Michael Powell BBC LATE SHOW Special (1992)

Includes interviews with Powell's widow Thelma Schoomaker, cinematographer Christopher Challis (THE SMALL BACK ROOM, GONE TO EARTH, THE TALES OF HOFFMAN, BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, etc.), Powell's son Columba (PEEPING TOM), Kathleen Byron (THE SMALL BACK ROOM), scriptwriter Leo Marks (PEEPING TOM), Cyril Cusack (THE SMALL BACK ROOM), Assistant Editor Norren Ackwood, Producer Felix Constantine, and Director Martin Scorcese.

[@stuckinthestation]

Kathleen Byron in Black Narcissus is the epytome of kicking-ass performance, she's unbelievable.

[@danielcombs3207]

Those gentlemen made some of my favorite films during their career.

[@lonestar6709]

_"Michael taught me everything I would ever want to know about directing."_ -Martin Scorsese.

[@Tararu3500]

The genius that is Michael Powell. Thank you for posting.

[@volt7cooltangs701]

Michael Powell. Best British film director ever. Years ahead of his time.

[@peternagy-im4be]

A Canterbury Tale was an incredible film

[@villain7140]

Nah, that would be Hitchcock

[@michaeljames4904]

I’d a music teacher who knew Sir Thomas Beecham whose doctor once tore round to the maestro’s home in St John’s Wood having heard the conductor had suffered a dreadful heart attack… only to discover him, on turning the steering wheel into the property, stood on the front steps all dragged out in full White-Tie and tails. “Thank heavens you’re here, I’m on at the Albert Hall in forty minutes and couldn’t get a taxi anywhere!” He was quite the hilarious old rogue.

[@Thadmotor1044]

great style , unique creative , and profound

[@dabedwards]

Wonderful to have these interviews. Cyril Cusack's character in the "Small Back Room" was an amazing understated tragedy, never explored, never resolved. The scene at 5.00 was parodied in one of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns" (Escape from Stalagluft 112b). Parody born of respect, I think!

[@user-vu3qx7uo1z]

Maestro Michael Powell 🎉

[@robinpbradford]

Documentary on how Michael Powell (British Film Director) worked his craft to great effect; and admired by other American Directors.

[@harrysharpe519]

Thank you so much for this

[@cassioqueiros2264]

Thank you very much for posting this wonderful documentary, dear TaggleElgate.

[@bileductable]

Thanks for posting this!

[@patriot6067]

🎯.

[@carolynargabright8132]

I like the photo at 11:09, Robert Helpmann on the right and Frederick Ashton on the left.

[@donreed]

A Life IN The Movies is a superb autobiography. Do not be daunted by its length (but do skip the bizarre stories about Richardson and Gielgud returning to the live theater, after Frankie passes away).

[@t.p.mckenna]

... and its sequel Million Dollar Movie. Both stout volumes adorn my bookcase. It's all from his POV, of course, though he is a marvellous raconteur.

[@donreed]

12/17/23: I'm glad you liked the sequel. Published posthumously from scratch notes, all it did for me was confirm that film editors even with the best of intentions make lousy book editors. @@t.p.mckenna

[@sophiafakevirus-ro8cc]

Powell and Pressburger do not need to be always linked to Scorsese, they were brilliant long before he came along.

[@mrhyde5280]

P & P need and deserve rediscovery every generation. It's due about now. Their films (officially part of wartime 'propoganda') are so audacious and unique and timeless, that someone somewhere needs to schedule a festival of their Technicolour prints just to show what's possible with open minds and hearts. In the meantime, read MP's two autobiographies.

[@louispappas605]

Hi

[@BackToTheBlues]

And then again, from where would Kathleen Byron have pulled a gun, if she were naked?

[@powellpressburger5507]

Powell is representing an actual event but retaining privacy, so pulling a gun when naked could be Byron being in a weak and exposed position but coming back with something that felled him. But being Powell, he represents this event with symbols that would gain attention.

[@BackToTheBlues]

@@powellpressburger5507 It was the wording I was playing with - she could certainly have picked up a gun (were there one handy) but to pull a gun, you have to be wearing a gun.

[@peternagy-im4be]

A strange and bizarre human being