Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural set ...

, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably '' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), ''

A Canterbury Tale ''A Canterbury Tale'' is a 1944 British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played two small roles. For the post-war Americ ...

'' (1944), '' I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945), '' A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946, also called ''Stairway to Heaven''), '' Black Narcissus'' (1947), '' The Red Shoes'' (1948), and '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). His later controversial 1960 film ''

Peeping Tom Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...

'', while today considered a classic, and a contender as the first "

slasher Slasher may refer to: * Slasher (basketball), a style of play in basketball * Slasher film, a subgenre of the horror film * Slasher (tool), a scrub-clearing implement * ''Slasher'' (2004 film), a 2004 documentary film * ''Slasher'' (2007 film ...

", was so vilified on first release that his career was seriously damaged. Many filmmakers such as

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

, Francis Ford Coppola and

George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...

have cited Powell as an influence. In 1981, he received the

BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award The BAFTA Fellowship, or the Academy Fellowship, is a lifetime achievement award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in recognition of "outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image". The award is t ...

along with his partner Pressburger, the highest honour the

British Film Academy British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

can give a filmmaker. He has been played on screen by Alastair Thomson Mills in the award-winning short film (2022) which explores

Moira Shearer Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's '' The Red Shoes'' (1948) and '' The Ta ...

's life changing decision to appear in ''The Red Shoes''.

Early life

Powell was the second son and youngest child of Thomas William Powell, a hop farmer, and Mabel, daughter of Frederick Corbett, of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Powell was born in

Bekesbourne Bekesbourne is a village near Canterbury in Kent, South East England. The village is centred ESE of the city's cathedral and its centre stretches less than 1 km from its railway station to the A2 road to the south. Amenities The parish ch ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and educated at The King's School, Canterbury and then at Dulwich College. He started work at the National Provincial Bank in 1922 but quickly realised he was not cut out to be a banker.

Film career

Powell entered the film industry in 1925 through working with director Rex Ingram at the

Victorine Studios Victorine Studios (French: Studios de la Victorine) are a film studio in the French city of Nice. They are also known as the Nice Studios. Several small studios have also existed in the city. Originally built in 1921 in an attempt to create a Ho ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

, France (the contact with Ingram was made through Powell's father, who owned a hotel in Nice). He first started out as a general studio hand, the proverbial " gofer": sweeping the floor, making coffee, fetching and carrying. Soon he progressed to other work such as stills photography, writing titles (for the silent films) and many other jobs including a few acting roles, usually as comic characters. Powell made his film début as a "comic English tourist" in '' The Magician'' (1926). Returning to England in 1928, Powell worked at a diverse series of jobs for various filmmakers including as a stills photographer on

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's silent film '' Champagne'' (1928). He also signed on in a similar role on Hitchcock's first "talkie", '' Blackmail'' (1929). In his autobiography, Powell claims he suggested the ending in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

which was the first of Hitchcock's "monumental" climaxes to his films.Powell 1986 Powell and Hitchcock remained friends for the remainder of Hitchcock's life. After scriptwriting on two productions, Powell entered into a partnership with American producer Jerry Jackson in 1931 to make " quota quickies", hour-long films needed to satisfy a legal requirement that British cinemas screen a certain quota of British films. During this period, he developed his directing skills, sometimes making up to seven films a year.Duguid, Mark
"Early Michael Powell."
''Screenonline''. Retrieved: 28 September 2009. Although he had taken on some directing responsibilities in other films, Powell had his first screen credit as a director on ''

Two Crowded Hours ''Two Crowded Hours'' is a 1931 British comedy drama film directed by Michael Powell and starring John Longden, Jane Welsh, and Jerry Verno. It was made as a Quota quickie and is the first film where Powell is credited as the director. No known ...

'' (1931). This thriller was considered a modest success at the box office despite its limited budget. From 1931 to 1936, Powell was the director of 23 films, including the critically received '' Red Ensign'' (1934) and '' The Phantom Light'' (1935). In 1937 Powell completed his first truly personal project, '' The Edge of the World''. Powell gathered together a cast and crew who were willing to take part in an expedition to what was then a very isolated part of the UK. They had to stay there for quite a few months and finished up with a film which not only told the story he wanted but also captured the raw natural beauty of the location. By 1939, Powell had been hired as a contract director by Alexander Korda on the strength of '' The Edge of the World''. Korda set him to work on some projects such as ''Burmese Silver'' that were subsequently cancelled. Nonetheless, Powell was brought in to save a film that was being made as a vehicle for two of Korda's star players,

Conrad Veidt Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (; 22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German film actor who attracted early attention for his roles in the films ''Different from the Others'' (1919), ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), and ''The Man Who Laughs ...

and

Valerie Hobson Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the Pro ...

. The film was ''

The Spy in Black ''The Spy in Black'' (US: ''U-Boat 29'') is a 1939 British film, and the first collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thril ...

'', where Powell first met Emeric Pressburger in 1939.

Meeting Emeric Pressburger

The original script of ''The Spy in Black'' followed the book quite closely, but was too verbose and did not have a good role for either Veidt or Hobson. Korda called a meeting where he introduced a diminutive man, saying, "Well now, I have asked Emeric to read the script, and he has things to say to us." Powell then went on to record (in ''A Life in Movies'') how:

"Emeric produced a very small piece of rolled-up paper, and addressed the meeting. I listened spellbound. Since talkies took over the movies, I had worked with some good writers, but I had never met anything like this. In the silent days, the top
merican ''Merican'' is an EP by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released February 10, 2004. It was the band's first release for Fat Wreck Chords and served as a pre-release to their sixth studio album ''Cool to Be You'', released the follo ...
screenwriters were technicians rather than dramatists ... the European cinema remained highly literate and each country, conscious of its separate culture and literature, strove to outdo the other. All this was changed by the talkies. America, with its enormous wealth and enthusiasm and it technical resources, waved the big stick. ... The European film no longer existed. ... Only the great German film business was prepared to fight the American monopoly, and Dr. Goebbels soon put a stop to that in 1933. But the day that Emeric walked out of his flat, leaving the key in the door to save the storm-troopers the trouble of breaking it down, was the worst day's work that the clever doctor ever did for his country's reputation, as he was soon to find out. As I said, I listened spellbound to this small Hungarian wizard, as Emeric unfolded his notes, until they were at least six inches long. He had stood Storer Clouston's plot on its head and completely restructured the film."

They both soon recognised that although they were total opposites in background and personality, they had a common attitude to film-making and that they could work very well together. After making two more films together, ''

Contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...

'' (1940) and '' 49th Parallel'', with separate credits, the pair decided to form a partnership and to sign their films jointly as "Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger."

The Archers

Working together as co-producers, writers and directors in a partnership they dubbed "

", they made 19 feature films, many of which received critical and commercial success. Their best films are still regarded as classics of 20th century British cinema. The BFI 100 list of "the favourite British films of the 20th century" contains five of Powell's films, four with Pressburger. Although admirers would argue that Powell ought to rank alongside fellow British directors

and David Lean, his career suffered a severe reversal after the release of the controversial psychological

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

'', made in 1960 as a solo effort. The film was excoriated by mainstream British critics, who were offended by its sexual and violent images; Powell was ostracized by the film industry and found it almost impossible to work thereafter. The film did, however, meet with the rapturous approval of the young critics of ''Positif'' and ''Midi-Minuit Fantastique'' in France, and those of ''Motion'' in England, and in 1965 he was subject of a major positive revaluation by Raymond Durgnat in the auteurist magazine ''Movie'', later included in Durgnat's influential book ''A Mirror for England''. Powell's films came to have a cult reputation, broadened during the 1970s and early 1980s by a series of retrospectives and rediscoveries, as well as further articles and books. By the time of his death, he and Pressburger were recognised as one of the foremost film partnerships of all time – and cited as a key influence by many noted filmmakers such as

, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppola.

Personal life

In 1927 Powell married Gloria Mary Rouger, an American dancer; they were married in France and stayed together for only three weeks. During the 1940s, Powell had love affairs with actresses Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron. From 1 July 1943 until her death on 5 July 1983, Powell was married to Frances "Frankie" May Reidy, the daughter of medical practitioner Jerome Reidy; they had two sons: Kevin Michael Powell (b. 1945) and Columba Jerome Reidy Powell (b. 1951). He also lived with actress Pamela Brown for many years until her death from cancer in 1975. Subsequently, Powell was married to

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

Thelma Schoonmaker from 19 May 1984 until his own death from cancer at his home in Avening,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

. His niece was the Australian actress Cornelia Frances, who appeared in bit parts in her uncle's early films.

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive has preserved ''A Matter of Life and Death'' and ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Awards, nominations and honours

* 1943: Oscar nominated for '' 49th Parallel'' as Best Picture * 1943: Oscar nominated for '' One of Our Aircraft Is Missing'' for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Shared with Emeric Pressburger * 1948: Won Danish

Bodil Award The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by the Danish Film Critics Association. The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe. The awards are give ...

for '' A Matter of Life and Death'' as Best European Film. Shared with Emeric Pressburger * 1948 Nominated for '' The Red Shoes'' for

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

Golden Lion. Shared with Emeric Pressburger * 1949: Oscar nominated for '' The Red Shoes'' as Best Picture. Shared with Emeric Pressburger * 1951:

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

nominated for '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' for Grand Prize of the Festival. Shared with Emeric Pressburger * 1951: Won Silver Bear from

1st Berlin International Film Festival The 1st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 6 to 17 June 1951 at the Titiana-Palast cinema. The opening film was Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rebecca''. At this very first Berlin Festival, the Golden Bear award was introduced, and i ...

for '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' as Best Musical. Shared with Emeric Pressburger"1st Berlin International Film Festival: Prize Winners."
''berlinale.de''. Retrieved: 21 December 2009. * 1957: BAFTA Award nominated for '' The Battle of the River Plate'' as Best British Screenplay. Shared with Emeric Pressburger. * 1959:

won the Technical Grand Prize for '' Luna de Miel''. Nominated for Golden Palm. * 1978: Awarded Hon DLitt,

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

* 1978: Awarded Hon DLitt, University of Kent * 1981: Made fellow of BAFTA * 1982: Awarded Career Gold Lion from the

* 1983: Made fellow of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

(BFI) * 1987: Awarded Hon Doctorate,

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...

* 1987: Awarded Akira Kurosawa Award from San Francisco International Film Festival * 2014: An

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

Blue plaque to commemorate Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger was unveiled on 17 February 2014 by

and Thelma Schoonmaker at Dorset House, Gloucester Place, London NW1 5AG where The Archers had their offices from 1942 - 47.

Legacy

* Cited as a major influence on many film-makers such as

, Francis Ford Coppola,

and

Bertrand Tavernier Bertrand Tavernier (25 April 1941 – 25 March 2021) was a French director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Life and career Tavernier was born in Lyon, France, the son of Geneviève (née Dumond) and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, s ...

.Crook, Steve
"Famous Fans of Powell & Pressburger."
''Powell-pressburger.org''. Retrieved: 28 September 2009. Said Thelma Schoonmaker (Scorsese's long-time film editor and Powell's third wife) of Scorsese, "Anyone he meets, or the actors he works with, he immediately starts bombarding with Powell and Pressburger movies." Scorsese and Schoonmaker are working on restoring Powell's films, beginning with '' The Red Shoes'' and '' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp''. * The Michael Powell Award for the Best New British Feature was instigated in 1993 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is sponsored by the UK Film Council and is "named in homage to one of Britain's most original filmmakers"."Awards History."
''edfilmfest.org.uk''. Retrieved: 7 December 2017. * Pinewood Studios, where Powell made many of his most notable films, has named a mixing theatre in the post-production department after him: The Powell Theatre. A giant picture of the director covers the door to the theatre, where many well-known films are mixed. * The Film, Radio and Television Department of Canterbury Christ Church University has its main building named after him: The Powell Building.

Filmography

Other works

Books by Michael Powell

* 1938: ''200,000 Feet on Foula''. London: Faber & Faber. (The story of the making of '' The Edge of the World'' was also reprinted as ''200,000 Feet – The Edge of the World'' in the United States.) * 1956: ''Graf Spee''. London: Hodder & Stoughton. (This book contains much information that Powell and Pressburger could not include in their film '' The Battle of the River Plate''.) * 1957: ''Death in the South Atlantic: The Last Voyage of the Graf Spee''. New York: Rinehart. (American edition of ''Graf Spee'') * 1975: ''A Waiting Game''. London: Joseph. . * 1976: ''The Last Voyage of the Graf Spee''. London: White Lion Publishers. . (Second British edition of ''Graf Spee'') * 1978: (with Emeric Pressburger) ''The Red Shoes''. London: Avon Books. . * 1986: ''A Life In Movies: An Autobiography''. London:

Heinemann Heinemann may refer to: * Heinemann (surname) * Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company * Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States See also * Heineman Heineman is a surname. Notable people with the surnam ...

. . * 1990: ''Edge of the World''. London: Faber & Faber. . (This book is a paperback edition of ''200,000 feet on Foula''.) * 1992: ''Million Dollar Movie'' London: Heinemann. . (This is the second part of Powell's autobiography.) * 1994: (with Emeric Pressburger and Ian Christie) ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp''. London: Faber & Faber. . (This book includes memos from Churchill and notes showing how the script developed.) Many of these titles were also published in other countries or republished. The list above deals with initial publications except where the name was changed in a subsequent edition or printing.

Theatre

* 1944: Directed

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

's ''The Fifth Column'' at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow * 1944: Directed Jan de Hartog's ''Skipper Next To God'' at the Theatre Royal, Windsor * 1951: Directed James Forsyth's ''Heloise'' at the Golders Green Hippodrome, London

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * Christie, Ian. ''Arrows of Desire: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger''. London: Waterstone, 1994. ; First edition 1985. . * Christie, Ian. ''Powell, Pressburger and Others''. London: British Film Institute, 1978. . * Christie, Ian and Andrew Moor, eds. ''The Cinema of Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Filmmaker''. London: BFI, 2005. . * Darakhvelidze, George
''Landscapes of Dreams: The Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Part 1-7)'' (in Russian).
Vinnitsa, Ukraine: Globe Press, 2008-2019. . * Esteve, Llorenç. ''Michael Powell y Emeric Pressburger'' (in Spanish). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Catedra, 2002. . * Howard, James. ''Michael Powell''. London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1996. . * Lazar, David, ed. ''Michael Powell: Interviews''. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. . * Macdonald, Kevin. ''Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter''. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. * Moor, Andrew. ''Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. . * Powell, Michael. ''A Life in Movies'' (autobiography). London:

, 1993. ; First edition 1986. . * Powell, Michael. ''Million Dollar Movie'' (The second volume of his autobiography). London: Heinemann, 1992. , later edition, 2000. (pbk). * Thiéry, Natacha. ''Photogénie du désir: Michael Powell et Emeric Pressburger 1945–1950 (in French)''. Rennes, France: Presse Universitaires de Rennes, 2009. . * Howard, James. I Live Cinema' : The Life and Films of Michael Powell''. UK: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, June 2013.