Browse by:

Our Picks

Collections

Magazine

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

A Canterbury Tale review by from England

Life in wartime was a pilgrimage 18 July 2004
...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 ... Read customer review

The Red Shoes review by from England

A cinematic wet dream 5 July 2004
... redefine your faith in cinema. The eventual outcome may not quite work, but Michael Powell's stunning direction and Jack Cardiff's amazing cinematography convince you tha... Read customer review

Peeping Tom review by from London, UK

Tense Thriller 30 January 2004
... the terror on the murdered girl's faces is revealed. Of particular interest to Michael Powell fans and film buffs: it is terribly self-reflexive. Did Powell himself ever ent... Read customer review

Michael Powell - filmography

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 »

55% from 193 members

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.

60% from 79 members

Espionage (1963)
Starring: Roger Livesey, Anthony Quayle
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
Unseen for over 40 years, Espionage is one of the rarest and most sought-after ITC series. Produced by George Justin (Twelve Angry Men) and Herbert Hirschman (The Zoo Gang), this anthology series of 24 plays covered everything from the then-current Cold War to 19th century China, from Johnson's ..read more »

51% from 6 members
Not available for rental

Peeping Tom - Blu-ray (1960)
Starring: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Michael Powell's controversial meditation on violence and voyeurism effectively destroyed his career when it was first released, but later generations have come to regard it as a masterpiece.

72% from 390 members

Peeping Tom on DVD (1960)
Starring: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Mark Lewis, assistant cameraman at a London film studio, aspiring movie director, part-time taker of pornographic pictures, and amateur documentary film-maker, has begun murdering women. He kills them, literally, with his camera and films the attacks and the murders. He also surrepititiously films ..read more »

66% from 4,669 members

Ill Met By Moonlight on DVD (1957)
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
A distinguished British cast, headed by 1950s heart-throb Dirk Bogarde, leads I'll Met By Moonlight--a Powell and Pressburger war film which is based on a true story. British agents conspire with local partisans to kidnap a prominent German General during the occupation of Crete in WWII. They ..read more »

62% from 718 members

Battle Of The River Plate on DVD (1956)
Starring: John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Peter Finch
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Widely regarded as one of the best and most intelligent British war dramas of the 1950s, The Battle of River Plate is the story of Britain's first significant naval victory in WW2. John Gregson heads the cast as Captain Bell, skipper of the Exeter, one of several vessels engaged in pursuit of the ..read more »

68% from 1,553 member

Tales Of Hoffman on DVD (1951)
Starring: Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
The Powell And Pressburger Collection contains eleven Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell films. Titles in the box set include: 1. A Matter of Life and Death 2. The Red Shoes3. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp4. A Canterbury Tale 5. I Know Where I'm Going 6. 49th Parallel 7. Battle of the ..read more »

67% from 199 members

Gone To Earth (1950)
Starring: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's GONE TO EARTH, Hazel (Jennifer Jones), a beautiful young gypsy girl, falls for a local hunter (David Farrar) who wants to kill her pet fox. This simple yet breathtaking film was later re-edited as THE WILD HEART.

61% from 548 members
Not currently released

The Small Back Room on DVD (1949)
Starring: David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
From the legendary filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger [A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes], The Small Back Room is the story of the troubled love affair between a tormented back room scientist and a beautiful secretary, told against a background of ministerial intrigue and empire building...read more »

68% from 599 members

The Red Shoes - Blu-ray (1948)
Starring: Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
This seminal dance film, created Powell and Pressburger, in which an impresario takes a ballerina under his wing, deftly combines interpretive dance with drama. This acclaimed adaption of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale results in a marked triumph of artistic collaboration and modernity. More ..read more »

82% from 26 members
Currently unavailable

The Red Shoes on DVD (1948)
Starring: Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
This seminal dance film, created Powell and Pressburger, in which an impresario takes a ballerina under his wing, deftly combines interpretive dance with drama. This acclaimed adaption of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale results in a marked triumph of artistic collaboration and modernity. More ..read more »

71% from 4,674 members

A Matter Of Life And Death on DVD (1946)
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Also known as Stairway to Heaven, A Matter of Life and Death is the remarkable British fantasy film that became the surprise hit of 1946. David Niven stars as Peter Carter, a World War II RAF pilot who is forced to bail out of his crippled plane without a parachute. He wakes up to find he has ..read more »

70% from 10,415 members

Black Narcissus (1946)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Anglo-Catholic nuns on an isolated missionary assignment in the Himalayas face an assortment of worldly challenges including sexual temptations and other intriguing ups and downs. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden.

73% from 2,381 members
Not available for rental

Black Narcissus - Blu-ray (1946)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Anglo-Catholic nuns on an isolated missionary assignment in the Himalayas face an assortment of worldly challenges including sexual temptations and other intriguing ups and downs. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden.

74% from 325 members

I Know Where I'm Going on DVD (1945)
Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Joan has known what she wants since early childhood. Now she's about to marry a millionaire, but a storm strands her on a Hebridean island and the forces of nature conspire to change her mind.

70% from 1,625 member

A Canterbury Tale on DVD (1944)
Starring: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
While World War II rages, an American G.I. and three Britons find themselves en route to the hallowed cathedral on the same Pilgrims' way taken by travelers some 600 years before and reported in Chaucer's epic poem.

69% from 1,577 member

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp on DVD (1943)
Starring: Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943. It so infuriated Winston Churchill, in fact, that he refused to allow its ..read more »

73% from 3,464 members

One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing on DVD (1941)
Starring: Hugh Burden, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
After being shot down over Nazi-occupied Holland, an RAF bomber crew attempt to make their way to England.

67% from 673 members

49th Parallel on DVD (1941)
Starring: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
After being sunk in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Canadian Air Force, six German U-boat survivors attempt to escape into the United States.

61% from 790 members

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 29 members
Currently unavailable

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 388 members
Not available for rental

The Spy in Black (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.

62% from 58 members
Due for release on 20th February 2012

The Lion Has Wings on DVD (1939)
Starring: Merle Oberon, June Duprez, Ralph Richardson
Director: Michael Powell, Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond H
Certificate:
The semidocumentary war film THE LION HAS WINGS states its case in broad strokes, juxtaposing images of rampaging German-dictator Adolf Hitler and appeasing British prime minister Neville Chamberlain with stock shots of bleating sheep. The film then depicts Great Britain as a great lion, willing ..read more »

53% from 33 members

The Edge Of The World - Blu-ray (1937)
Starring: Niall MacGinnis, John Laurie, Belle Chrystall
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
On a remote Scottish island, poor harvests and bad weather are bringing an end to the traditional ways of life. The islanders must decide whether to abandon their homes and seek employment on the mainland. Director Powell's breakthrough film, shot on the island of Filou, was a particularly ..read more »

71% from 70 members

The Edge Of The World on DVD (1937)
Starring: Niall MacGinnis, John Laurie, Belle Chrystall
Director: Michael Powell
Certificate:
On a remote Scottish island, poor harvests and bad weather are bringing an end to the traditional ways of life. The islanders must decide whether to abandon their homes and seek employment on the mainland. Director Powell's breakthrough film, shot on the island of Foula, was a particularly ..read more »

69% from 847 members

Fleet Air Arm At War And Peace
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Certificate:
Compiling rare and previously unseen footage, this programme profiles the Fleet Air Arm between 1943 and 1959. Includes footage directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

60% from 50 members
Not currently released

Michael Powell facts

5 most recent films

Age Of Consent - 3.0 stars
They're A Weird Mob - 3.0 stars
Espionage - 2.5 stars
Peeping Tom - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Peeping Tom - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Black Narcissus - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Black Narcissus - 3.5 stars
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp - 3.5 stars
Peeping Tom - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
The Thief of Bagdad - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Espionage - 2.5 stars
The Lion Has Wings - 2.5 stars
Contraband - 3.0 stars
The Red Shoes - Blu-ray - 4.0 stars
Age Of Consent - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Moira Shearer - 11 times - show films
Esmond Knight - 8 times - show films
Anton Walbrook - 7 times - show films
Carl Boehm - 6 times - show films
Maxine Audley - 6 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Emeric Pressburger - 24 times - show films
Ludwig Berger - 2 times - show films
Adrian Brunel - 1 times - show films
Brian Desmond H - 1 times - show films

Browse by:

Film & TV (83,258)

Games (8,012)

Our Picks

Collections

Magazine

Michael Powell

Michael Powell - what members say

Michael Powell - filmography

Michael Powell facts

5 most recent films

5 highest-rated films

5 lowest-rated films

Most frequent co-stars

Most frequent directors

Related Articles

Shane Meadows wins at Edinburgh

Scorsese to introduce Red Shoes at Cannes

Tinker Tailor and Drive lead London Film Critics' Circle nominations

Ghost Worlds: Top 10 Scary Ghost Movies

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle