Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger | TALKBACK

TICKETS

Oct 30 – Nov 3

Martin Scorsese first encountered the films of Powell and Pressburger when he was a child, sitting in front of the family TV. When their famous logo came up on screen, Scorsese says, “You knew you were in for fantasy, wonder, magic – real film magic.”Now, in this documentary, he tells the story of his lifelong love-affair with their movies, including The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann. “Certain films you simply run all the time and you live with them.” Scorsese says. “As you grow older they grow deeper. I’m not sure how it happens, but it does. For me, that body of work is a wondrous presence, a constant source of energy, and a reminder of what life and art are all about.” Drawing on a rich array of archive material, Scorsese explores in full the collaboration between the Englishman Powell and the Hungarian Pressburger – two romantics and idealists, who thrived in the face of adversity during World War II but were eventually brought low by the film industry of the 1950’s. Scorsese celebrates their ability to create “subversive commercial movies” and describes how deeply their films have influenced his own work. (David Hinton, 2024, UK, 2:11, NR)

TALKBACK: Join us for a Talkback after the film on 10/30 with Clark Farmer.
Clark Farmer is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema & Moving Image Arts at CU Boulder. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Munich, Germany, where he conducted research on the intersection of opera and film in contemporary German cinema. He has published on the tradition of color music in abstract animation, and on the impact of digital colorization in comic books. On the top of Dr. Farmer’s Letterboxd top four favorite films is Powell and Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going!, a film he has practically memorized.