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Michael Powell
When asked who is the greatest British film director of all time, those of a more prosaic bent will come up with the obvious replies of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean, but Powell is truly the master. A man who lived, ate, drank and breathed film, thirty years before cinephiles like Martin Scorsese.
His films made under the Archers banner with writer and producer Emeric Pressburger are some of the most striking and dynamic films ever. ' The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp' has been called the British 'Citizen Kane', it is a far superior film in many ways, more subtle, optimistic and moving.
' A Matter Of Life And Death' (renamed 'Stairway To Heaven' in the US) is one of the most life affirming films ever made and during the dark days of the war. ' Black Narcissus' is pure cinema in that Powell manages to create a convincing recreation of the Himalayas in the studio. ' The Red Shoes' is perhaps his best film, being the best expression of the kind of 'composed' cinema he wished to make, music, painting, dance, colour and light in an expressive symphony of emotions, as Powell said 'Not great art but great entertainment.'
One of Powell's last films ' Peeping Tom' made without Pressburger and written by Leo Marks is one of the most profound and disturbing films about the human psyche ever made.
If you have even a slight interest in cinema seek out all his films. Also read his two excellent volumes of autobiography.
What members say |
Filmography
Michael Powell - what members say
review by from England
Life in wartime was a pilgrimage 18 July 2004
review by from England
A cinematic wet dream 5 July 2004
review by from London, UK
Tense Thriller 30 January 2004
Michael Powell - filmography
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Age Of Consent
on DVD
(1968)
Starring: James Mason, Helen Mirren, Jack MacGowran
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate: 
Disillusioned with life, celebrated artist Bradley Morahan (James Mason) retreats to the solitude of a tropical island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The island, however, turns out to be far from uninhabited. Bradley soon stumbles upon Cora, played by Helen Mirren (The Queen), a beautiful, ..read more »
 
56%
from 257 members
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They're A Weird Mob
on DVD
(1966)
Starring: Walter Chiari, Clare Dunne, Chips Rafferty
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate: 
Nino Culotta is an Italian immigrant coming to Australia to work with his cousin for a magazine. But finding that both the magazine and is cousin are long gone, he takes a job for a construction firm. But falling for the bosses daughter presents a problem for the new arrival.
59%
from 91 members
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Espionage
(1963)
Starring: Anthony Quayle, Roger Livesey
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
The complete 24 episodes of the early 1960s anthology series which tracked various spies around the world, both real and fictional, as they went about their top-secret business. Episodes are: 'A Covenant With Death', 'The Incurable One', 'The Gentle Spies', 'He Rises On Sunday and We On Monday', '..read more »
47%
from 8 members
Not available for rental
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Peeping Tom
on DVD
(1960)
Starring: Carl Boehm, Maxine Audley, Michael Powell
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate: 
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Michael Powell's controversial serial killer classic. A clean-cut focus puller (Carl Boehm) at the local film studio supplements his wages by taking girly photographs in a seedy studio above a newsagent. By night he is a sadistic killer, stalking his victims with his camera forever in his hand ..read more »
66%
from 5,160 members
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Peeping Tom - Blu-ray
(1960)
Starring: Carl Boehm, Maxine Audley, Michael Powell
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate: 
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Michael Powell's controversial serial killer classic. A clean-cut focus puller (Carl Boehm) at the local film studio supplements his wages by taking girly photographs in a seedy studio above a newsagent. By night he is a sadistic killer, stalking his victims with his camera forever in his hand ..read more »
72%
from 518 members
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Gone To Earth
(1950)
Starring: Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Jennifer Jones
Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Certificate: 
Powell and Pressburger classic starring Jennifer Jones as Hazel Woods, a beautiful animal-loving girl living on the Welsh border at the turn of the century. Though married to the local pastor, Hazel catches the eye of the fox-hunting squire Jack Reddin (David Farrar), leading to a dramatic clash of ..read more »
61%
from 561 members
Currently unavailable
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The Small Back Room
on DVD
(1949)
Starring: Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins, Sid James
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressbu
Certificate:
One of the lesser-known Powell and Pressburger collaborations. During the Second World War, scientist Sammy Rice (David Farrar) works at a British research unit set up to solve the enemy's methods of attack. Embittered after losing a foot in a bomb blast, Sammy is increasingly seeking solace in ..read more »
68%
from 652 members
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Black Narcissus
(1946)
Starring: Kathleen Byron, Jenny Laird, Judith Furse
Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Certificate:
British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger once again deliberately courted controversy and censorship with their 1947 adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron play the head nuns at an Anglican hospital/school high in the Himalayas. The nuns' well-ordered ..read more »
74%
from 2,513 members
Not available for rental
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49th Parallel
(1941)
Starring: Eric Portman, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressbu
Certificate: 
Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard are among the stars who try to prevent Nazi sailors, from a sunken U-Boat, reaching neutral USA through Canada in this classic war film, which was intended to persuade America to join World War II. Emeric Pressburger won an Academy Award for the story and the film ..read more »
62%
from 839 members
Currently unavailable
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Contraband
(1940)
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
This is the tale of life in a British port in the first year of World War II. Spies and smugglers abound in the blackout and unreal shore life of the "phoney war" (before the shooting started).
62%
from 38 members
Currently unavailable
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The Thief of Bagdad
(1940)
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez
Director: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell
Certificate:
Prince Ahmad is the rightful King of Bagdad but he has been blinded and cast out as a beggar. Now a captive of the wicked Grand Vizier Jaffar he is cast into a dungeon where he meets Abu, the best thief in all Bagdad. Together they escape and set about a series of adventures that involve a Djinni ..read more »
71%
from 407 members
Not available for rental
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The Spy in Black
on DVD
(1939)
Starring: Conrad Veidt
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet. But the Captain gets more than he bargained for in his contact, the local school mistress.
63%
from 129 members
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The Edge Of The World
on DVD
(1937)
Starring: Eric Berry, Belle Chrystall, Finlay Currie
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
What happens when the people of a lonely, windswept island can no longer survive as a community ? This Drama/Documentary examines the hardships of such a life and the decisions they must make, whether to stay where their families have worked & died to establish this hard-working community or to ..read more »
69%
from 899 members
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Fleet Air Arm At War And Peace
on DVD
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressbu
Certificate: 
A collection of short films from the Imperial War Museum archives, celebrating the Royal Navy's aviation history and offering a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Fleet Air Arm. Contains rare and previously-unseen archive footage.
60%
from 53 members
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Michael Powell facts
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...ot of a bird in 14th century England transforming into a warplane in the 1940s, Michael Powell's camera brings out a landscape full of the past - despite being affected both ...
