:49:19,188 --> 00:49:22,063
With I Know Where I'm Going
we know right away
745
00:49:22,063 --> 00:49:23,730
that we're going to enjoy ourselves.
746
00:49:24,980 --> 00:49:27,855
By now it was clear that the Allies
were going to win the war
747
00:49:27,855 --> 00:49:31,105
and Michael and Emeric were
able to relax a little.
748
00:49:31,105 --> 00:49:33,313
Allowing their sense of humor to bloom.
749
00:49:33,521 --> 00:49:34,938
She's 25 now.
750
00:49:35,105 --> 00:49:37,188
And in one thing, she's never changed,
751
00:49:37,605 --> 00:49:39,438
she still knows where she's going.
752
00:49:39,646 --> 00:49:41,021
Good evening, Miss Webster.
753
00:49:41,813 --> 00:49:42,980
Good evening, Leon.
754
00:49:45,438 --> 00:49:46,480
Hello, darling.
755
00:49:46,855 --> 00:49:48,771
We're introduced to
a new kind of character
756
00:49:48,771 --> 00:49:51,021
in the shape of Joan Webster
757
00:49:51,021 --> 00:49:52,146
Daddy?
758
00:49:52,271 --> 00:49:53,355
I'm going to be married.
759
00:49:53,980 --> 00:49:54,980
What?
760
00:49:55,230 --> 00:49:57,021
- Your table, Miss Webster.
- Thank you, Fred.
761
00:50:00,855 --> 00:50:02,855
Let's go in, darling. Bring a drink.
762
00:50:04,438 --> 00:50:07,646
It's the first Archers film
to place a woman front and center
763
00:50:07,896 --> 00:50:12,188
and she is perhaps not a million miles
away from Wendy Green,
764
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:16,396
the woman who Emeric had avidly courted
and recently married.
765
00:50:17,105 --> 00:50:19,438
Wendy, it seems was strong-willed,
766
00:50:19,438 --> 00:50:22,188
sophisticated and materialistic.
767
00:50:22,355 --> 00:50:25,271
Charged to your account
madam, of course.
768
00:50:27,105 --> 00:50:30,646
Perhaps that's why the script seemed
to flow so easily for Emeric.
769
00:50:30,896 --> 00:50:33,563
He drafted the whole thing out
in less than a week.
770
00:50:33,563 --> 00:50:35,230
Lady Bellinger's car!
771
00:50:35,563 --> 00:50:38,105
Joans story begins with a journey north.
772
00:50:43,396 --> 00:50:46,021
You can't marry
Consolidated Chemical Industries.
773
00:50:46,563 --> 00:50:47,896
Can't I?
774
00:50:48,896 --> 00:50:51,355
She's on her way
to a small Scottish island
775
00:50:51,355 --> 00:50:54,146
where she is due to
wed Sir Robert Bellinger,
776
00:50:54,438 --> 00:50:58,271
the wealthy head
of Consolidated Chemical Industries.
777
00:51:03,188 --> 00:51:04,938
Do you, Joan Webster
778
00:51:05,396 --> 00:51:07,980
take Consolidated Chemical Industries
779
00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:10,146
to be your lawful wedded husband?
780
00:51:10,146 --> 00:51:12,480
- I do.
- Glasgow Central!
781
00:51:12,688 --> 00:51:13,980
Oh! Yes?
782
00:51:13,980 --> 00:51:16,980
There's a gentleman to meet you.
And the stationmaster's with him.
783
00:51:18,271 --> 00:51:20,230
You'll need all your time
to get to Buchanan Street.
784
00:51:20,230 --> 00:51:22,146
Now, The Archers are
really having fun here.
785
00:51:22,896 --> 00:51:23,938
Watch that top hat.
786
00:51:33,146 --> 00:51:37,271
This journey north was perhaps
a gift that Emeric gave to Michael
787
00:51:37,271 --> 00:51:41,063
because it was a journey
that Michael loved to make himself.
788
00:51:41,563 --> 00:51:44,271
Scotland was his favorite place
to be in the world.
789
00:51:44,271 --> 00:51:46,188
And whenever he finished shooting a film,
790
00:51:46,646 --> 00:51:49,813
he would refresh himself
by going on hiking trips there.
791
00:51:52,855 --> 00:51:54,521
Hear ye!
792
00:51:54,688 --> 00:51:55,813
For Joan Webster,
793
00:51:56,105 --> 00:51:59,480
the Western Isles turn out to be
a challenging proposition.
794
00:51:59,730 --> 00:52:00,896
Bad luck, no crossing today.
795
00:52:01,230 --> 00:52:04,313
She'll spend much of the film
trying to get a boat to the island
796
00:52:04,313 --> 00:52:05,688
where her fiance is waiting.
797
00:52:05,688 --> 00:52:08,146
Would you like to wait up at the house?
I know the people.
798
00:52:08,146 --> 00:52:09,313
Thank you.
799
00:52:09,313 --> 00:52:11,271
But it's been arranged for
the boat to meet me here
800
00:52:11,271 --> 00:52:12,813
and I better be here to meet it.
801
00:52:14,271 --> 00:52:15,271
Good.
802
00:52:19,605 --> 00:52:22,188
If my boat doesn't come,
will you take me?
803
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:24,188
No, I will not, m'lady.
804
00:52:25,021 --> 00:52:28,980
In just three or four
intensely atmospheric shots
805
00:52:29,730 --> 00:52:34,355
we get a pungent sense of
how alien the place is to her.
806
00:52:34,355 --> 00:52:37,021
You'll see a wee gate,
up the brae.
807
00:52:37,021 --> 00:52:41,688
Joan must accept the hospitality
of the locals until the weather improves.
808
00:52:42,605 --> 00:52:47,355
And they turn out to be a bunch
of eccentric and independent people
809
00:52:47,563 --> 00:52:51,521
whose outlook on life is
very different from her own.
810
00:52:51,521 --> 00:52:52,896
I was just going down to get you.
811
00:52:52,896 --> 00:52:55,146
Come on in, we've lit the fire.
You met the Colonel I see.
812
00:52:55,146 --> 00:52:57,813
I've had that exceptional pleasure.
My name's Barnstable.
813
00:52:57,813 --> 00:52:59,438
Colonel Barnstable,
the greatest hawk trainer--
814
00:52:59,438 --> 00:53:01,813
Falconer, my dear Torquil!
815
00:53:01,813 --> 00:53:03,980
The greatest falconer
in the Western Isles.
816
00:53:03,980 --> 00:53:05,563
In the world, old boy.
817
00:53:06,521 --> 00:53:08,605
Although it's a comedy and romance,
818
00:53:08,730 --> 00:53:10,605
it's also a film about values.
819
00:53:10,980 --> 00:53:14,771
And these feisty characters
stand for all sorts of qualities
820
00:53:14,896 --> 00:53:17,063
that Michael and Emeric
liked and believed in.
821
00:53:18,438 --> 00:53:21,063
- Catriona!
- There's the dear girl now.
822
00:53:21,396 --> 00:53:24,146
Courage, kindness and generosity,
823
00:53:24,146 --> 00:53:26,188
warmth and good fellowship.
824
00:53:26,188 --> 00:53:27,521
Torquil!
825
00:53:28,230 --> 00:53:30,855
[They speak Gaelic]
826
00:53:30,855 --> 00:53:32,646
Mrs Potts!
827
00:53:33,230 --> 00:53:36,730
The character who most fully
embodies all of these qualities
828
00:53:37,021 --> 00:53:38,021
is Torquil.
829
00:53:38,355 --> 00:53:40,146
He's a naval officer on leave.
830
00:53:40,563 --> 00:53:42,021
Have you got a match
or a lighter?
831
00:53:44,730 --> 00:53:45,730
Thanks.
832
00:53:46,146 --> 00:53:50,188
He clearly represents a terrible threat
to Joan's marriage plans.
833
00:53:50,188 --> 00:53:52,271
And the question of the film becomes,
834
00:53:52,730 --> 00:53:53,896
can she resist him?
835
00:53:55,688 --> 00:53:56,730
Thank you.
836
00:53:57,313 --> 00:54:00,980
What stands in Torquil's way,
of course, is Sir Robert Bellinger.
837
00:54:01,396 --> 00:54:03,396
Hello, my dear.
Robert speaking.
838
00:54:03,396 --> 00:54:05,438
Cartier delivered the ring, I hope.
839
00:54:05,730 --> 00:54:08,813
Of course, Robert, everything was lovely.
840
00:54:08,813 --> 00:54:11,688
Now, listen, Joan, write down a
telephone number. Are you ready?
841
00:54:12,021 --> 00:54:13,480
2-36.
You got it?
842
00:54:14,063 --> 00:54:17,313
It's the Robinson's number.
They've rented the castle at Sorn.
843
00:54:17,605 --> 00:54:21,021
They're the only people worthwhile
knowing around here. Over.
844
00:54:21,688 --> 00:54:23,313
And when we meet his friends,
845
00:54:23,646 --> 00:54:26,063
the Robinsons, they are superior
846
00:54:26,230 --> 00:54:28,730
and sensitive and self-regarding.
847
00:54:28,896 --> 00:54:30,021
Let's have a look at you.
848
00:54:31,646 --> 00:54:33,605
Oh yes, you pass.
849
00:54:33,896 --> 00:54:36,521
You're going to marry
Sir Robert Bellinger, aren't you?
850
00:54:36,521 --> 00:54:37,855
Yes. Do you mind?
851
00:54:37,855 --> 00:54:38,896
I don't mind.
852
00:54:40,313 --> 00:54:41,605
He's rich, isn't he?
853
00:54:41,605 --> 00:54:44,021
Well, I haven't counted his money.
854
00:54:44,021 --> 00:54:45,105
Are you rich?
855
00:54:46,271 --> 00:54:47,355
No.
856
00:54:49,896 --> 00:54:53,313
Coming after A Canterbury Tale
Emeric called this film
857
00:54:53,521 --> 00:54:57,771
the second episode in The Archer's
crusade against materialism.
858
00:54:58,146 --> 00:55:00,313
People around here
are very poor, I suppose.
859
00:55:00,313 --> 00:55:03,021
- Not poor. They just haven't got money.
- It's the same thing.
860
00:55:03,021 --> 00:55:04,688
Oh, no, something quite different.
861
00:55:10,355 --> 00:55:11,396
Better?
862
00:55:18,021 --> 00:55:20,313
The longer that Joan
spends with Torquil
863
00:55:20,688 --> 00:55:23,938
the more she falls under the spell
of this man and his world.
864
00:55:24,271 --> 00:55:25,313
Careful.
865
00:55:32,480 --> 00:55:35,521
That's a fine song.
Nut Brown Maiden. Do you know it?
866
00:55:36,646 --> 00:55:37,646
Tune up, my boys!
867
00:55:37,813 --> 00:55:39,313
My favorite part is where Torquil
868
00:55:40,063 --> 00:55:41,813
recites the words of a song.
869
00:55:41,813 --> 00:55:44,146
"Ho ro my nut-brown maiden,
870
00:55:44,646 --> 00:55:46,313
Hee ree my nut-brown maiden,
871
00:55:47,021 --> 00:55:49,813
Ho ro ro ro maiden,
872
00:55:50,146 --> 00:55:51,563
You're the maid for me."
873
00:56:03,146 --> 00:56:05,730
Now, this is a film that you
show to someone you care about
874
00:56:05,938 --> 00:56:10,063
as a way of possibly trying to say
something that you can't put into words.
875
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:12,438
Share the experience so to speak.
876
00:56:12,771 --> 00:56:15,771
And I know I'm not the only person
to have done that.
877
00:56:17,105 --> 00:56:18,730
It's a film that seems to
878
00:56:19,271 --> 00:56:22,355
cast a spell over many
romantic relationships.
879
00:56:22,521 --> 00:56:25,271
Is it not enough that you've been told
that you cannot sail today?
880
00:56:25,271 --> 00:56:27,438
Do you think you know better than
folk who have lived here all their lives?
881
00:56:27,438 --> 00:56:30,021
Ruairidh said it was going down.
Kenny said so too.
882
00:56:30,021 --> 00:56:32,646
What do you expect Kenny to say?
You bought him, did you not?
883
00:56:32,646 --> 00:56:34,021
There's no need to shout at me!
884
00:56:34,021 --> 00:56:36,396
Oh, go ahead, then!
885
00:56:37,105 --> 00:56:38,438
And drown yourself!
886
00:56:39,688 --> 00:56:41,563
She's running away from you.
887
00:56:44,646 --> 00:56:46,146
Say that again.
888
00:56:53,563 --> 00:56:57,771
In the end, we find Joan and Torquil
together in a small boat.
889
00:56:57,771 --> 00:56:59,980
Get down under the hood
and hang on!
890
00:57:06,063 --> 00:57:08,271
Oh! My dress!
891
00:57:11,980 --> 00:57:13,855
Don't mess about! Bail!
892
00:57:15,146 --> 00:57:17,771
The motor has gone,
the weather is evil
893
00:57:18,271 --> 00:57:22,146
and they're heading towards
a terrible whirlpool, Corryvreckan.
894
00:57:23,646 --> 00:57:26,063
This is a film about
love as a force of nature
895
00:57:26,063 --> 00:57:28,646
that can knock your life
completely off course.
896
00:57:29,855 --> 00:57:33,396
And Joan's fate seems to lie,
not just in the hands of Torquil
897
00:57:34,313 --> 00:57:36,271
but in the hands of the nature gods.
898
00:57:49,938 --> 00:57:52,938
The film has something which
is rather unusual for The Archers,
899
00:57:53,688 --> 00:57:55,438
a conventional happy ending.
900
00:57:56,521 --> 00:57:59,605
But this romance is
a truly enchanted creation.
901
00:58:00,688 --> 00:58:04,313
In my view, it's one of the most
beautiful love stories ever made.
902
00:58:05,688 --> 00:58:06,730
Hoy!
903
00:58:06,855 --> 00:58:08,021
Hoy!
904
00:58:09,980 --> 00:58:13,021
It is also a mystical poem
on the natural world.
905
00:58:13,396 --> 00:58:15,938
And a sermon on correct values.
906
00:58:19,855 --> 00:58:22,188
By now, the whole country was
starting to think about
907
00:58:22,188 --> 00:58:24,438
what kind of place Britain should become
908
00:58:24,438 --> 00:58:26,230
once the hostilities were over.
909
00:58:27,521 --> 00:58:31,813
And Michael and Emeric used this
film to offer the idealistic proposal
910
00:58:32,105 --> 00:58:33,438
that it might become a nation
911
00:58:33,646 --> 00:58:35,980
that values people according
to their character
912
00:58:36,646 --> 00:58:37,771
rather than their money.
913
00:58:38,605 --> 00:58:39,938
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
914
00:58:39,938 --> 00:58:41,396
FILM DIVISION, THEATRE
915
00:58:41,396 --> 00:58:44,146
The themes of all The Archers
films during the war years
916
00:58:44,146 --> 00:58:46,938
had to be agreed with
the Ministry of Information.
917
00:58:47,855 --> 00:58:50,813
Well, the Ministry of Information
had a films division.
918
00:58:51,021 --> 00:58:52,480
Jack Beddington was
the head of it.
919
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:56,896
And no film could be made during
the wartime without their approval.
920
00:58:56,896 --> 00:58:59,813
And Jack Beddington asked us
to come and meet him
921
00:59:00,146 --> 00:59:01,396
and said,
922
00:59:01,771 --> 00:59:03,105
while we were losing the war,
923
00:59:03,105 --> 00:59:06,771
our relations with the Americans
were very good,
924
00:59:06,980 --> 00:59:09,230
but now we're winning the war
they're not so good.
925
00:59:11,271 --> 00:59:16,313
So he said, would you two consider
writing an original film and making
926
00:59:16,313 --> 00:59:20,605
an original film about Anglo-American
relations, to improve them?
927
00:59:22,063 --> 00:59:24,688
The Archer's response
is not a combat film
928
00:59:25,021 --> 00:59:27,021
but a poetic fantasy.
929
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:29,771
You seem like a nice girl.
I can't give you my position.
930
00:59:29,771 --> 00:59:31,563
Instruments gone, crew gone too.
931
00:59:31,563 --> 00:59:34,105
All except Bob, here,
my sparks, he's dead.
932
00:59:34,105 --> 00:59:35,605
The rest bailed out on my orders.
933
00:59:35,605 --> 00:59:37,355
Time 0335, you get that?
934
00:59:37,355 --> 00:59:41,021
In the first scene we meet Peter,
played by David Niven.
935
00:59:41,355 --> 00:59:44,105
We've had it.
And I'd rather jump than fry.
936
00:59:44,438 --> 00:59:46,188
After the first 1000 feet
what's the difference?
937
00:59:46,188 --> 00:59:47,730
I shan't know anything anyway,
938
00:59:48,480 --> 00:59:50,063
I say, I hope I haven't frightened you.
939
00:59:51,730 --> 00:59:54,188
- No, I'm not frightened.
- Good girl.
940
00:59:54,396 --> 00:59:59,271
From the cockpit of his doomed plane
he speaks to June, played by Kim Hunter.
941
00:59:59,521 --> 01:00:01,813
Are you in love with anybody?
No, no, don't answer that.
942
01:00:02,313 --> 01:00:03,980
I could love a man like you, Peter.
943
01:00:03,980 --> 01:00:06,396
I love you, June, you're life
and I'm leaving you.
944
01:00:06,646 --> 01:00:08,563
Peter is hurtling towards death
945
01:00:08,563 --> 01:00:10,813
and falling in love,
at the same time.
946
01:00:10,813 --> 01:00:12,896
I'm signing off now, June.
Goodbye.
947
01:00:12,896 --> 01:00:13,980
Goodbye, June.
948
01:00:13,980 --> 01:00:16,771
Hello, G for George. Hello G-George.
949
01:00:17,021 --> 01:00:18,396
Hello G-George?
950
01:00:18,896 --> 01:00:19,896
Hel--
951
01:00:24,855 --> 01:00:26,855
So long, Bob,
I'll see you in a minute.
952
01:00:26,855 --> 01:00:29,896
You know what we wear
by now. Proper wings!
953
01:00:30,771 --> 01:00:32,646
This is an emphatic expression
954
01:00:32,855 --> 01:00:37,896
of why Powell and Pressburger
were not documentary filmmakers.
955
01:00:40,480 --> 01:00:43,646
They wanted to achieve
the kind of heightened intensity
956
01:00:43,980 --> 01:00:46,563
that is only possible
through artifice.
957
01:00:50,063 --> 01:00:54,230
Peter washes up on a deserted shore
with no idea where he is.
958
01:00:56,980 --> 01:01:00,396
He miraculously meets June
cycling along the beach.
959
01:01:00,813 --> 01:01:01,855
Hello.
960
01:01:02,396 --> 01:01:03,938
Hello yourself. What's wrong?
961
01:01:04,355 --> 01:01:08,271
And the couple are instantly
certain of their love for each other.
962
01:01:08,438 --> 01:01:09,480
You're June.
963
01:01:17,230 --> 01:01:18,313
You're Peter.
964
01:01:22,271 --> 01:01:26,105
The trouble is that according
to divine calculations,
965
01:01:26,105 --> 01:01:27,396
Peter ought to be dead.
966
01:01:28,146 --> 01:01:31,230
91,716 invoiced
967
01:01:31,521 --> 01:01:35,105
91,715 checked in.
968
01:01:35,396 --> 01:01:37,563
- Conductor 71?
- Madame,
969
01:01:37,688 --> 01:01:39,063
it could have
happened to anybody.
970
01:01:39,063 --> 01:01:40,146
How did it happen?
971
01:01:40,146 --> 01:01:43,355
Everything was calculated
except for this accursed fog.
972
01:01:43,355 --> 01:01:47,271
The pilot jumped, he got lost in the fog,
I missed him.
973
01:01:48,063 --> 01:01:52,313
The heavenly conductor is now ordered
to go back to Earth,
974
01:01:52,313 --> 01:01:55,688
find Peter and rectify his mistake.
975
01:01:56,063 --> 01:01:59,188
By the way, Monsieur, when you see Peter,
would you give him a message for me?
976
01:01:59,188 --> 01:02:02,480
- Avec plaisir.
- Just say, “What ho.”
977
01:02:03,063 --> 01:02:04,105
Bon.
978
01:02:17,938 --> 01:02:22,605
One is starved for Technicolor up there.
979
01:02:26,146 --> 01:02:29,188
What a night for love.
980
01:02:33,688 --> 01:02:37,855
The idea of the two worlds was
Emeric's most audacious concept yet.
981
01:02:38,063 --> 01:02:40,605
And he made a bold decision
about color too
982
01:02:41,021 --> 01:02:45,730
when he decided that the other world
should be a rather dry, bureaucratic,
983
01:02:46,271 --> 01:02:47,855
monochrome sort of place.
984
01:02:48,188 --> 01:02:50,563
Whereas this world is the colorful one.
985
01:02:51,855 --> 01:02:55,188
The home of fire and passion,
beauty, and poetry.
986
01:02:55,813 --> 01:02:59,480
Peter's problem is that he's not sure
which world he belongs in anymore.
987
01:02:59,605 --> 01:03:03,188
Will he be allowed to live out
his love for June here on Earth
988
01:03:03,563 --> 01:03:05,813
or will he have to move on
to the other world.
989
01:03:06,396 --> 01:03:07,396
In short,
990
01:03:08,188 --> 01:03:09,646
does he belong among the living,
991
01:03:10,688 --> 01:03:11,771
or the dead?
992
01:03:13,271 --> 01:03:16,021
He's having a series
of highly organized hallucinations
993
01:03:16,313 --> 01:03:19,021
comparable to an experience
of actual life.
994
01:03:19,021 --> 01:03:22,313
A combination of vision
of hearing and of idea.
995
01:03:22,605 --> 01:03:25,563
The film marked a big moment
for Powell Pressburger
996
01:03:25,563 --> 01:03:29,396
because this is where they threw off
entirely the shackles of realism
997
01:03:30,688 --> 01:03:33,146
and happily embraced surrealism.
998
01:03:57,313 --> 01:03:58,605
Doc, he's here! June!
999
01:04:00,396 --> 01:04:03,105
Michael, always loved
the idea of the film director
1000
01:04:03,105 --> 01:04:05,521
as a magician with a box of tricks.
1001
01:04:06,271 --> 01:04:07,271
Doc?
1002
01:04:10,730 --> 01:04:13,605
Reveling in old-style effects
and illusions
1003
01:04:13,938 --> 01:04:17,105
It's as though he's remembering
his youth in silent movies,
1004
01:04:17,271 --> 01:04:20,521
working with Rex Ingram
at the Victorine studios.
1005
01:04:26,105 --> 01:04:29,813
The Rex Ingram influence
gave the film its scale too,
1006
01:04:30,730 --> 01:04:33,230
making it ambitious
as well as adventurous.
1007
01:04:33,646 --> 01:04:34,730
Come back!
1008
01:04:35,855 --> 01:04:38,563
Peter! Peter! Come back!
1009
01:04:39,688 --> 01:04:43,855
The film needed marvels of set design
and cinematography in order to succeed.
1010
01:04:44,771 --> 01:04:48,063
But by now, The Archers
had evolved into a big family
1011
01:04:48,063 --> 01:04:50,355
of highly skilled technicians.
1012
01:04:51,396 --> 01:04:55,563
One of the most important members of
the team was art director Alfred Junger,
1013
01:04:55,980 --> 01:04:57,438
a design wizard
1014
01:04:57,438 --> 01:05:01,563
who also had the practical skills
of an engineer or an architect.
1015
01:05:17,730 --> 01:05:22,355
We had the greatest film art director
that I think has ever lived.
1016
01:05:22,771 --> 01:05:27,855
He goes back, you see, to the early days
of Fritz Lang and Metropolis
1017
01:05:27,980 --> 01:05:31,855
and when we asked him to do things
like the moving stairway
1018
01:05:31,855 --> 01:05:34,313
that all had to be
worked out in perspective
1019
01:05:34,313 --> 01:05:36,480
and shot practically
all the same day.
1020
01:05:36,771 --> 01:05:39,396
Because end of the war,
we didn't have enough steel
1021
01:05:39,396 --> 01:05:41,355
and we didn't have enough
electric power
1022
01:05:41,355 --> 01:05:43,730
to work that staircase all the time.
1023
01:05:43,896 --> 01:05:47,855
So all the shots up the staircase
or shots down the staircase,
1024
01:05:47,855 --> 01:05:50,521
were all worked out in perspective
on the drawing board.
1025
01:05:51,188 --> 01:05:54,605
I think it's a very important point
with all these people
1026
01:05:54,605 --> 01:05:57,938
they are all, not only
marvelous technicians,
1027
01:05:58,188 --> 01:05:59,521
but they are all people
1028
01:06:00,730 --> 01:06:02,813
who loved solving problems.
1029
01:06:04,855 --> 01:06:05,980
And we loved setting them!
1030
01:06:06,105 --> 01:06:07,563
There are a great number of,
1031
01:06:07,855 --> 01:06:12,063
there are a great number of people who
are very happy when there are no problems,
1032
01:06:12,396 --> 01:06:15,771
but there are some
who adore problems.
1033
01:06:15,771 --> 01:06:18,980
And we had this big team
around us by now, you know
1034
01:06:19,563 --> 01:06:22,563
who just came saying,
"What's the problem?"
1035
01:06:23,480 --> 01:06:25,855
How do you work with actors,
Mr Powell, on the set?
1036
01:06:26,021 --> 01:06:29,230
I just start the day saying
I've been thinking about this sequence,
1037
01:06:29,230 --> 01:06:30,521
I suggest we do this,
1038
01:06:30,813 --> 01:06:32,063
what do you think?
1039
01:06:32,063 --> 01:06:34,355
And they usually say they
want to do something different.
1040
01:06:35,188 --> 01:06:36,480
So then we argue.
1041
01:06:37,521 --> 01:06:38,771
Not for long.
1042
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:42,480
David Niven, just heaven to work with.
1043
01:06:43,105 --> 01:06:47,521
And very punctilious.
David always leaves at 10 to 6, exactly.
1044
01:06:48,355 --> 01:06:49,938
Even if you're in
the middle of a shot
1045
01:06:50,105 --> 01:06:52,813
comes up and says,
"Sorry, old man, gotta go, you know!"
1046
01:06:52,938 --> 01:06:54,813
- And he's gone!
- Oh really?
1047
01:07:04,188 --> 01:07:08,271
It was Michael who decided that
everything that Peter experiences
1048
01:07:08,271 --> 01:07:11,438
must be based on solid medical evidence.
1049
01:07:13,480 --> 01:07:19,063
And all the visual fireworks of the film
are underpinned by a very serious purpose.
1050
01:07:20,105 --> 01:07:24,605
They are means by which Michael can take
his camera inside a tormented psyche
1051
01:07:24,730 --> 01:07:25,813
and tell a story
1052
01:07:26,063 --> 01:07:28,896
about the mental damage
done by war.
1053
01:07:43,063 --> 01:07:45,563
He's haunted by these visions of the dead
1054
01:07:45,563 --> 01:07:49,271
flowing into the other world
in an unending stream
1055
01:07:53,146 --> 01:07:56,063
and he's uncertain how
he himself was spared.
1056
01:07:58,230 --> 01:08:01,146
These days, we might call it
survivor's guilt.
1057
01:08:04,271 --> 01:08:05,896
This was a time right after the war
1058
01:08:05,896 --> 01:08:09,855
when the primary trend in movies
was the emergence of film noir.
1059
01:08:10,896 --> 01:08:12,730
Bitter cynical movies, usually,
1060
01:08:13,105 --> 01:08:16,063
where the characters
are doomed from the start.
1061
01:08:16,896 --> 01:08:18,480
Peter. Peter!
1062
01:08:19,521 --> 01:08:22,480
Powell and Pressburger went
against the grain of all of that.
1063
01:08:27,271 --> 01:08:31,230
In all their major pictures of
the war years, they seek to offer help,
1064
01:08:32,230 --> 01:08:35,688
consolation, and
the possibility of renewal.
1065
01:08:38,230 --> 01:08:42,688
In A Matter of Life and Death
what they offer is a vision of love.
1066
01:08:48,480 --> 01:08:49,605
Permit me.
1067
01:08:50,438 --> 01:08:55,855
The hard won triumph of love,
surviving all and conquering all.
1068
01:08:58,730 --> 01:09:01,396
That's it, the only real bit
of evidence we have.
1069
01:09:02,646 --> 01:09:05,730
Quick. We must not keep
the court waiting.
1070
01:09:06,771 --> 01:09:09,313
One of the film's most beautiful conceits
1071
01:09:09,605 --> 01:09:12,563
is that despite the epic scale
of the imagery,
1072
01:09:12,730 --> 01:09:15,480
the proof of love is the tiniest thing.
1073
01:09:15,938 --> 01:09:19,105
A single tear gathered on a rose.
1074
01:09:27,313 --> 01:09:28,438
Goodbye, darling.
1075
01:09:30,688 --> 01:09:32,813
And June provides a second proof
1076
01:09:33,188 --> 01:09:36,521
when she willingly takes Peter's place
on the stairway to heaven
1077
01:09:37,521 --> 01:09:41,230
showing that she's prepared
to give up her life for his.
1078
01:09:46,063 --> 01:09:48,188
In this moment of self sacrifice
1079
01:09:48,188 --> 01:09:50,438
the moral of the film is bluntly stated.
1080
01:09:53,646 --> 01:09:57,355
Yes, Mr Farlan, nothing is stronger
than the law in the universe,
1081
01:09:57,355 --> 01:10:00,271
but on Earth,
nothing is stronger than love.
1082
01:10:07,313 --> 01:10:10,188
We cling together in the face of power
1083
01:10:11,105 --> 01:10:12,313
and in the face of death.
1084
01:10:13,563 --> 01:10:17,063
The single tear on the rose
weighs more heavy
1085
01:10:17,688 --> 01:10:19,105
than the battalions of heaven.
1086
01:10:26,980 --> 01:10:30,521
Outside the Empire, thousands of
Londoners crowding the approaches
1087
01:10:30,521 --> 01:10:32,813
to see the Royal Family
and also the many film stars
1088
01:10:32,813 --> 01:10:36,230
and notabilities attending
the Royal Command Film Performance.
1089
01:10:37,105 --> 01:10:40,438
A Matter of Life and Death represents
Powell and Pressburger
1090
01:10:40,438 --> 01:10:42,021
at the peak of their powers.
1091
01:10:42,188 --> 01:10:46,021
And it was chosen for the first-ever
Royal Film Performance.
1092
01:10:46,313 --> 01:10:49,771
So great was the throng that the arrival
of the Royal Family was delayed.
1093
01:10:49,771 --> 01:10:52,105
And when they did reach their objective,
there was barely room
1094
01:10:52,105 --> 01:10:54,563
for them to make their way
through the crowd into the cinema.
1095
01:11:06,313 --> 01:11:09,480
The Archers were on top of the world
but it was 1946 now
1096
01:11:09,771 --> 01:11:12,730
and there was suddenly
no war effort to serve anymore.
1097
01:11:15,396 --> 01:11:18,146
Emeric no longer had the impetus
which had driven him on
1098
01:11:18,146 --> 01:11:20,355
to write one original story after another.
1099
01:11:21,188 --> 01:11:23,521
And this left The Archers
with a big dilemma.
1100
01:11:24,313 --> 01:11:26,813
What sort of films should
they now be making?
1101
01:11:27,355 --> 01:11:31,438
We suddenly felt now
we have made several of our films
1102
01:11:33,563 --> 01:11:35,938
isn't there the time now
1103
01:11:37,146 --> 01:11:42,355
to make a film which has
absolutely nothing to do with war?
1104
01:11:53,396 --> 01:11:58,355
Black Narcissus marked a whole new
direction in Powell Pressburger's work.
1105
01:11:58,730 --> 01:12:01,563
It was their first
non-original story
1106
01:12:02,021 --> 01:12:04,313
and it was a post-war escape
1107
01:12:05,021 --> 01:12:07,855
into a different and a distant world.
1108
01:12:16,771 --> 01:12:20,438
Rumer Godden's novel depicts
the trials and tribulations
1109
01:12:20,771 --> 01:12:22,688
of a small group of nuns trying
1110
01:12:22,688 --> 01:12:25,396
to establish a convent
in the Himalayas.
1111
01:12:30,480 --> 01:12:33,688
The atmosphere seems to agitate the senses
1112
01:12:34,021 --> 01:12:36,188
and the nuns find themselves troubled
1113
01:12:36,438 --> 01:12:39,938
by dangerous temptations
and simmering conflicts.
1114
01:12:42,730 --> 01:12:47,355
I found myself in the Himalayas
making a film about nuns.
1115
01:12:47,688 --> 01:12:51,896
And our mountains were painted on glass.
1116
01:12:56,188 --> 01:12:58,396
Since the whole film is set in India
1117
01:12:58,396 --> 01:13:02,063
It was a startlingly bold decision
when Michael decided
1118
01:13:02,063 --> 01:13:03,771
to shoot everything in England,
1119
01:13:04,688 --> 01:13:08,771
using ingenious sets,
trick shots, match shots
1120
01:13:09,188 --> 01:13:11,438
all to recreate the Himalayan setting.
1121
01:13:20,355 --> 01:13:22,896
Partly this was a practical choice
1122
01:13:23,021 --> 01:13:27,855
because everything to do with filmmaking
was so much less mobile, in those days.
1123
01:13:28,855 --> 01:13:31,813
Everything had to be fully
visualized in advance
1124
01:13:32,063 --> 01:13:35,313
and very little could
be spontaneous or improvised.
1125
01:13:40,146 --> 01:13:42,813
Black Narcissus made a virtue of this
1126
01:13:43,146 --> 01:13:46,230
by making each shot into
a production in itself.
1127
01:13:47,063 --> 01:13:50,521
A painterly composition in which
every aspect of the image
1128
01:13:50,646 --> 01:13:52,646
is meticulously controlled.
1129
01:13:55,563 --> 01:13:59,271
This is truly a cinema
of beautifully wrought imagemaking.
1130
01:14:00,688 --> 01:14:04,271
And it gives the film the vividness
and the intensity
1131
01:14:04,271 --> 01:14:05,938
of an hallucination.
1132
01:14:10,896 --> 01:14:12,688
The cameraman was Jack Cardiff.
1133
01:14:13,396 --> 01:14:15,855
And here he consciously
drew on the example
1134
01:14:15,855 --> 01:14:18,146
of artists like
Rembrandt and Vermeer.
1135
01:14:19,188 --> 01:14:23,021
There's something special about his
very English sense of Technicolor too.
1136
01:14:23,313 --> 01:14:25,938
The nuns were very deliberately
dressed in white,
1137
01:14:26,230 --> 01:14:32,021
or off white robes, then surrounded by
cool tones of stone, and green and blue.
1138
01:14:32,355 --> 01:14:34,855
So that when you see a hot color like red,
1139
01:14:35,605 --> 01:14:36,980
it really jumps out at you.
1140
01:14:37,938 --> 01:14:42,396
I still remember the first time I saw
the film in a nitrate color print.
1141
01:14:45,313 --> 01:14:48,396
When the rhododendrons exploded
onto the screen it was almost
1142
01:14:48,688 --> 01:14:50,021
a physical shock.
1143
01:14:53,355 --> 01:14:55,355
I'm not sure if I know another film
1144
01:14:55,730 --> 01:14:57,813
where the color
contributes so much
1145
01:14:57,813 --> 01:15:00,021
to the story and the
emotion of a picture.
1146
01:15:01,730 --> 01:15:04,688
Now, right at the center
of all the elaborate design
1147
01:15:04,855 --> 01:15:06,271
is human faces.
1148
01:15:06,771 --> 01:15:11,188
In particular, the face of Deborah Kerr
who plays Sister Clodagh.
1149
01:15:12,313 --> 01:15:16,688
And standing in contrast
and in opposition to Sister Clodagh
1150
01:15:17,063 --> 01:15:20,146
is Sister Ruth played by Kathleen Byron.
1151
01:15:22,105 --> 01:15:25,021
David Farrar is
the unsettling presence who...
1152
01:15:25,021 --> 01:15:25,980
Thank you.
1153
01:15:25,980 --> 01:15:29,480
Stirs up a feverish rivalry
between the two women.
1154
01:15:30,480 --> 01:15:32,813
I've noticed you're very pleased
to see him yourself.
1155
01:15:37,188 --> 01:15:40,271
If that was in your mind, it's better said
I think you're out of your senses.
1156
01:15:42,438 --> 01:15:44,105
In a bold move for those times,
1157
01:15:44,355 --> 01:15:47,271
Ferrar is presented very much
from the women's point of view
1158
01:15:47,271 --> 01:15:48,938
as a male sex object.
1159
01:15:50,021 --> 01:15:54,313
The result is a classic struggle
between flesh and the spirit.
1160
01:16:01,063 --> 01:16:02,480
You can't order me about
1161
01:16:02,480 --> 01:16:04,605
you have nothing to do
with me anymore.
1162
01:16:06,313 --> 01:16:09,813
When Sister Ruth puts on
a red dress and red lipstick,
1163
01:16:10,063 --> 01:16:11,688
it's both a brazen act
1164
01:16:12,563 --> 01:16:14,688
and a visual shock.
1165
01:16:16,313 --> 01:16:19,230
Sex erupts into the story
through the use of color.
1166
01:16:24,688 --> 01:16:28,355
These images were regarded
as shockingly erotic in the 1940s,
1167
01:16:29,896 --> 01:16:33,188
when my friends and I first
saw the film, it was on TV.
1168
01:16:33,188 --> 01:16:34,730
We saw it in black and white
1169
01:16:35,021 --> 01:16:37,605
in a version that had been
censored by the Catholic Church,
1170
01:16:37,896 --> 01:16:39,396
but we were still kind of taken
1171
01:16:39,730 --> 01:16:42,730
and kind of amazed by the
psychosexual energy of the film
1172
01:16:42,730 --> 01:16:46,980
that was inherent in the images
that we were allowed to see.
1173
01:17:00,980 --> 01:17:03,688
- Ayah, wake up!
- Oh, what is it? What is it?
1174
01:17:04,396 --> 01:17:05,563
It's Sister Ruth!
1175
01:17:05,563 --> 01:17:07,230
Stop her! She's gone mad!
1176
01:17:07,480 --> 01:17:08,813
Go and talk to Sister Clodagh.
1177
01:17:09,105 --> 01:17:11,146
She brought you here.
She can get you back again.
1178
01:17:11,563 --> 01:17:12,855
Sister Clodagh, Sister Clodagh!
1179
01:17:12,855 --> 01:17:15,521
- You know what she says about you?
- Whatever she said, it was true.
1180
01:17:15,521 --> 01:17:18,480
- You say that because you love her!
- I don't love anyone!
1181
01:17:19,146 --> 01:17:21,480
Clodagh...
1182
01:17:21,480 --> 01:17:23,730
At the climax of Ruth's madness,
1183
01:17:23,730 --> 01:17:27,896
she faints, she blacks out and
the whole screen is flooded with red.
1184
01:17:29,021 --> 01:17:33,105
It's a terrific way of putting into images
the intensity of her passion.
1185
01:17:33,271 --> 01:17:34,938
Red, burning desire.
1186
01:17:40,938 --> 01:17:43,938
More than any of
Powell Pressburger's previous films,
1187
01:17:43,938 --> 01:17:47,813
this one was an expressionistic exercise
in high style.
1188
01:17:52,355 --> 01:17:55,313
And the sequence which
most interested Michael
1189
01:17:55,605 --> 01:17:58,813
was a ten minute experiment
in what he called
1190
01:17:59,146 --> 01:18:00,688
"composed film."
1191
01:18:03,563 --> 01:18:07,188
It's a carefully choreographed
sequence of pure action,
1192
01:18:07,688 --> 01:18:10,438
no dialogue at all
for the whole ten minutes.
1193
01:18:34,563 --> 01:18:37,021
The idea was that music
would take the lead
1194
01:18:37,021 --> 01:18:38,938
dictating the character's movements,
1195
01:18:38,938 --> 01:18:42,813
expressing their thoughts and feelings
more vividly than words ever could.
1196
01:18:54,355 --> 01:18:56,063
The music was written first
1197
01:18:56,521 --> 01:18:58,313
and then the sequence was shot
1198
01:18:58,563 --> 01:18:59,813
step by step
1199
01:19:00,480 --> 01:19:01,605
so that each shot
1200
01:19:02,230 --> 01:19:04,105
fitted the music, exactly.
1201
01:19:06,563 --> 01:19:10,105
Everything fits together
into a single organic whole.
1202
01:19:11,188 --> 01:19:13,271
It turns the melodrama into opera.
1203
01:19:29,063 --> 01:19:31,480
It worked, it worked!
1204
01:19:31,980 --> 01:19:33,730
I could hardly believe my eyes.
1205
01:19:34,313 --> 01:19:37,605
Filmmaking was never the same
for me again after that.
1206
01:19:37,938 --> 01:19:40,813
And when Red Shoes came up
the year following,
1207
01:19:40,980 --> 01:19:44,188
we worked out the whole ballet
to be a composed film.
1208
01:19:47,021 --> 01:19:51,813
The Red Shoes is a story of a girl
torn between art and love.
1209
01:19:53,230 --> 01:19:55,813
Vicky Page is an ambitious
young ballerina
1210
01:19:55,813 --> 01:19:59,605
who's taken up by
the great impresario Lermontov.
1211
01:20:00,521 --> 01:20:04,271
But when she falls in love
with the composer Julian Craster
1212
01:20:04,271 --> 01:20:05,980
her life gets ripped in two.
1213
01:20:07,271 --> 01:20:09,230
This was a project with a long history.
1214
01:20:10,021 --> 01:20:14,396
Emeric had first written a script for
a ballet film back in the 1930s.
1215
01:20:15,021 --> 01:20:18,313
But the main thing that Michael
was looking for now in his script
1216
01:20:18,771 --> 01:20:20,980
was opportunities to experiment.
1217
01:20:24,063 --> 01:20:27,355
His first radical decision
was that he would only do the film
1218
01:20:27,355 --> 01:20:32,355
if Vicky Page was played by a real
ballerina rather than an actress.
1219
01:20:33,063 --> 01:20:35,480
It was a tall order
to find a great dancer
1220
01:20:35,480 --> 01:20:38,521
who could also act well enough
to carry a big movie.
1221
01:20:47,271 --> 01:20:51,063
But he eventually found everything
that he wanted in Moira Shearer.
1222
01:20:53,063 --> 01:20:55,563
The only trouble was that
she didn't want to do the film,
1223
01:20:55,896 --> 01:20:58,313
and it took about a year
to convince her.
1224
01:20:58,938 --> 01:21:02,021
She was very much a part of
the ballet culture of her time.
1225
01:21:02,021 --> 01:21:04,063
And she always thought that dancing
1226
01:21:04,605 --> 01:21:07,355
was a much higher art
than making movies.
1227
01:21:12,521 --> 01:21:13,563
Good luck!
1228
01:21:13,855 --> 01:21:14,855
Good luck.
1229
01:21:15,188 --> 01:21:19,063
The bravest idea of the film
was to place at the heart of it,
1230
01:21:19,980 --> 01:21:21,230
an original ballet.
1231
01:21:21,855 --> 01:21:22,896
All right, Ivan.
1232
01:21:24,105 --> 01:21:25,313
Time to go down, Craster.
1233
01:21:25,313 --> 01:21:27,188
- Good luck, Mr Craster.
- Thank you, Mr Lermontov.
1234
01:21:27,188 --> 01:21:28,480
- Nervous?
- No.
1235
01:21:28,480 --> 01:21:29,605
Come on!
1236
01:21:30,771 --> 01:21:33,438
Stopping the story of a movie
for over 15 minutes
1237
01:21:33,438 --> 01:21:35,646
to present a full length ballet?
1238
01:21:36,021 --> 01:21:38,021
This was a huge risk they were taking.
1239
01:21:40,355 --> 01:21:42,438
Nobody had ever done
such a thing before
1240
01:21:42,438 --> 01:21:46,063
and no one had any idea how
audiences were going to react.
1241
01:21:51,230 --> 01:21:55,563
The Ballet of The Red Shoes is based
on a Hans Andersen fairytale
1242
01:21:55,563 --> 01:21:57,730
about a girl who is mad to dance.
1243
01:21:59,646 --> 01:22:03,230
The magical red shoes allow her
to fulfill her dreams.
1244
01:22:03,938 --> 01:22:06,105
But when she wants to stop dancing,
1245
01:22:06,396 --> 01:22:07,688
the shoes won't let her.
1246
01:22:14,980 --> 01:22:19,438
This ballet was the part of the film
that excited Michael most of all.
1247
01:22:21,771 --> 01:22:24,105
Released from the constraints of dialogue
1248
01:22:24,271 --> 01:22:26,688
he could really go to town
with experimentation,
1249
01:22:27,021 --> 01:22:30,313
working freely with music, light, images,
1250
01:22:30,521 --> 01:22:32,105
movement, energy.
1251
01:22:34,771 --> 01:22:36,730
The most radical part
of his conception
1252
01:22:36,730 --> 01:22:39,021
was to represent the ballet,
1253
01:22:39,271 --> 01:22:41,146
not as a theater audience would see it,
1254
01:22:41,396 --> 01:22:44,855
but as the dancer would experience it
inside her head.
1255
01:22:48,230 --> 01:22:51,855
Michael used the body
and the physicality of the dancer
1256
01:22:51,980 --> 01:22:54,146
to express the inner life of the dancer.
1257
01:22:57,438 --> 01:23:02,188
He used physical action to
represent psychological pain.
1258
01:23:03,813 --> 01:23:05,563
And that subjective approach
1259
01:23:06,480 --> 01:23:08,063
had a very big influence on
1260
01:23:08,188 --> 01:23:11,230
what I did with the boxing scenes
in Raging Bull.
1261
01:23:14,105 --> 01:23:16,396
When I watched De Niro
doing his moves,
1262
01:23:16,396 --> 01:23:19,355
I saw that it was dance,
it was choreography.
1263
01:23:20,563 --> 01:23:24,355
I also realized that I should stay
in the ring as much as possible.
1264
01:23:24,355 --> 01:23:26,855
And stay inside the fighter's head.
1265
01:23:27,355 --> 01:23:29,396
See and hear it from his point of view.
1266
01:23:29,396 --> 01:23:32,813
...a right to the jaw, a hard left-hand
to the body thrown by LaMotta.
1267
01:23:33,646 --> 01:23:34,980
Round eight and it's anybody's...
1268
01:23:34,980 --> 01:23:37,896
That way you get
the impression of the fight,
1269
01:23:39,063 --> 01:23:41,896
the battle, the struggle,
the suffering.
1270
01:23:43,563 --> 01:23:46,146
But you're also free to do whatever
you want visually,
1271
01:23:46,355 --> 01:23:48,230
to communicate what Jake is feeling.
1272
01:23:48,230 --> 01:23:51,146
A hard left hand to the body,
Robinson is driven out of the ring...
1273
01:23:51,730 --> 01:23:53,855
How he perceives things in the ring.
1274
01:23:55,063 --> 01:23:56,688
Which makes it very personal.
1275
01:24:08,605 --> 01:24:10,771
LaMotta has taken charge of the fight,
1276
01:24:10,771 --> 01:24:13,813
the undefeated Sugar Ray,
his winning ways are in jeopardy.
1277
01:24:13,813 --> 01:24:15,063
LaMotta coming at him again.
1278
01:24:15,355 --> 01:24:16,938
LaMotta, feigning left hand...
1279
01:24:18,605 --> 01:24:20,605
At the end of the ballet of The Red Shoes,
1280
01:24:20,605 --> 01:24:23,146
the dancer's passion
carries her to her doom.
1281
01:24:27,105 --> 01:24:30,563
The ballet is an ecstatic celebration
of the glory of art.
1282
01:24:31,063 --> 01:24:33,813
But it also says
that being an artist
1283
01:24:34,813 --> 01:24:35,813
will destroy you.
1284
01:24:40,271 --> 01:24:43,980
It says that a true artist makes art
1285
01:24:44,438 --> 01:24:45,813
not because they want to
1286
01:24:46,771 --> 01:24:48,563
but because they have to.
1287
01:24:49,521 --> 01:24:52,480
It's not a choice, but a compulsion.
1288
01:24:55,521 --> 01:25:00,313
Of course, what made Red Shoes
unique was that it was about art
1289
01:25:00,313 --> 01:25:01,896
and nothing but art.
1290
01:25:01,896 --> 01:25:04,355
And nothing but art,
the best of art, would do.
1291
01:25:06,605 --> 01:25:09,063
There's something of
both Michael and Emeric
1292
01:25:09,063 --> 01:25:12,563
in the film's most obsessive character,
Boris Lermontov
1293
01:25:14,855 --> 01:25:19,355
Powell Pressburger films
often deal with egocentric, volatile
1294
01:25:19,605 --> 01:25:21,480
addictive personalities.
1295
01:25:22,480 --> 01:25:25,896
But these characters speak to me
and it may be obvious that many
1296
01:25:25,896 --> 01:25:29,521
of the characters that I'm drawn to
are influenced by Powell's heroes.
1297
01:25:30,438 --> 01:25:34,980
They too are antiheroes,
broken people driven by conflicts.
1298
01:25:35,230 --> 01:25:37,563
Strangely, I can even see
1299
01:25:37,938 --> 01:25:41,146
something of an affinity between
Lermontov and Travis,
1300
01:25:41,146 --> 01:25:42,938
Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
1301
01:25:43,105 --> 01:25:45,771
because they're both characters
on the edge of things.
1302
01:25:46,021 --> 01:25:48,688
Listening, observing other people
1303
01:25:49,063 --> 01:25:51,063
always on the verge of exploding.
1304
01:26:40,896 --> 01:26:42,355
Good evening, Mr Craster.
1305
01:26:43,313 --> 01:26:45,521
Won't they be missing you
at the Covent Garden tonight?
1306
01:26:45,521 --> 01:26:47,480
[She speaks French]
1307
01:26:47,730 --> 01:26:49,813
Oh, for God's sake,
leave me alone, both of you.
1308
01:26:49,980 --> 01:26:52,813
Please Julian, wait until
after the performance.
1309
01:26:53,146 --> 01:26:54,396
It'll be too late then.
1310
01:26:54,396 --> 01:26:56,771
You are already too late, Mr Craster.
1311
01:26:57,730 --> 01:26:58,938
Tell him why you've left him.
1312
01:26:58,938 --> 01:27:00,938
- I haven't left him.
- Oh, yes, you have left him.
1313
01:27:00,938 --> 01:27:03,730
Nobody can have two lives
and your life is dancing.
1314
01:27:03,896 --> 01:27:07,396
What makes the drama of The Red Shoes
so compelling to me is the fact
1315
01:27:07,396 --> 01:27:12,105
that all three of the main characters
are driven and tortured people.
1316
01:27:12,980 --> 01:27:14,230
Well, Vicky...
1317
01:27:14,688 --> 01:27:16,230
I love you, Julian.
1318
01:27:16,396 --> 01:27:17,730
Nobody but you.
1319
01:27:21,521 --> 01:27:22,896
But you love that more.
1320
01:27:24,105 --> 01:27:25,271
I don't know!
1321
01:27:25,605 --> 01:27:26,771
I don't know...
1322
01:27:29,438 --> 01:27:32,563
if you go with him now,
I will never take you back. Never!
1323
01:27:34,355 --> 01:27:35,980
Do you want to destroy our love?
1324
01:27:36,105 --> 01:27:38,146
Adolescent nonsense!
1325
01:27:39,105 --> 01:27:42,313
Alright, go then, go with him!
1326
01:27:42,313 --> 01:27:45,063
Be a faithful housewife!
1327
01:27:45,730 --> 01:27:48,355
Of course, a scene like this
is very risky.
1328
01:27:48,855 --> 01:27:51,271
The performances are pushed to the extreme
1329
01:27:52,188 --> 01:27:55,730
and it's easy to regard the whole thing
as trashy, pulp material.
1330
01:27:57,521 --> 01:28:01,646
But I see it as an impulsive and
instinctive heightening of reality.
1331
01:28:02,063 --> 01:28:03,688
Life is so unimportant.
1332
01:28:06,313 --> 01:28:10,771
And from now onwards, you will dance!
1333
01:28:11,771 --> 01:28:13,605
Like nobody ever before.
1334
01:28:23,855 --> 01:28:27,730
Eventually life and art come together
1335
01:28:28,271 --> 01:28:31,563
and the red shoes acquire
the same power in life
1336
01:28:32,313 --> 01:28:33,563
that they had in the ballet.
1337
01:28:36,563 --> 01:28:41,230
I will never forget that most vivid image
of Moira Shearer's eyes.
1338
01:28:41,480 --> 01:28:43,521
When the shoes begin to take her away.
1339
01:28:48,313 --> 01:28:50,188
Her face, grotesque,
1340
01:28:52,396 --> 01:28:55,105
echoes of an ancient tragic mask.
1341
01:28:59,646 --> 01:29:02,480
It's so bold and flamboyant and extreme.
1342
01:29:02,646 --> 01:29:06,896
I liked, I like that it sometimes
seems out of control.
1343
01:29:07,938 --> 01:29:10,063
Not the emotions of the characters,
1344
01:29:10,063 --> 01:29:12,563
but the emotions of the people
who made the film.
1345
01:29:12,771 --> 01:29:14,313
Their passion's out of control.
1346
01:29:15,271 --> 01:29:18,271
And their total commitment
to their fairytale story
1347
01:29:18,271 --> 01:29:20,646
creates an unforgettable climax.
1348
01:29:22,563 --> 01:29:23,688
No!
1349
01:29:30,980 --> 01:29:34,855
Why do you think it was so important for
you to show somebody dying for their art?
1350
01:29:35,105 --> 01:29:37,105
I think because I would do it myself.
1351
01:29:37,771 --> 01:29:39,271
- Really?
- Mm.
1352
01:29:43,021 --> 01:29:44,021
You don’t believe me.
1353
01:29:46,938 --> 01:29:50,313
When the executives of Rank
saw The Red Shoes, they hated it.
1354
01:29:50,980 --> 01:29:54,730
The company was increasingly in the hands
of bureaucrats and money men
1355
01:29:55,021 --> 01:29:58,605
who saw it as a disastrously
uncommercial art movie.
1356
01:29:59,230 --> 01:30:00,355
'RED SHOES' GETS ROUSING WELCOME
FROM N.Y. CRITICS
1357
01:30:00,355 --> 01:30:03,771
It was two Americans,
Bob Benjamin and Arthur Krim
1358
01:30:04,396 --> 01:30:06,771
who transformed the fortunes
of the picture
1359
01:30:07,146 --> 01:30:10,396
by running it continuously
in a single theater in New York.
1360
01:30:10,396 --> 01:30:11,855
THE RED SHOES ARE STILL DANCING
ON BROADWAY AFTER 2 YEARS!
1361
01:30:11,855 --> 01:30:15,896
From there, he went on to become
The Archers' most popular film.
1362
01:30:16,021 --> 01:30:18,813
One of the greatest
and most successful pictures ever made.
1363
01:30:20,480 --> 01:30:24,188
For me, it's the ultimate
subversive commercial movie.
1364
01:30:25,105 --> 01:30:27,355
It's the epitome of everything
that I admire most
1365
01:30:27,355 --> 01:30:28,646
about Powell and Pressburger.
1366
01:30:30,021 --> 01:30:33,021
It is utterly satisfying
as popular entertainment
1367
01:30:33,396 --> 01:30:36,355
but also wildly
inventive, profound,
1368
01:30:36,355 --> 01:30:39,355
complex and not
at all comforting.
1369
01:30:41,063 --> 01:30:44,146
It's a film that has been
gloriously vindicated by history.
1370
01:30:45,021 --> 01:30:46,896
But back in 1949
1371
01:30:46,896 --> 01:30:50,771
Michael and Emeric were so disgusted
by the way that Rank treated the picture
1372
01:30:51,521 --> 01:30:53,230
that they split from the company.
1373
01:30:56,105 --> 01:30:59,938
They crossed over to London Films and
linked up once again with Alex Korda.
1374
01:31:00,438 --> 01:31:03,688
Alex was the most pleasant,
1375
01:31:03,688 --> 01:31:05,896
fun-loving creature
1376
01:31:06,355 --> 01:31:08,146
who could charm money out,
1377
01:31:08,146 --> 01:31:12,438
not only those who had the money,
but strangely,
1378
01:31:13,146 --> 01:31:16,521
also of people, some people
who had no money at all.
1379
01:31:16,521 --> 01:31:18,980
Which, of course, ended in disaster.
1380
01:31:25,813 --> 01:31:29,230
The Small Back Room was the first film
they made under their new deal.
1381
01:31:30,063 --> 01:31:33,105
And it represented another
startling change in direction.
1382
01:31:33,980 --> 01:31:37,771
Having just made
a huge Technicolor masterpiece,
1383
01:31:37,980 --> 01:31:40,980
Michael now decided, naturally,
that he wanted to make
1384
01:31:41,521 --> 01:31:42,896
a small black and white picture.
1385
01:31:43,980 --> 01:31:47,063
"I needed to escape
from romance into reality"
1386
01:31:47,313 --> 01:31:48,313
is how he put it.
1387
01:31:52,230 --> 01:31:54,438
The reality, of course,
is what The Archers
1388
01:31:54,438 --> 01:31:56,105
were always accused of avoiding.
1389
01:31:56,105 --> 01:31:58,646
So they now faced up
squarely to their critics
1390
01:31:58,813 --> 01:32:03,146
by taking a journey through
a bleak succession of blacked-out streets,
1391
01:32:03,438 --> 01:32:04,771
crowded pubs,
1392
01:32:05,021 --> 01:32:06,396
desolate flats
1393
01:32:06,688 --> 01:32:08,396
and stuffy offices.
1394
01:32:09,938 --> 01:32:12,105
What excited Michael most
about the film though,
1395
01:32:12,105 --> 01:32:14,771
was the troubled psychology
of the characters,
1396
01:32:15,396 --> 01:32:18,063
drawn from Nigel Balchin's
original novel.
1397
01:32:19,980 --> 01:32:21,021
I must have a drink.
1398
01:32:22,146 --> 01:32:23,438
Ask me to have a drink, woman.
1399
01:32:23,688 --> 01:32:24,813
Have a drink, Sammy.
1400
01:32:26,563 --> 01:32:27,563
Whiskey?
1401
01:32:30,646 --> 01:32:34,521
No, thanks, Susan.
I'll have some of my nice medicine.
1402
01:32:37,771 --> 01:32:41,980
Sammy, the central character
is a munitions expert
1403
01:32:41,980 --> 01:32:45,355
who's lost a foot,
and now wears a prosthetic.
1404
01:32:46,438 --> 01:32:48,146
Why don't you take the thing off?
1405
01:32:50,438 --> 01:32:51,646
You know that helps.
1406
01:32:52,063 --> 01:32:53,105
No.
1407
01:32:56,146 --> 01:32:57,396
You do when you're alone.
1408
01:32:58,396 --> 01:33:00,271
Why will you keep it on when I'm here?
1409
01:33:07,646 --> 01:33:09,105
It's all right now.
1410
01:33:10,313 --> 01:33:14,355
You must realize that you can have ideas
that'll win the war four times over...
1411
01:33:14,563 --> 01:33:17,521
but it still won't do anybody any good
unless you can sell them.
1412
01:33:17,980 --> 01:33:20,855
We're not in a university department now.
1413
01:33:20,855 --> 01:33:23,480
No, nor in an advertising agency,
where you belong.
1414
01:33:23,730 --> 01:33:24,730
Now look here, Sammy,
1415
01:33:24,938 --> 01:33:27,980
You may think you're a great big scientist
and I'm just a commercial stooge...
1416
01:33:27,980 --> 01:33:30,605
But the plain fact is if you make
a mess of things, I have to clear it up.
1417
01:33:30,605 --> 01:33:31,688
And the equally plain fact
1418
01:33:31,688 --> 01:33:34,438
is the stuff you build a reputation on
comes chiefly out of my head!
1419
01:33:34,438 --> 01:33:37,730
I'm not a politician or a salesman,
but neither am I a kid of ten.
1420
01:33:43,021 --> 01:33:45,438
Sammy's frequently in physical pain
1421
01:33:45,730 --> 01:33:49,563
and this feeds a craving for whiskey
that he struggles to control.
1422
01:33:49,563 --> 01:33:50,646
Sammy?
1423
01:33:53,480 --> 01:33:56,980
You could run the section yourself.
Even Pinker says so.
1424
01:33:57,396 --> 01:33:58,938
But you just won't face things.
1425
01:33:59,646 --> 01:34:02,646
You go on being sorry for yourself
with everything in the world to live for.
1426
01:34:03,521 --> 01:34:05,855
But what's so special about
only having one foot?
1427
01:34:05,855 --> 01:34:07,563
You just haven't got the guts!
1428
01:34:08,855 --> 01:34:11,396
- Will you shut up?
- Every word I said is true.
1429
01:34:11,771 --> 01:34:14,105
Oh, Sammy, you're such a fool.
1430
01:34:15,271 --> 01:34:16,980
Why don't you pull yourself together, Sue?
1431
01:34:17,438 --> 01:34:19,105
You're making an ass of yourself.
1432
01:34:22,396 --> 01:34:25,355
Next time you just decide to go home
when we're out together
1433
01:34:26,063 --> 01:34:27,896
I'd be obliged if you'd tell me.
1434
01:34:30,271 --> 01:34:33,355
The Archers demonstrated here
that if they chose
1435
01:34:33,771 --> 01:34:35,355
they could do heartfelt work
1436
01:34:35,813 --> 01:34:37,813
in the British realist tradition.
1437
01:34:38,646 --> 01:34:41,938
Reining in their instincts
for fantasy and comedy
1438
01:34:42,188 --> 01:34:45,021
and focusing instead on
the emotional truth
1439
01:34:45,146 --> 01:34:46,771
of a complicated love story.
1440
01:34:50,938 --> 01:34:54,355
I've been thinking, if you really think
I'm such a poor sap as you said tonight...
1441
01:34:55,521 --> 01:34:57,146
we'd better get out of
each other's way.
1442
01:34:59,313 --> 01:35:01,230
The same thought had occurred to me.
1443
01:35:07,438 --> 01:35:10,396
The finished film is
full of anger, and anguish
1444
01:35:11,146 --> 01:35:12,271
and the critics loved it.
1445
01:35:12,271 --> 01:35:14,480
Well, get out of it!
1446
01:35:17,813 --> 01:35:21,230
The only trouble was that
audiences just weren't interested.
1447
01:35:22,938 --> 01:35:24,355
They didn't want grim stories
1448
01:35:24,355 --> 01:35:26,980
which harked back to
the miseries of the war years.
1449
01:35:28,980 --> 01:35:30,813
So instead of being a new beginning,
1450
01:35:31,605 --> 01:35:34,771
The Small Back Room
proved to be a dead end.
1451
01:35:41,313 --> 01:35:42,896
In characteristic fashion,
1452
01:35:43,396 --> 01:35:47,063
the pair now bounced from
the bleakest picture they had ever made
1453
01:35:47,063 --> 01:35:49,146
into their most frivolous film to date.
1454
01:35:53,855 --> 01:35:57,271
Alexander Korda had directed
a very profitable version
1455
01:35:57,271 --> 01:36:00,480
of The Scarlet Pimpernel
back in the 1930s.
1456
01:36:01,771 --> 01:36:05,855
And he now wanted it remade
as a Technicolor spectacular.
1457
01:36:08,646 --> 01:36:11,021
Sam Goldwyn would bring in
the Hollywood money.
1458
01:36:11,230 --> 01:36:14,355
And for the first time in their
partnership, Powell and Pressburger
1459
01:36:14,355 --> 01:36:17,563
found themselves doing something
that neither of them wanted to do,
1460
01:36:17,771 --> 01:36:20,271
a remake of a worn out classic.
1461
01:36:20,563 --> 01:36:23,563
Nobody can help you,
not even your government.
1462
01:36:25,646 --> 01:36:26,938
Now, what do you say?
1463
01:36:31,313 --> 01:36:33,021
You seem to have
thought of everything.
1464
01:36:34,438 --> 01:36:36,271
Nothing is left of me now, but to say...
1465
01:36:39,188 --> 01:36:40,313
congratulations.
1466
01:36:41,438 --> 01:36:42,855
You're very kind, Sir Percy.
1467
01:36:43,230 --> 01:36:47,355
They decided that the only thing to do
with the corny old Pimpernel story
1468
01:36:47,605 --> 01:36:50,605
was to transform it into
an exuberant entertainment
1469
01:36:50,813 --> 01:36:53,438
by filling it with comedy and music.
1470
01:37:00,563 --> 01:37:03,188
There's an impudent cinematic joke
when Cyril Cusack
1471
01:37:03,188 --> 01:37:05,396
finds himself sneezing uncontrollably,
1472
01:37:05,396 --> 01:37:07,605
and when he sneezes,
they cut to fireworks.
1473
01:37:08,188 --> 01:37:10,230
It's the most startling
imagery and editing,
1474
01:37:10,230 --> 01:37:11,730
it's got nothing to
do with the story.
1475
01:37:11,730 --> 01:37:12,813
I mean, it's not as though
1476
01:37:12,813 --> 01:37:14,980
there are fireworks going on
outside the walls in the movie.
1477
01:37:14,980 --> 01:37:18,063
It's simply a visual metaphor
coming right out of the blue.
1478
01:37:18,438 --> 01:37:21,230
You know, I think you--
Actually, you could trace it back
1479
01:37:21,563 --> 01:37:23,771
to early silent films
1480
01:37:23,980 --> 01:37:27,063
where often you could see
what a person's hearing.
1481
01:37:36,938 --> 01:37:39,063
Or it's like an experiment
in avant garde film
1482
01:37:39,063 --> 01:37:40,980
where anything can happen with images.
1483
01:37:41,105 --> 01:37:43,521
But for Michael and Emeric
to be doing this here
1484
01:37:43,938 --> 01:37:44,980
in the middle of a drama,
1485
01:37:45,688 --> 01:37:49,230
for me, it represents their pure enjoyment
in just making movies.
1486
01:37:51,188 --> 01:37:52,855
But back in 1950
1487
01:37:53,063 --> 01:37:55,605
you didn't make fun of the plot
in an adventure story.
1488
01:37:56,146 --> 01:37:58,563
And Sam Goldwyn hated them for it.
1489
01:37:58,813 --> 01:38:03,063
All he wanted was a color version
of the original picture.
1490
01:38:03,813 --> 01:38:07,980
So they had to do reshoots and re-edits
And the result was a miserable
1491
01:38:08,355 --> 01:38:10,771
compromise which satisfied nobody.
1492
01:38:15,896 --> 01:38:18,063
In the same difficult year of 1950,
1493
01:38:18,188 --> 01:38:21,688
They entered into another co-production
with another big Hollywood producer,
1494
01:38:21,688 --> 01:38:23,188
David Selznick.
1495
01:38:24,396 --> 01:38:27,188
This time, the film was Gone to Earth,
1496
01:38:27,813 --> 01:38:30,438
a steamy tale of Shropshire folk
1497
01:38:30,813 --> 01:38:32,688
based on a novel by Mary Webb.
1498
01:38:34,230 --> 01:38:36,563
Selznick wanted the movie
to be a showcase
1499
01:38:36,563 --> 01:38:38,521
for his new wife Jennifer Jones,
1500
01:38:38,813 --> 01:38:40,563
who turned out to be terrific.
1501
01:38:41,563 --> 01:38:44,146
We were delighted to have Jennifer Jones.
1502
01:38:44,313 --> 01:38:46,605
Not so delighted with Selznick.
1503
01:38:47,188 --> 01:38:48,855
He was madly in love with her.
1504
01:38:49,355 --> 01:38:51,855
And intensely possessive.
1505
01:38:52,355 --> 01:38:54,771
And also afraid to come on the set
when she was there
1506
01:38:54,771 --> 01:38:56,521
because she would throw something at him.
1507
01:38:56,980 --> 01:38:59,021
And so you can,
1508
01:38:59,021 --> 01:39:02,938
you were continually conscious of
a glaring eyeball from behind the set.
1509
01:39:03,480 --> 01:39:06,605
Gone to earth!
1510
01:39:06,730 --> 01:39:09,480
Gone to Earth is a kind of
gothic masterpiece.
1511
01:39:09,896 --> 01:39:12,438
It's full of Michael's
deep feeling for the land,
1512
01:39:12,646 --> 01:39:16,646
the natural world
and the rituals of English country life.
1513
01:39:42,105 --> 01:39:43,730
"When at once, a little of midnight
1514
01:39:44,646 --> 01:39:48,230
climbed to the steepest stones on
the top of God's little mountain.
1515
01:39:50,563 --> 01:39:52,896
lay your shawl on the devil's chair
1516
01:39:54,146 --> 01:39:55,438
and walk around it.
1517
01:39:58,730 --> 01:39:59,938
Ask your wish."
1518
01:40:01,188 --> 01:40:03,313
If I be to go to
"Hunter's Spinney..."
1519
01:40:04,521 --> 01:40:05,813
If I be to go...
1520
01:40:07,021 --> 01:40:08,896
let me hear the fairy music.
1521
01:40:55,188 --> 01:40:59,021
Jennifer Jones' character Hazel
is a wild thing
1522
01:40:59,438 --> 01:41:01,605
in a world of traps and snares.
1523
01:41:04,271 --> 01:41:05,521
They're after us, Foxy.
1524
01:41:13,230 --> 01:41:14,313
Which way are they headin'?
1525
01:41:14,313 --> 01:41:16,021
"Hunter's Spinney"! This way!
1526
01:41:16,188 --> 01:41:18,605
- They'll pull you down!
- Drop it, they'll pull you down!
1527
01:41:19,271 --> 01:41:21,230
Give her to me, you little fool,
give her to me!
1528
01:41:21,938 --> 01:41:27,438
Gone to earth!
1529
01:41:27,438 --> 01:41:31,896
The trouble was that Selznick then refused
to accept the film that they delivered.
1530
01:41:32,271 --> 01:41:35,271
At the end, his conception of the film...
1531
01:41:36,230 --> 01:41:37,230
was different.
1532
01:41:37,605 --> 01:41:40,271
And he wanted us to make changes
and we didn't.
1533
01:41:40,271 --> 01:41:42,855
And he had the film for North America.
1534
01:41:42,855 --> 01:41:45,438
So he shot extra scenes with Jennifer,
1535
01:41:45,438 --> 01:41:47,730
I think Rouben Mamoulian shot them.
1536
01:41:48,771 --> 01:41:54,396
Selznick ended up suing them and releasing
his own version called The Wild Heart.
1537
01:41:54,896 --> 01:41:56,396
So The Archer's two attempts
1538
01:41:56,396 --> 01:41:58,813
to make commercial pictures
with Hollywood producers
1539
01:41:59,230 --> 01:42:03,188
both turned into a shambles
of recrimination and lawsuits.
1540
01:42:04,271 --> 01:42:07,938
The switch from wartime idealism
to peacetime commercialism
1541
01:42:08,146 --> 01:42:10,313
was proving to be very tough.
1542
01:42:11,646 --> 01:42:14,563
Creatively speaking,
everything was going awry
1543
01:42:14,855 --> 01:42:19,688
and the partners urgently needed to get
back to making their own kind of pictures.
1544
01:42:24,105 --> 01:42:27,105
It was the conductor Mr Thomas Beecham
1545
01:42:27,105 --> 01:42:30,896
who proposed a film of Offenbach's opera,
TALES OF HOFFMANN.
1546
01:42:31,688 --> 01:42:33,605
And Emeric seized on the idea.
1547
01:42:34,480 --> 01:42:36,896
Music was always his first love
among the arts.
1548
01:42:37,813 --> 01:42:42,438
Emeric also found a fellow spirit
in the German writer Hoffmann.
1549
01:42:42,563 --> 01:42:47,355
They had a shared taste for the magical,
the morbid and the fantastical.
1550
01:42:49,563 --> 01:42:54,688
In the first tale, Hoffmann falls in
love with a mechanical doll, Olympia.
1551
01:42:56,271 --> 01:42:58,521
That young fellow there, I vow
1552
01:42:58,521 --> 01:43:00,605
Very soon will pop the question
1553
01:43:00,605 --> 01:43:05,688
My friend indeed
1554
01:43:27,730 --> 01:43:29,355
What excited Michael here
1555
01:43:29,646 --> 01:43:33,355
was the radical idea of
rethinking opera as cinema
1556
01:43:33,938 --> 01:43:36,271
by transforming it into dance.
1557
01:43:36,438 --> 01:43:39,730
Birds in woodland ways
Are winging...
1558
01:43:39,730 --> 01:43:42,771
He cast dancers, rather
than singers, in key parts.
1559
01:43:43,605 --> 01:43:45,730
This brought the stories to life visually
1560
01:43:46,146 --> 01:43:49,730
and drove the production
towards Michael's ideal of a film
1561
01:43:49,730 --> 01:43:51,563
in which everything is choreographed.
1562
01:44:11,271 --> 01:44:13,313
The whole thing was shot
like a silent movie
1563
01:44:13,313 --> 01:44:15,396
with music always played back on the set.
1564
01:44:15,563 --> 01:44:17,521
So the performers and the crew
1565
01:44:17,980 --> 01:44:19,688
were all under the spell of it.
1566
01:44:23,521 --> 01:44:27,563
Of course, movement itself is central
to the art of motion pictures.
1567
01:44:27,813 --> 01:44:29,771
I love the way a camera can move.
1568
01:44:30,355 --> 01:44:32,521
I love cutting from
one movement to another.
1569
01:44:33,271 --> 01:44:36,938
And in those special moments
when everything is moving just right,
1570
01:44:38,313 --> 01:44:40,855
whether you're on the set
or you're in the editing room,
1571
01:44:41,063 --> 01:44:43,855
you feel possessed by
a very powerful energy.
1572
01:44:47,230 --> 01:44:49,813
When I'm asked out of all movies,
what is your favorite scene?
1573
01:44:50,980 --> 01:44:52,855
I always think about the sword fight
1574
01:44:52,980 --> 01:44:55,021
in the Gondola in Hoffmann.
1575
01:45:06,771 --> 01:45:09,063
It's so supple and fluid.
1576
01:45:10,230 --> 01:45:13,521
Thoroughly, physical
and entirely dreamlike.
1577
01:45:16,230 --> 01:45:17,688
There's no sound effects at all.
1578
01:45:19,271 --> 01:45:20,646
It's both very immediate
1579
01:45:21,855 --> 01:45:22,855
and very distant.
1580
01:45:29,605 --> 01:45:32,105
And it's something that
no other art form can do.
1581
01:45:33,063 --> 01:45:34,105
It's pure film.
1582
01:45:50,896 --> 01:45:55,271
Practically every technique known
to movies is employed in Hoffmann
1583
01:45:55,438 --> 01:45:59,771
and there's absolutely no respect
for conventional continuity.
1584
01:46:06,230 --> 01:46:08,146
The film keeps surpassing itself
1585
01:46:08,146 --> 01:46:10,646
with the surreal and surprising
nature of its imagery.
1586
01:46:11,355 --> 01:46:16,063
You get broad theatrical effects
combined with perfect cinematic detail.
1587
01:46:16,896 --> 01:46:19,230
Like the movement of Olympia's eyes here.
1588
01:46:23,438 --> 01:46:26,188
And the eyes are choreographed too,
just like everything else.
1589
01:46:28,521 --> 01:46:31,605
I always noticed that,
particularly with Robert Helpmann's eyes
1590
01:46:32,313 --> 01:46:33,355
just a glance
1591
01:46:33,813 --> 01:46:35,813
and it's as if he danced five steps.
1592
01:46:39,271 --> 01:46:42,688
One of Michael's favorite mantras was
"All Art is One".
1593
01:46:43,521 --> 01:46:45,063
Because he believed that in a film,
1594
01:46:45,271 --> 01:46:49,521
you could bring together literature,
music, dance, drama and design
1595
01:46:49,938 --> 01:46:54,730
to create a kind of total cinema that
would transcend the traditional arts.
1596
01:46:57,563 --> 01:47:00,771
The Tales of Hoffmann is the closest
that he got to achieving that.
1597
01:47:04,063 --> 01:47:08,980
It also represented the fulfillment
of all his most adventurous ideas.
1598
01:47:09,938 --> 01:47:13,063
I mean, the whole thing
is both a composed film
1599
01:47:13,355 --> 01:47:16,271
like the 10 minute experiment
in Black Narcissus
1600
01:47:16,605 --> 01:47:21,396
and a surreal psychodrama,
like the ballet in The Red Shoes.
1601
01:47:23,605 --> 01:47:26,855
The result is a film that
performs like a symphony.
1602
01:47:26,855 --> 01:47:29,188
You can watch it over and over again,
1603
01:47:29,355 --> 01:47:31,313
discovering new things each time.
1604
01:47:34,480 --> 01:47:37,813
It's as close to pure expression
as cinema can get.
1605
01:47:38,021 --> 01:47:39,813
Just image after image
1606
01:47:39,813 --> 01:47:43,605
designed to communicate feelings
in a very explicit way.
1607
01:48:06,146 --> 01:48:08,313
History was made
in New York last weekend,
1608
01:48:08,313 --> 01:48:10,855
as for the first time,
the Metropolitan Opera House
1609
01:48:10,855 --> 01:48:12,313
was turned into a cinema.
1610
01:48:12,855 --> 01:48:14,938
And the reason was Tales of Hoffmann,
1611
01:48:15,146 --> 01:48:18,730
a new British picture from London Films,
given its world premiere
1612
01:48:18,730 --> 01:48:21,605
at a gala social occasion
in aid of the Red Cross.
1613
01:48:24,355 --> 01:48:26,313
After the big premiere in New York,
1614
01:48:26,938 --> 01:48:31,146
Powell and Pressburger got a letter of
congratulations from one of their heroes,
1615
01:48:31,355 --> 01:48:32,521
Cecil B DeMille.
1616
01:48:32,521 --> 01:48:34,438
I THANK YOU FOR OUSTANDING
COURAGE AND ARTISTRY
1617
01:48:36,938 --> 01:48:40,188
But a painful controversy developed when
the film was shown at Cannes,
1618
01:48:40,938 --> 01:48:44,438
Alex Korda thought the third act
was slow and dull
1619
01:48:44,646 --> 01:48:45,896
and it ought to be cut out.
1620
01:48:46,730 --> 01:48:48,688
Michael adamantly refused,
1621
01:48:49,063 --> 01:48:51,063
but he felt that Emeric
was siding with Korda.
1622
01:48:51,563 --> 01:48:52,688
And he took this badly.
1623
01:48:53,396 --> 01:48:55,938
It was the last time that Michael
would work with Korda.
1624
01:48:56,771 --> 01:48:57,855
Or worse than that,
1625
01:48:58,480 --> 01:49:03,396
it shook the firm foundations of trust
between him and Emeric.
1626
01:49:07,355 --> 01:49:09,771
There was now a grim period
of three years
1627
01:49:09,771 --> 01:49:12,813
during which the partners
didn't make a single film together.
1628
01:49:14,313 --> 01:49:16,771
Michael was full of ambitious ideas,
1629
01:49:16,980 --> 01:49:19,021
but he insisted on creative freedom.
1630
01:49:20,355 --> 01:49:21,688
And who would give him that now
1631
01:49:21,688 --> 01:49:24,480
that he's burned his bridges
with Korda and Rank?
1632
01:49:29,480 --> 01:49:33,855
Frustrated and restless, he spent
a lot of time traveling the world.
1633
01:49:35,396 --> 01:49:37,480
He was a celebrity, an important man,
1634
01:49:37,480 --> 01:49:40,980
but he was not sure what to do
with himself anymore.
1635
01:49:42,146 --> 01:49:44,855
Michael dreamed of adventurous
productions with great artists,
1636
01:49:44,855 --> 01:49:46,355
maybe financed by television.
1637
01:49:47,021 --> 01:49:49,271
And one idea was a story from the Odyssey
1638
01:49:49,271 --> 01:49:52,396
starring Orson Welles with
a libretto by Dylan Thomas,
1639
01:49:52,730 --> 01:49:54,146
and music by Stravinsky.
1640
01:49:56,355 --> 01:49:58,438
Emeric was always
the more practical of the two.
1641
01:49:58,438 --> 01:50:01,063
He went back to Korda
to direct a film on his own.
1642
01:50:01,730 --> 01:50:04,980
This was a tale for children called
Twice Upon a Time.
1643
01:50:05,813 --> 01:50:07,271
But it was not a success.
1644
01:50:09,646 --> 01:50:13,480
The shaken and embattled partnership
tried to recover their momentum
1645
01:50:13,771 --> 01:50:15,396
with all kinds of new projects.
1646
01:50:16,313 --> 01:50:18,146
But they couldn't get anything
off the ground.
1647
01:50:22,146 --> 01:50:24,605
There just wasn't much money around
for British film production
1648
01:50:24,605 --> 01:50:26,313
in the early fifties, and it was hard
1649
01:50:26,605 --> 01:50:29,480
to make any kind of deal without
losing their independence.
1650
01:50:29,771 --> 01:50:32,355
I mean, you want to make a picture
and you want to get the money,
1651
01:50:32,355 --> 01:50:35,605
well, you know, you go everywhere you talk
to everybody, you do what you can.
1652
01:50:35,605 --> 01:50:38,688
But Michael and Emeric weren't used
to working that way.
1653
01:50:39,438 --> 01:50:41,396
They wanted to hang on
to their independence
1654
01:50:41,605 --> 01:50:42,980
and they suffered because of it.
1655
01:50:45,188 --> 01:50:48,980
The stress and strain seemed to drag
the two men in opposite directions,
1656
01:50:49,271 --> 01:50:52,355
with Michael becoming
more idealistic and combative
1657
01:50:52,355 --> 01:50:56,813
while Emeric grew
more disappointed and frustrated.
1658
01:50:58,813 --> 01:51:03,021
Eventually they scraped together
the wherewithal to make Oh... Rosalinda!!
1659
01:51:03,521 --> 01:51:05,605
An updating of Die Fledermaus
1660
01:51:05,771 --> 01:51:07,938
set in contemporary Vienna.
1661
01:51:08,563 --> 01:51:12,105
The slogan of the movie suited
their mood at the time:
1662
01:51:12,438 --> 01:51:15,313
"The situation is hopeless
but not serious."
1663
01:51:15,771 --> 01:51:16,855
It seems to me
1664
01:51:17,813 --> 01:51:18,855
with great respect
1665
01:51:19,021 --> 01:51:21,813
to have happened like this!
1666
01:51:29,230 --> 01:51:33,021
The film starts off promisingly with
an utterly distinctive design
1667
01:51:33,396 --> 01:51:36,313
and some characteristically
ambitious ideas.
1668
01:51:38,771 --> 01:51:41,521
But it never quite lives up
to that early promise.
1669
01:51:58,313 --> 01:51:59,730
Rosalinda!
1670
01:52:00,563 --> 01:52:04,105
It is not a composed film,
like their best musical works,
1671
01:52:04,563 --> 01:52:07,021
but something looser and less disciplined.
1672
01:52:07,355 --> 01:52:09,188
And I think they never
really had the money
1673
01:52:09,188 --> 01:52:12,105
that they needed to carry through
their ideas with conviction
1674
01:52:15,480 --> 01:52:19,563
and the champagne that the film offers
mostly turns out to be flat
1675
01:52:19,771 --> 01:52:21,021
rather than sparkling.
1676
01:52:24,480 --> 01:52:26,813
The British public,
certainly disappointed Emeric
1677
01:52:26,813 --> 01:52:29,980
by refusing to share his very
European taste for operetta.
1678
01:52:30,938 --> 01:52:34,896
And the partners were by now desperately
in need of some kind of success.
1679
01:52:36,980 --> 01:52:40,313
The next job they took on was
an old-fashioned war movie called
1680
01:52:40,771 --> 01:52:42,230
The Battle of the River Plate.
1681
01:52:44,021 --> 01:52:46,771
Michael had a great time shooting it
because he was allowed
1682
01:52:46,771 --> 01:52:49,105
to take command of
a large fleet of warships
1683
01:52:49,396 --> 01:52:52,855
in order to get the film's
magnificent shots of ships at sea.
1684
01:53:03,271 --> 01:53:06,563
What gave the images their
spectacular impact on the screen
1685
01:53:06,980 --> 01:53:10,521
was the fact that they were shot in
the new widescreen format of VistaVision
1686
01:53:10,646 --> 01:53:12,730
which was like the IMAX of its day.
1687
01:53:13,813 --> 01:53:16,230
You sat in the cinema and
you felt like you were on the deck
1688
01:53:16,230 --> 01:53:17,355
of one of those ships.
1689
01:53:20,271 --> 01:53:22,688
The scale and clarity of it was magical.
1690
01:53:29,730 --> 01:53:33,313
And out of nowhere, the pair
suddenly had a box office hit again.
1691
01:53:33,646 --> 01:53:37,105
The Empire Theater in Leicester Square
was the magnet that drew a vast crowd
1692
01:53:37,105 --> 01:53:39,605
of Londoners who came
to see all they could
1693
01:53:39,605 --> 01:53:41,646
of those attending
the Royal Film Performance.
1694
01:53:41,980 --> 01:53:44,146
Young French star Brigitte Bardot,
for example.
1695
01:53:46,063 --> 01:53:49,980
And Mrs Arthur Miller, who you probably
know even better as Marilyn Monroe.
1696
01:53:51,355 --> 01:53:53,271
Her Majesty talking with Miss Monroe
1697
01:53:53,271 --> 01:53:55,438
remarks that they were
neighbors at Windsor.
1698
01:53:56,063 --> 01:53:58,355
Dramatically speaking, for the first time,
1699
01:53:58,938 --> 01:54:00,980
they had made
a very conventional movie.
1700
01:54:01,980 --> 01:54:04,271
With nothing surprising or new about it.
1701
01:54:06,480 --> 01:54:10,021
...it's suicide,
she’s tearing herself apart!
1702
01:54:11,355 --> 01:54:13,313
The twilight of the gods.
1703
01:54:15,980 --> 01:54:17,688
But the success of River Plate
1704
01:54:17,938 --> 01:54:20,855
meant that they suddenly
had standing in the industry again
1705
01:54:21,146 --> 01:54:24,480
and Rank offered them
a five-year contract for seven films.
1706
01:54:25,605 --> 01:54:27,813
Emeric was eager to accept,
but Michael feared that
1707
01:54:27,813 --> 01:54:31,813
they would end up making mediocre pictures
full of mediocre contract players.
1708
01:54:32,105 --> 01:54:35,938
And he couldn't stomach the idea of
giving up their dreams and their autonomy.
1709
01:54:37,230 --> 01:54:40,313
Eventually he agreed to do
just one film for Rank
1710
01:54:40,438 --> 01:54:43,438
and this would be
Ill Met by Moonlight.
1711
01:54:54,063 --> 01:54:56,521
The subject might have been
a great one for The Archers.
1712
01:54:56,855 --> 01:54:59,605
It was based on the true story
of Paddy Leigh Fermor,
1713
01:55:00,021 --> 01:55:01,396
a very British hero,
1714
01:55:02,021 --> 01:55:03,396
a gentleman amateur,
1715
01:55:04,230 --> 01:55:08,188
who managed to kidnap a German general
on Crete during World War II.
1716
01:55:14,855 --> 01:55:15,896
Come on!
1717
01:55:23,271 --> 01:55:25,855
The problem with the film is that
Emeric wanted to tell the story
1718
01:55:25,855 --> 01:55:28,063
in a downbeat documentary way,
1719
01:55:28,271 --> 01:55:30,896
while Michael wanted to make
a big romantic picture.
1720
01:55:45,730 --> 01:55:50,313
Once again, the VistaVision camera
afforded some big beautiful images.
1721
01:55:50,563 --> 01:55:54,313
But at its heart, the film was confused
and it was uninspired.
1722
01:56:01,896 --> 01:56:05,271
Michael felt that Emeric
had become tired and timid
1723
01:56:05,521 --> 01:56:08,146
and that he had lost
all his fire and ambition.
1724
01:56:09,021 --> 01:56:11,230
Emeric felt that Michael had gone mad
1725
01:56:11,521 --> 01:56:14,646
and become wildly unreasonable
about everything.
1726
01:56:16,313 --> 01:56:20,646
Michael hated Rank's choice
of Dirk Bogarde as the lead.
1727
01:56:21,688 --> 01:56:23,021
Come on, flash the signal.
1728
01:56:23,021 --> 01:56:24,271
Sugar baker, SB.
1729
01:56:24,605 --> 01:56:25,855
How do I flash "sugar baker"?
1730
01:56:27,646 --> 01:56:29,271
Don't you know the Morse code?
1731
01:56:29,271 --> 01:56:31,021
Me? But don't you...
1732
01:56:31,355 --> 01:56:32,355
No.
1733
01:56:33,980 --> 01:56:34,980
So...
1734
01:56:36,480 --> 01:56:37,730
Do you know the Morse code?
1735
01:56:38,230 --> 01:56:39,230
But of course.
1736
01:56:40,938 --> 01:56:42,605
Aren't you professional soldiers?
1737
01:56:42,896 --> 01:56:43,896
Good lord, no.
1738
01:56:44,396 --> 01:56:45,396
The Major here?
1739
01:56:45,855 --> 01:56:48,688
No, an amateur, distinguished
amateur, but still an amateur.
1740
01:56:49,730 --> 01:56:52,355
Michael was refused permission
to shoot in Crete,
1741
01:56:52,563 --> 01:56:54,688
and had to make the film
in France instead.
1742
01:56:57,313 --> 01:57:00,771
Everything added up to make a weary
and troubled production
1743
01:57:00,980 --> 01:57:02,855
that no one really believed in.
1744
01:57:04,896 --> 01:57:07,105
When Michael saw the film 30 years later,
1745
01:57:07,271 --> 01:57:09,563
even he was surprised
by how poor it was.
1746
01:57:10,313 --> 01:57:13,813
He felt the acting was mediocre,
the camera work a mistake.
1747
01:57:14,105 --> 01:57:18,730
And even in 1957, the whole thing
must have looked painfully old-fashioned.
1748
01:57:18,855 --> 01:57:21,605
"The script was underwritten,
and weak on action", he said
1749
01:57:21,771 --> 01:57:23,230
"the gags were unoriginal
1750
01:57:23,396 --> 01:57:24,730
and the surprises,
1751
01:57:24,730 --> 01:57:26,188
not surprising."
1752
01:57:29,646 --> 01:57:32,521
During the editing
the Powell and Pressburger team
1753
01:57:32,521 --> 01:57:36,230
faced up to the fact that they
no longer saw things in the same way,
1754
01:57:36,438 --> 01:57:38,980
and decided to dissolve their partnership.
1755
01:57:42,730 --> 01:57:45,063
I didn't like being tied
down to the facts.
1756
01:57:45,438 --> 01:57:49,646
Yes, I read that you resisted
that sort of realism and wanted to--
1757
01:57:49,813 --> 01:57:52,646
- Bit more imagination in it.
- Oh, yes. And...
1758
01:57:52,938 --> 01:57:55,938
and so we sort of naturally
drifted apart on this.
1759
01:57:56,896 --> 01:57:58,480
On this idea.
1760
01:57:58,480 --> 01:58:01,188
You didn't have a sort of
hammer and tongs argument and...
1761
01:58:01,188 --> 01:58:02,313
No, no.
1762
01:58:02,438 --> 01:58:06,063
Throwing down the gauntlet for realism
and you marching off in a huff about...
1763
01:58:06,396 --> 01:58:10,605
No, it was just a rather sad mutual gap.
1764
01:58:11,563 --> 01:58:13,105
You can't have
a mutual gap, can you?
1765
01:58:13,480 --> 01:58:17,271
A sad gap which opened
between two loving people.
1766
01:58:18,355 --> 01:58:20,896
This is the way Emeric summed up
the partnership once.
1767
01:58:21,646 --> 01:58:25,313
"I always had the feeling that we were
amateurs in a world of professionals.
1768
01:58:25,521 --> 01:58:28,521
Amateurs stand so much closer
to what they are doing
1769
01:58:28,646 --> 01:58:30,355
and they are driven by enthusiasm,
1770
01:58:30,730 --> 01:58:34,771
which is so much more forceful than
what professionals are driven by."
1771
01:58:36,605 --> 01:58:40,688
People are always asking us how
we managed to work together for so long.
1772
01:58:40,688 --> 01:58:42,271
Something like eighteen years.
1773
01:58:43,563 --> 01:58:44,688
The answer is
1774
01:58:45,563 --> 01:58:46,605
love.
1775
01:58:47,646 --> 01:58:49,396
You can't have a collaboration
1776
01:58:50,146 --> 01:58:51,188
in anything
1777
01:58:51,688 --> 01:58:52,771
without love.
1778
01:58:55,063 --> 01:58:57,605
Emeric and Michael
always remained good friends
1779
01:58:57,605 --> 01:59:00,563
and neither man ever said
a bad word about the other.
1780
01:59:01,688 --> 01:59:06,646
I started to write novels.
Very, very few of them, only two.
1781
01:59:06,813 --> 01:59:07,813
And...
1782
01:59:08,271 --> 01:59:10,896
well, I think nice novels.
1783
01:59:16,813 --> 01:59:18,855
Mark, what a beautiful little boy.
1784
01:59:19,105 --> 01:59:20,105
Who is he?
1785
01:59:20,896 --> 01:59:21,896
Me.
1786
01:59:23,563 --> 01:59:24,730
Course it is.
1787
01:59:25,063 --> 01:59:26,271
Then who took this film?
1788
01:59:28,313 --> 01:59:29,313
My father.
1789
01:59:31,313 --> 01:59:34,563
Michael went on to make one more
great film without Emeric.
1790
01:59:35,021 --> 01:59:36,396
Ah! What's that?
1791
01:59:41,646 --> 01:59:43,438
That was Peeping Tom.
1792
01:59:44,271 --> 01:59:48,605
And for me, it represents Michael's
determination to keep on experimenting.
1793
01:59:51,188 --> 01:59:52,355
Mark, what are you doing?
1794
01:59:52,480 --> 01:59:54,313
Wanted to photograph you watching.
1795
01:59:54,521 --> 01:59:55,521
No, no!
1796
01:59:56,646 --> 01:59:59,021
Michael even included
himself in this story
1797
01:59:59,021 --> 02:00:00,980
casting himself as
the bullying father
1798
02:00:00,980 --> 02:00:04,480
who terrifies his own child
in order to study his fear.
1799
02:00:08,355 --> 02:00:09,355
What's he doing?
1800
02:00:11,646 --> 02:00:12,855
Giving me a present.
1801
02:00:14,480 --> 02:00:15,480
What is it?
1802
02:00:17,230 --> 02:00:18,355
Can't you guess?
1803
02:00:21,980 --> 02:00:23,063
A camera.
1804
02:00:27,438 --> 02:00:29,188
That child grows up to be a killer.
1805
02:00:29,355 --> 02:00:31,605
And what's most unsettling about it,
1806
02:00:31,730 --> 02:00:34,313
of course, is that he's
shown sympathetically.
1807
02:00:34,438 --> 02:00:36,605
As a shy and suffering person.
1808
02:00:36,605 --> 02:00:37,688
Switch it off, Mark!
1809
02:00:40,188 --> 02:00:41,563
Mark, switch it off!
1810
02:00:41,813 --> 02:00:44,605
His trouble is that he is not
at home in this world
1811
02:00:45,438 --> 02:00:47,563
and he feels truly alive and whole
1812
02:00:47,688 --> 02:00:52,105
only in the images he creates
built from the destruction of others.
1813
02:00:54,021 --> 02:00:57,313
Every night you switch on
that film machine.
1814
02:00:59,230 --> 02:01:02,896
What are these films
you can't wait to look at?
1815
02:01:04,813 --> 02:01:06,521
What's the film you're showing now?
1816
02:01:08,563 --> 02:01:10,646
Take me to your cinema.
1817
02:01:11,438 --> 02:01:12,438
Yes.
1818
02:01:14,271 --> 02:01:16,771
The atmosphere that
permeates the whole film
1819
02:01:16,771 --> 02:01:19,188
is one of overwhelming sadness.
1820
02:01:22,105 --> 02:01:23,980
What am I seeing, Mark?
1821
02:01:28,855 --> 02:01:30,188
Why don't you answer?
1822
02:01:36,646 --> 02:01:37,646
Oh!
1823
02:01:40,480 --> 02:01:41,480
It's no good.
1824
02:01:42,396 --> 02:01:44,230
I was afraid it wouldn't be.
1825
02:01:44,938 --> 02:01:45,938
What?
1826
02:01:46,271 --> 02:01:47,938
The lights fade too soon.
1827
02:01:48,563 --> 02:01:51,188
It's a very disturbing
and transgressive film,
1828
02:01:51,605 --> 02:01:53,521
but it's also very moving because
1829
02:01:53,688 --> 02:01:57,313
at the heart of it
is this radical compassion,
1830
02:01:58,271 --> 02:02:00,271
it asks you to feel for someone
1831
02:02:00,271 --> 02:02:02,063
who is a madman and a murderer.
1832
02:02:02,063 --> 02:02:03,813
What do you think you've spoiled?
1833
02:02:04,688 --> 02:02:05,771
An opportunity.
1834
02:02:07,480 --> 02:02:09,230
Now, I have to find another one.
1835
02:02:14,563 --> 02:02:15,646
Watch them, Helen.
1836
02:02:16,438 --> 02:02:17,813
Watch them, say goodbye,
1837
02:02:18,480 --> 02:02:19,521
one by one.
1838
02:02:20,230 --> 02:02:21,813
I have timed it so often.
1839
02:02:30,896 --> 02:02:31,771
Helen!
1840
02:02:31,938 --> 02:02:32,938
Helen!
1841
02:02:33,313 --> 02:02:34,313
I'm afraid.
1842
02:02:34,938 --> 02:02:36,813
No, no, Mark!
1843
02:02:40,563 --> 02:02:41,646
And I'm glad...
1844
02:02:42,646 --> 02:02:43,646
I'm afraid.
1845
02:02:46,521 --> 02:02:49,480
"I was shocked to the core
to find a director of his standing
1846
02:02:49,480 --> 02:02:54,271
befouling the screen
with such perverted nonsense."
1847
02:02:54,605 --> 02:02:59,355
"The word for Michael Powell's
Peeping Tom is, quite simply, nasty."
1848
02:02:59,688 --> 02:03:03,230
" Peeping Tom stinks more than
anything else in British films
1849
02:03:03,230 --> 02:03:05,146
since The Stranglers of Bombay."
1850
02:03:05,730 --> 02:03:09,105
"The only really satisfactory way
to dispose of Peeping Tom
1851
02:03:09,105 --> 02:03:12,688
would be to shovel it up and flush it
swiftly down the nearest sewer."
1852
02:03:13,396 --> 02:03:15,646
I believed in the film,
they didn't.
1853
02:03:16,563 --> 02:03:18,563
It vanished for 20 years.
1854
02:03:19,355 --> 02:03:20,730
And I vanished with it.
1855
02:03:21,480 --> 02:03:23,105
I was no longer bankable.
1856
02:03:23,438 --> 02:03:24,980
I was too independent.
1857
02:03:25,521 --> 02:03:27,021
I wanted my own way.
1858
02:03:28,188 --> 02:03:31,730
The other thing that counted against
Michael was the fact that by now
1859
02:03:32,230 --> 02:03:33,646
it was the 60s.
1860
02:03:34,063 --> 02:03:35,605
Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz,
1861
02:03:35,605 --> 02:03:38,021
Lindsay Anderson were
making fresh energetic,
1862
02:03:38,146 --> 02:03:41,563
a kind of classic films which drew
on the documentary tradition
1863
02:03:41,771 --> 02:03:44,063
and the ideas of
the European New Wave.
1864
02:03:45,396 --> 02:03:47,605
This is Ron, I want a word with you!
1865
02:03:47,605 --> 02:03:51,605
For these young men,
Michael represented ancient history.
1866
02:03:52,813 --> 02:03:54,855
- Give me my money back!
- Call it!
1867
02:04:00,563 --> 02:04:01,563
Cut!
1868
02:04:01,813 --> 02:04:03,855
I go out of frame,
you don't follow me at all?
1869
02:04:03,855 --> 02:04:06,605
- No, we don't follow you.
- Oh, it’s alright then. Alright, good.
1870
02:04:06,605 --> 02:04:07,730
Oh, sorry...
1871
02:04:07,730 --> 02:04:11,688
No, I had a feeling in that take
that I was opening my mouth
1872
02:04:11,813 --> 02:04:15,605
and licking my lips a little too much.
I suddenly found myself doing that.
1873
02:04:15,605 --> 02:04:17,730
- Yes, do it again.
- Would you like to take another?
1874
02:04:17,730 --> 02:04:18,730
Action!
1875
02:04:18,730 --> 02:04:20,980
After much struggle,
he managed to put together
1876
02:04:20,980 --> 02:04:22,896
two low budget pictures in Australia.
1877
02:04:23,605 --> 02:04:25,771
Mrs Ryan, I want a word with you!
1878
02:04:25,938 --> 02:04:26,938
I want a word...
1879
02:04:26,938 --> 02:04:28,105
Including this one
1880
02:04:28,105 --> 02:04:31,230
Age of Consent with Helen Mirren
and James Mason.
1881
02:04:31,438 --> 02:04:34,230
- Give me that money back, it’s mine!
- You stole it from me!
1882
02:04:38,355 --> 02:04:39,396
Cut!
1883
02:04:39,396 --> 02:04:42,896
It never became a real tug of war,
with both of you tugging.
1884
02:04:43,146 --> 02:04:47,563
If it really is a tug of war, so that your
life is depending on the bag.
1885
02:04:47,563 --> 02:04:49,938
And if you lose the bag,
you've gone, you know.
1886
02:04:50,355 --> 02:04:51,355
Cora!
1887
02:04:52,105 --> 02:04:53,146
Action now.
1888
02:05:01,355 --> 02:05:02,355
Cut!
1889
02:05:02,355 --> 02:05:03,771
It was wonderful, darling.
1890
02:05:04,105 --> 02:05:05,271
Marvellous. Are you alright?
1891
02:05:05,688 --> 02:05:06,938
It was very clever.
1892
02:05:10,730 --> 02:05:11,938
Everybody happy?
1893
02:05:13,105 --> 02:05:16,521
He had no way of knowing it,
but this would be his last feature film.
1894
02:05:17,688 --> 02:05:20,313
He was never able to raise
the money to make another one.
1895
02:05:23,063 --> 02:05:24,063
She's dead.
1896
02:05:28,021 --> 02:05:29,105
Grandma?
1897
02:05:31,271 --> 02:05:33,730
Of course, it was during the very years
1898
02:05:33,730 --> 02:05:36,521
that Michael was struggling
and sinking into obscurity
1899
02:05:36,980 --> 02:05:39,813
that people like me
and Francis Coppola were discovering
1900
02:05:39,813 --> 02:05:41,688
his work on the other side
of the Atlantic.
1901
02:05:43,813 --> 02:05:47,105
And our great fortune was that we were
watching the Powell Pressburger films
1902
02:05:47,105 --> 02:05:49,563
without any cultural baggage.
1903
02:05:49,938 --> 02:05:52,980
We had no prejudices based on
when they were made
1904
02:05:53,188 --> 02:05:54,771
or how they were received.
1905
02:05:54,938 --> 02:05:56,938
We just saw them as enjoyable films
1906
02:05:57,105 --> 02:05:59,063
and sometimes wonderful works of art.
1907
02:05:59,896 --> 02:06:04,396
We watched all types of British films,
whether it was Grierson or Jennings,
1908
02:06:04,896 --> 02:06:08,063
David Lean or Carol Reed,
Hitchcock or Powell and Pressburger.
1909
02:06:08,230 --> 02:06:11,313
And we didn't think of any one style
as better than the others.
1910
02:06:11,521 --> 02:06:16,105
For us, they all reflected
different aspects of one people.
1911
02:06:16,813 --> 02:06:17,813
The British.
1912
02:06:18,563 --> 02:06:20,438
And we were open to all of it.
1913
02:06:22,271 --> 02:06:23,771
When I got to know Michael well,
1914
02:06:24,021 --> 02:06:28,563
he certainly seemed to me imbued
with the spirit and the soul of Britain.
1915
02:06:29,480 --> 02:06:32,438
And it was my great good fortune
in the 1980s
1916
02:06:32,646 --> 02:06:35,563
to finally see him and Emeric rediscovered
1917
02:06:35,896 --> 02:06:38,188
and reassessed in Britain too.
1918
02:06:39,396 --> 02:06:43,188
I can't begin to describe
how touched
1919
02:06:43,480 --> 02:06:47,646
and how happy I am
to be presenting this award tonight.
1920
02:06:48,063 --> 02:06:53,896
An award which I feel very deeply
is long, long overdue.
1921
02:06:56,688 --> 02:06:58,230
These two giants of the cinema
1922
02:06:58,230 --> 02:07:01,396
who had pretty much disappeared
into oblivion for 20 years
1923
02:07:02,105 --> 02:07:05,730
were finally granted the honor
and respect that they deserved.
1924
02:07:07,605 --> 02:07:09,938
In 1984, Michael got married
1925
02:07:09,938 --> 02:07:12,896
to my longtime film editor,
Thelma Schoonmaker,
1926
02:07:13,438 --> 02:07:15,688
who's edited all my films
since Raging Bull.
1927
02:07:16,230 --> 02:07:19,188
They lived here in New York
and Michael became a constant friend
1928
02:07:19,438 --> 02:07:21,563
and a constant presence in my life.
1929
02:07:22,396 --> 02:07:25,271
He was a guy who hadn't made
a picture in 25-30 years.
1930
02:07:25,271 --> 02:07:28,021
But every day he was planning one.
1931
02:07:30,396 --> 02:07:35,105
When I went through difficult times,
he was a tremendous support.
1932
02:07:36,146 --> 02:07:38,563
I remember when I was finishing
The King of Comedy
1933
02:07:38,813 --> 02:07:41,063
I was at a very low point.
1934
02:07:41,813 --> 02:07:45,146
But Michael somehow seemed to understand
everything I was going through.
1935
02:07:45,771 --> 02:07:46,855
He never...
1936
02:07:47,230 --> 02:07:48,396
he was never intrusive.
1937
02:07:49,271 --> 02:07:51,521
But he was able to talk to me personally
1938
02:07:51,855 --> 02:07:55,813
from the experience that he had
of a very long creative life.
1939
02:07:56,188 --> 02:07:58,396
And his voice was very different from
1940
02:07:58,771 --> 02:08:01,063
the voices of the others
around me at the time.
1941
02:08:02,105 --> 02:08:05,146
He had a spirit that
was always strong
1942
02:08:05,313 --> 02:08:06,605
and uncompromised.
1943
02:08:07,313 --> 02:08:09,646
Even when he seemed
to be a forgotten man.
1944
02:08:10,521 --> 02:08:14,105
That spirit supported me
in periods of doubt
1945
02:08:14,521 --> 02:08:15,563
and desolation.
1946
02:08:18,313 --> 02:08:19,730
I look back on it now
1947
02:08:19,730 --> 02:08:22,355
and I find it extraordinary that
I knew Michael Powell personally
1948
02:08:22,355 --> 02:08:23,813
for 16 years.
1949
02:08:23,813 --> 02:08:27,021
And he was not only
a support but a guide.
1950
02:08:27,271 --> 02:08:31,813
Pushing me along, giving me confidence,
keeping me bold in my own work.
1951
02:08:31,813 --> 02:08:33,230
It's OK, fellas, no problem.
1952
02:08:34,563 --> 02:08:37,271
This one's gone. What?
OK, yeah.
1953
02:08:38,021 --> 02:08:40,813
I'll never be able to
fully understand or express
1954
02:08:41,605 --> 02:08:44,730
why he meant so much to me
and why he'll always be with me.
1955
02:08:48,938 --> 02:08:50,271
And that current of thought
1956
02:08:50,271 --> 02:08:53,230
always leads back to those
films he made with Emeric.
1957
02:08:54,605 --> 02:08:56,063
I'm signing off now, June.
1958
02:08:56,063 --> 02:08:57,646
Goodbye, goodbye June.
1959
02:08:57,646 --> 02:09:00,646
Hello, G for George.
Hello, G-George?
1960
02:09:00,646 --> 02:09:01,730
Hello G-George?
1961
02:09:01,730 --> 02:09:04,813
David Niven saying goodbye
to Kim Hunter over the radio
1962
02:09:05,105 --> 02:09:07,105
in A Matter of Life and Death.
1963
02:09:14,521 --> 02:09:15,646
Let it ring.
1964
02:09:15,855 --> 02:09:20,313
The intensely erotic scenes between
Kathleen Byron and David Farrar
1965
02:09:20,730 --> 02:09:22,188
in The Small Back Room.
1966
02:09:29,146 --> 02:09:31,855
The camera moving up
and away from the duel
1967
02:09:32,105 --> 02:09:33,771
in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
1968
02:09:42,313 --> 02:09:45,855
Certain films, you simply run
all the time and you live with them.
1969
02:09:47,021 --> 02:09:49,688
As you grow older,
they grow deeper.
1970
02:09:50,646 --> 02:09:52,438
I'm not sure how it happens, but it does.
1971
02:09:54,521 --> 02:09:57,396
For me, that body of work
is a wondrous presence,
1972
02:09:57,813 --> 02:09:59,688
a constant source of energy,
1973
02:10:00,146 --> 02:10:01,230
and a reminder
1974
02:10:01,521 --> 02:10:04,896
of what life and art
are all about.
1975
02:10:22,563 --> 02:10:23,688
When you look back
1976
02:10:23,688 --> 02:10:26,105
do you think that somehow
or other, the British
1977
02:10:26,688 --> 02:10:30,813
didn't appreciate you both
as much as they might have?
1978
02:10:33,313 --> 02:10:36,105
When did the British
ever appreciate their great men?
1979
02:10:40,063 --> 02:10:41,063
Cut.
1980
02:10:41,063 --> 02:10:43,396
I hope this will,
this will be cut.
1981
02:10:45,730 --> 02:10:48,938
MADE IN ENGLAND