Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: David Hinton
Featuring: Martin Scorsese
When we think of British cinema today we tend to equate it with low
budget productions capturing a drab, clouded over urban landscape in
what might as well be monochrome. It's easy to forget there was a period
from the 1940s to the early '60s that saw some of the most colourful
cinematic spectacles ever realised emerge from that rain-sodden isle.
From historical epics to Hammer horrors, British cinema went toe to toe
with Hollywood when it came to colourful grandeur, and at the forefront
was the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger is directed by David Hinton and "presented"
by Martin Scorsese, but it's the Italian-American auteur who
is the guiding force rather than the documentary's director. Far from an
objective overview of its subject, the film is a personal reminiscence
from Scorsese of both Powell, his cinematic hero, and Michael, his good
friend. A more apt title might have been 'A Personal Journey with Martin
Scorsese Through the Films of Michael Powell', as despite its moniker
it's very much focussed on Powell, devoting considerable time to the
films he made without his most famous collaborator.
Like all the best documentaries about filmmakers,
Made in England goes through Powell's career film by film.
Despite Scorsese's reverence for and personal relationship with Powell,
he doesn't brush over the filmmaker's failures, which are admittedly few
and far between. But for the most part this is a gushing and emotionally
moving salute from one great to another.
Despite one half of the duo being a Hungarian immigrant, the films of
Powell & Pressburger are as English as they come. In fact, you might
argue that they're a lot less British than they are English. They
represent a specific sort of English repression, but that emotional
stagnation is contrasted by the expressionist visuals Powell deployed to
convey his characters' psychology. You'll rarely hear a character in a
Powell & Pressburger movie tell you what they're feeling, but you'll
always be explicitly aware of their mental state because Powell shows
you what his characters are feeling through colour, editing, lighting,
camera movement, costume, production design and every other tool of
cinema.
Powell often used the colour red to convey such emotions, whether it be
Kathleen Byron's lipstick in Black Narcissus or the titular ballet footwear of The Red Shoes. The addition of red changes and overwhelms characters, bringing out
the emotions and desires they've withheld; even now a red dress is
associated with a woman showing her daring side. The films of Powell
make it fitting that the English flag is a combination of red and white,
purity and passion in constant conflict. Scorsese admits to
filling Mean Streets with red in tribute to Powell, only for his idol to tell him he
used too much of the colour.
Even when Powell worked in monochrome, he shunned black and white
morality. There's a sympathy for villains that often got him in trouble,
none more so than Peeping Tom, which practically ended his career. Some of Powell and Pressburger's
best films were conceived as wartime propaganda vessels, but the duo
resolutely avoided politics and focussed instead on values. They dared
to satirise the British military establishment with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, drawing Churchill's ire in the process, but while that film mocks a
certain type of British tradition, it's filled with warmth for the man
who embodies it. In A Matter of Life and Death they chose to represent Heaven in monochrome and reality in
glorious colour, an embodiment of their unwavering belief in humanity in
its darkest hours.
Scorsese met Powell in the '70s when the director was on his knees. He
never directed again but thanks to being made a director in residence at
Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope studios, he once again felt a part of
cinema. For the rest of his life he was a mentor to Scorsese and a
husband to editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who is an executive
producer on this documentary. Scorsese is keen to point out any moments
of his own career where he borrowed from Powell, but the film's one
misstep is an oddly placed montage of out of context clips from random
Scorsese movies, and you can imagine Scorsese being embarrassed by such
a wrong-footed tribute.
Along with Scorsese's guiding wisdom, there are wonderful archive
clips, mosty from those fantastic cinephilia shows that were so
prevalent on British TV prior to the the anti-intellectual rot that set
in at the turn of the century. For over two hours this is a magical and
moving tribute to a lost era of filmmaking and film appreciation. Powell
claimed that when he first met Scorsese the American's passion for
cinema meant he could feel the blood flow through his own veins. If you
love the movies you'll have a similar feeling watching this doc.
Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger is in UK/ROI cinemas from May 10th.
