Powell & Pressburger's most bizarre moments | BFI video essay

Part of the enduring majesty of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's cinema comes from their ability to undercut the prim and proper sensibility of war-time filmmaking with moments that are deeply strange, sometimes even disturbing.
In this video essay director Will Webb highlights scenes from Powell + Pressburger films - including The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, I Know Where I'm Going and Black Narcissus - that tilt us off-balance, shaking what we thought we knew about the world's that one of cinema's greatest filmmaking partnerships created.
This video essay is part of an ongoing season celebrating Powell + Pressburger's work, Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger.
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[@baltoman24]

They were simply geniuses! Their films can be enjoyed on so many levels, and there always seems to be more to be grasped and understood. thanks for this wonderful essay!

[@dq405]

For me, the films of Powell and Pressburger can rank with the greatest by anyone from anywhere, yet somehow they have never quite managed to become household names. I can't understand this, because their films are exciting examples of art that is uncompromising yet accessible to anyone with imagination and eyes.

[@jlasf]

Kerr is pronounced like "car" not "cur." In Hollywood press releases, it was explained, "Kerr - like star."

[@Riordan59]

Also, the name Clodagh is pronounced CLO-da, not clo-DAR

[@originalhgc]

It's a bit embarrassing, coming from BFI.

[@Bondoz007]

So great KZbin suggested this vid to me. I have seen The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus but really enjoyed learning more about their work.

[@Riordan59]

There's something about Powell and Pressburger films. Like the work of Wes Anderson, even if you don't know WHAT you're watching, just a few seconds in and you know WHO you're watching.

[@keithplant2860]

Such great filmmakers. So ahead of their time and so innovative!

[@christophedevos3760]

Visionary would be more appropriate. They made stunningly beautiful films.

[@Indietrix]

Visionary is great. I totally think they were ahead of their time (as evidenced by poor reception of Peeping Tom on release)

[@markdaly1648]

Thelma schoonmacher, scorcese editor was Powells wife. He is a massive fan of Powell and pressburger. There is a scene in shutter Island which is lifted is lifted from spiral staircase.

[@christophedevos3760]

@@markdaly1648 yes I know. They did a restoration of The Red Shoes if I'm not mistaken. They're exceptional movies. I'm looking forward to the new release on bluray of Powell's movie of Bartok's Bluebard Castle btw.

[@Autostade67]

One point of disagreement: I would not describe the plot of 'A Canterbury Tale' as 'otherwise light" - its actually a deeply spiritual film and a meditation on the nature of fate versus destiny, blessings versus absolutions and miracles in the face of accepted realities - hardly the stuff of lightness, don't you agree?

[@DevonMiniFlicks]

A Matter of Life and Death is now on BBC iplayer and The Black Narcissuss is on ITVX at the moment.

[@euansmith3699]

Roger Livesey's voice is so lovely.

[@billythedog-309]

Kerr pronounced Carr.

[@FauxRomano]

Wonderful piece

[@richardenglish2195]

Great video, but 'bizarre' is such a carelessly reductive word to describe visual inventiveness.

[@Indietrix]

Uncanny? Strange? Odd? I think their departure from social norms in the 40s is best explained in one of those - but bizarre does it for me!😊

[@blazepond5518]

such captivating films

[@kamandi1362]

You left out the yellow tube train (and passengers) in The Boy Who Turned Yellow.

[@patrickweyland-smith1023]

How does the BFI mispronounce one of Britain’s greatest exports the Scottish born Deborah Kerr? Did no one subedit this? It’s embarrassing

[@britishfilminstitute]

Hi! Henry Barnes - BFI digital editor - here. That's on me. I missed the mispronunciation. Sincere apologies. Thanks for watching

[@patrickweyland-smith1023]

You owned up to it. Honestly, respect for acknowledging it Henry. It was otherwise enjoyable.

[@hoilst265]

What? No ?!

[@edwardalexander9486]

Someone missing - Tom?

[@renzo6490]

BFI British Film Institute

[@marcus6918]

was just thinking about the red shoes again. amazing!

[@jadasheekstyles2000]

Martin Scorsese's favorite film. With his encyclopedic knowledge of movies that's saying something.

[@adriannespring8598]

The Glue Man is sssoo lucky he didn't do that now. He'd get a pounding he wouldn't like at all.

[@kamandi1362]

Although the actor liked a good pounding once in a while.

[@Autostade67]

And, uggghhhhh...you used the laziest 'bon mot' ever at the end of your presentation: 'very much films of their time'...sorry, darling, this is the presentist's easy way out...yet the problem happens to be that it's NOT the easy way out but demands that you qualify such an erroneously breezy statement with backing critical, theoretical, historical, sociological and cultural evidence. 'The Shining' is very much a film of its time, as are 'Battleship Potemkin,', 'Pandora's Box', 'Citizen Kane', 'Vertigo', 'Last Year at Marienbad', 'Meshes of the Afternoon', 'Nashville', 'Taxi Driver', 'The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant', 'Not Reconciled', 'Rashomon', 'Persona', "All About My Mother', 'Breaking the Waves' and 'Russian Ark'...to name just a few...so..I'm not quite sure what you mean.