BBC Arena "A Pretty British Affair" Powell & Pressburger (November 1981)

BBC arts programme from 1981 on film makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, looking back at their long career as influential British film-makers.
Includes clips from many of their films.

[@dzadza7775]

This is pure gorgeous wonderful gold❤

[@franriding6473]

When I studied film at college, university as well as masters Powell and pressburger films never where shown or discussed. It wasn’t until leaving that I saw and was blown away by the Red Shoes.

[@vauji]

Thank you for posting, I just finish to read the bio of E Pressburger and this is a nice addition to it.

[@crusherkc]

Just discovering the Powell and Pressburger catalog/history and came across this gem. Love the BBC giving attention to film as art in this "Arena" series. Michael Powell represents the best of what a British film artist is, loving his heritage while living and working in the present and looking forward to the future. Francis Ford Coppola appears (with a moppet headed Roman) wandering around the old MGM ruins. And a very young, enthusiastic (and jittery, jaw-grinding) Martin Scorsese circa '81, decries the lack of respect and love for the Archers (Powell & Pressburger). There's a tiny clip of Jerry Lewis pontificating to Robert DeNiro about...something. "It's like tryin' to get that ad-lib dialog..." at around 40:40 that looks like Jerry being Jerry and Scorsese/DeNiro just nodding along but taking notes. Scorsese looks really coked up in this. But the best thing I took from this documentary is that I should really go back and watch everything Powell & Pressburger ever did together. About time I should see "Black Narcissus", "The Red Shoes", "A Matter of Life and Death" and "Stairway to Heaven". I loved "A Canterbury Tale", so steeped in tradition but so ahead of its time and modern-feeling. Very interesting that Powell, the Anglo-Saxon mystical one was more worldly and international- hanging out with Coppola and Scorsese and overseeing a NY Broadway rendition of "The Red Shoes", than his partner Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian-Jewish emigre who fled the Nazis on the continent to become more British than British ("I was hoping Emeric was joining us....he couldn't come because he was invited to the royal garden party and had already rented the top hat...[next week?]...he couldn't come because he was giving away prizes for the royal wedding at his village fete...hahahahha") Love the fact that Scorsese embraced Powell after being vilified for making the classic "Peeping Tom", which preceded Hitchcock's "Psycho" (a hit movie), ending a 20-year critical reprimand for what amounted to making a movie far beyond its time.

[@UlexXane]

Very perceptive comment. Powell and Pressburger were the great mystic poets of cinema. All of their films are incredible and should be object lessons for filmmakers of today. My own favourite is "Black Narcissus", which is a masterpiece in my opinion, and "I Know Where I'm Going" is a particularly wonderful film too.

[@nancycaccioppo9946]

it is 2016, a few days before my 65th birthday, I have just found them, what a glorious blessing, gift. And yes I would like to see everything, that was made with them too

[@itisjustmeagain]

You weren’t kidding about how geeked Scorsese looked on the set of The King of Comedy 😅 You will enjoy those films once you get around to watching them. “Stairway To Heaven” was an alternative title used in the states at early showings of “A Matter of Life & Death.” Great film.

[@dzadza7775]

Thank you

[@drparnassus2867]

43:07 Did Pressburger put on a suit and tie just to feed the fish in his back garden? I like his style.

[@ajs41]

Thanks for uploading. A very pedantic point is that this must be a repeat from sometime between 1986 and 1991 because this BBC2 ident was used during that time.

[@ursusfox]

I'm sure you are correct - this is probably a repeat in 1990 after Powell's death.

[@t.p.mckenna]

Actually, 17th November 1981 was the original broadcast date, going by the Radio Times Genome. BBC Two were doing a lot to celebrate P&P about that time. There was Powell revisiting Foula in Return to the Edge of the World as well as screenings of Blimp and Matter of .... Also a Saturday matinee showing of I Know Where I'm Going. This was at forgotten time when BBC television was like a film studies course, but ahead of the pretentiousness of meejah studies. It was more of a self-study process. I mean, the value of seeing the old dracula and frankenstein films in sequence was tremendous. So, what went wrong, a lot of the old classics were withdrawn by the studios as they backed the new made-for-tv movies and started selling them on the back of the handfull of first-showing Christmas blockbusters. Am just glad I was an emerging teenager when I was.

[@andycapp5581]

You are entirely correct…….it is a very pedantic point …🥱

[@ajs41]

@@andycapp5581 Idents are one of my favourite topics.

[@donreed]

SUPERB! = A Life In Movies, Michael Powell [1905-1990]; Alfred A. Knopf [William Heinemann Ltd London 1986]) (1986 hardcover)

[@sophiafakevirus-ro8cc]

Wish someone would clean up I know where im going

[@harrydebastardeharris987]

Beautiful films but a rather romantic but artful home counties view of the England of the first part of the 20th Century.

[@peternagy-im4be]

Especially A Canterbury Tale 1944. An England that never will be again.

[@steverhodesvideos6244]

Why is the sound so low?

[@evastaitz9911]

the amazing female at 44:18 is a dead ringer for famous soap opera star Victoria Wyndham [Rachel cory].. does anyone know her real/stage name?

[@drparnassus2867]

44:55

[@helloworld2784]

@@drparnassus2867 You're 4 years late.. but helpful to us

[@drparnassus2867]

@@helloworld2784 Hey, these things take time.

[@amyclarke41]

Different

[@timriley4543]

And to think 'Peeping Tom', now considered a classic, almost ruined Powell's career.