Being a lover of the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger I was really looking forward to director David Hinton’s Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger. Sadly my enthusiasm for what is a worthy project started to wain the longer I watched.
There’s no doubt that Martin Scorsese has a real love for the pairs films, Powell becoming something of a mentor to Scorsese when the pair became friends towards the end of Powell’s life. The film, given the pairs relationship, is heavily weighted to Powell’s career and life with Pressburger getting less of a mention.
The one issue with Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger is that it is made by someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of their work, Scorsese talks about how their films influenced some of the scenes in his own films, a boxing scene in Raging Bull being one example. If like me you were looking to rediscover their work, their films, your enjoyment is going to be spoiled by the minute detail that Scorsese goes into their films. Spoilers are everywhere and I wanted to scream at the screen, please don’t tell me the ending, which unfortunately the director has chosen to do with every one of their films. Having very little memory of the films I now know the ending of The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus and numerous other films the pair made.
It’s hard to recommend Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger to anyone but the most diehard of their fans. If, like Scorsese, you have a great knowledge of their films then it’s a terrific view and comes highly recommended. If on the other hand you’re wanting to experience their films for the first time this isn’t really a film you should be watching until you’ve seen at least some of their films.
