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Legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker will return to the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) this August for a special In Conversation tribute to her late husband, acclaimed British filmmaker Michael Powell.

The event, taking place Aug. 17 at the city’s Tollcross Central Hall, will see Schoonmaker reflect on Powell’s pioneering career from early independent features to his celebrated collaboration with Emeric Pressburger and his enduring influence on generations of filmmakers, most famously Martin Scorsese.

The tribute also includes a newly restored screening of Powell’s 1937 breakthrough feature “The Edge of the World,” introduced by Schoonmaker on Aug. 16 at Cameo 1. Shot in the remote Shetland Islands, the film explores the tension between tradition and change in an isolated Scottish community, and is widely regarded as a defining early work in Powell’s filmography.

“We are over the moon that the living legend Thelma Schoonmaker will be returning to Eiff this...

This year, the Edinburgh International Film Festival will welcome acclaimed film editor Thelma Schoonmaker for a special “In Conversation” event to discuss her late husband Michael Powell’s life and filmmaking career.

Schoonmaker — best known for her Oscar-winning work on Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed — will take the audience through her partner’s career, which started with him directing low-budget films in the 1930s prior to his acclaimed 1937 film The Edge of the World (also screening in a restoration at Eiff 2025).

Powell is perhaps best known for his creative partnership with Emeric Pressburger, which produced some of the most brilliant British films of the 20th century, including The Life of Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948).

Public outrage at Powell’s solo directorial effort, the disturbing horror Peeping Tom (1960) has since turned to praise and Powell is now...

Seven films down with an eighth and final edition launching in cinemas this month, Mission: Impossible is undoubtedly one of contemporary cinema’s most enduring franchises.

But back in 1996, what made a young Tom Cruise, red hot in Hollywood thanks to hits like A Few Good Men and Interview with the Vampire, board the spy thriller?

“It was the music,” Cruise joked this evening in London, where he took part in a wide-ranging discussion about his career onstage at the British Film Institute. “I loved the theme music.”

The first Mission film was Cruise’s first credit as a producer, and he told the crowd in London that he sought the franchise out because he was interested in investigating how he could change the action genre.

“It was about looking at Mission and thinking ‘what can we do with action’,” he said. “It was about how I can evolve action...

When Richard Attenborough first read Louis Fischer’s biography of Indian activist and attorney Mahatma Gandhi in the early 1960s, he was around 20 years into an acting career that included work with David Lean (“In Which We Serve”), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (“A Matter of Life and Death”), and John Sturges (“The Great Escape”). Attenborough hadn’t directed anything himself at that point, but discovering Gandhi’s story gave him the desire to mount a biopic on the epic scale of his mentors.

It would take Attenborough another couple of decades to find the necessary funding, but when he finally made “Gandhi” in 1982, it was worth the wait, both for him and for audiences worldwide. A literate three-hour drama for adults that was, amazingly, a box-office blockbuster as well as an awards behemoth, “Gandhi” was one of those rare films that seemed to please just about everybody.

That must...

Annual critics’ lists are important, sure. But when the world’s most successful filmmaker picks a favorite movie, people listen.

At the AFI’s annual 50th Life Achievement Award event held April 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg was among friends and collaborators who couldn’t refuse offering kudos to honoree Francis Ford Coppola. When Spielberg and fellow helmer George Lucas presented the AFI honor to Coppola, the Schindler’s List and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial director said onstage that Coppola’s 1972 Oscar-winning classic The Godfather was, to him, “The greatest American film ever made.”

Certainly, a solid choice (who wants to get metaphorically whacked like Sonny Corleone at the toll booth for saying otherwise?). And Spielberg did clarify his statement as The Godfather being the best American film, setting it apart from world cinema. While great directors frequently change up their top films, many have stated the ones that hold prime spots.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we talk about two legends: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger! Our B-Sides include I Know Where I’m Going!, The Small Back Room, Gone to Earth, and The Elusive Pimpernel. Our guest is the legend Katie Walsh, podcaster and film critic at the Tribune News Service & LA Times.

We talk about her lovely experiences watching Powell & Pressburger restoration prints on the big screen, the extent of moviegoing etiquette (put that phone down please!), and the Frank Marshall creature feature Arachnophobia.

Also discussed is Powell’s infamous (and masterful) opus Peeping Tom, the duo’s later work, Powell’s autobiography, and the career of Jennifer Jones.

Listen below and subscribe here. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.

Tom Cruise is set to receive the British Film Institute’s highest honor, the BFI Fellowship.

The Hollywood star — currently in the U.K. shooting Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s as-yet-untitled film for Warner Bros. and Legendary — is being recognized for both his “achievements as an extraordinary, versatile actor,” according to the BFI, and his “huge contribution to the UK film industry.”

Indeed, alongside Iñárritu’s project, Cruise has spent a large proportion of the last few decades living and working in the U.K., where he has shot numerous “Mission: Impossible” films on location around the country. He famously broke his ankle while filming “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” in London, while much of the final installment, “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” rumoured to be premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May, was shot in the U.K. at both Longcross Studios and in the Lake District.

Outside of the spy franchise,...

Tom Cruise is expressing his gratitude after it was unveiled on Thursday that he’ll be awarded the British Film Institute’s (BFI) highest accolade, the BFI Fellowship.

The Fellowship recognizes Cruise’s achievements across a decades-spanning career, as well as his contribution to the U.K. film industry as a producer who has shot numerous projects in Britain. This includes his Mission: Impossible films, which have been filmed on location in London, Birmingham, and Yorkshire.

Cruise’s support of the British film industry has therefore cultivated a wealth of talent in the country, bringing jobs, skills, and training to citizens across the U.K. BFI Film Academy and BFI Future Skills programme alumni have worked on the last two Mission: Impossible movies.

“I am truly honored by this acknowledgment,” the actor said. “I’ve been making films in the U.K. for over 40 years and have no plans to stop.

Tom Cruise is to receive a BFI Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed by the UK’s lead organization for film.

The award will be presented to Cruise at the BFI Chair’s dinner in London on Monday 12 May, hosted by BFI Chair Jay Hunt. The day before, Cruise will take part in an onstage In Conversation session at the BFI Southbank where he will discuss his decades-long career.

The Fellowship presentation will be the centerpiece of a month-long retrospective of Cruise’s film career at the BFI. A season of 27 films featuring Cruise will screen at the BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX throughout May 2025.

“I am truly honored by this acknowledgment,” Cruise said in a statement. “I’ve been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop. The UK is home to incredibly talented professionals — actors, directors, writers, and crews, as well as some...

Atom Egoyan, director of the Seven Veils, surrounded by his admirers at the Quad Cinema Photo: Ed Bahlman

On Saturday, March 8, an audience member in the packed theater U of the Quad Cinema after my conversation with Atom Egoyan on Seven Veils asked him: “Which film should I put on when I get home?” Atom responded: “I would play [Michael Powell’s] Peeping Tom backwards maybe. Maybe [Alfred Hitchcock’s] Rebecca, actually some Hitchcock. Carmen is pretty interesting, the Carlos Saura film. Does anyone else have a double bill idea?” Suggestions rang out from Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls and Brian de Palma’s Passion, to Todd Field’s Tár, and of course, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Atom Egoyan on Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) at the Salome tech rehearsal: “There’s no one she can communicate with, she is really on her own.

Atom Egoyan, director of the Seven Veils, surrounded by his admirers at the Quad Cinema Photo: Ed Bahlman

On Saturday, March 8, an audience member in the packed theater U of the Quad Cinema after my conversation with Atom Egoyan on Seven Veils asked him: “Which film should I put on when I get home?” Atom responded: “I would play [Michael Powell’s] Peeping Tom backwards maybe. Maybe [Alfred Hitchcock’s] Rebecca, actually some Hitchcock. Carmen is pretty interesting, the Carlos Saura film. Does anyone else have a double bill idea?” Suggestions rang out from Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls and Brian de Palma’s Passion, to Todd Field’s Tár, and of course, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Atom Egoyan on Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) at the Salome tech rehearsal: “There’s no one she can communicate with, she is really on her own.

This Valentine's Day, there aren't many better ways to make the most of quality time with your loved one than by huddling up together under a blanket — or over a conference call, should you happen not to be physically together — and watching a nice, soothing, replenishing romantic film.

In fact, a good romantic movie may be a great way to spend Valentine's Day even if you're spending it single and/or all by yourself. If you doubt that, just take a gander at any of these 15 movies, which present visions of love and romance so gorgeous and seductive as to win over even the most skeptical hearts, and restore the faith in love of even the most dyed-in-the-wool cynics. From delightful romcoms to profoundly cathartic dramas to bold formal experiments, here are the best romantic movies to watch this February 14.

Read more: The 15 Best Historical Romance Movies Ranked

Sleepless In Seattle...

Arguably the finest directors to hail from the United Kingdom, the filmmaking pair of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have likely influenced your favorite auteurs working today. As evident by the documentary Made in England, told through the eyes of one of their most passionate admirers, Martin Scorsese, love for Powell and Pressburger has not waned. With their expressive visual style and emotionally enthralling stories about ordinary people and high-ranking officials, the Archers (the moniker of the directing team) are easy to obsess over.

Despite travels through Mexico City, South America, and the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, Luca Guadagnino’s movie adaptation of “Queer,” William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novel, was surprisingly shot almost entirely on the famed Cinecittà soundstages in Rome, Italy.

Speaking on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, Guadagnino said that was necessary to allow the film’s production design to capture the complex and unspoken emotions between William Lee (Daniel Craig) and Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), an expat former soldier who makes the heroin-addicted Lee believe he might be finally able to establish an intimate connection with someone.

“We conceived the movie not as a period drama, but as a visualization of the imagination of William S. Burroughs, and the possibility that cinema could let us to play with space as a mirror, as a box, as a canvas that could make us feel the power of the connection more,...

It’s Musicals Week at IndieWire. With “Wicked” about to sparkle over theaters, we’re celebrating the best of the movie-musical genre.

Bob Fosse only directed five features — “Sweet Charity,” “Cabaret,” “Lenny,” “All That Jazz,” and “Star 80” — but among filmmakers and cinephiles, his legend looms large in proportion to the abundance of his output. David Fincher, for example, frequently references Fosse as an influence alongside and equal to far more prolific directors like Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, and John Carpenter. In “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies,” Fosse is one of only a few post-classical studio era auteurs (alongside Stanley Kubrick and Clint Eastwood) that Scorsese deems worthy of inclusion alongside old masters like Orson Welles and Sam Fuller.

By only making a handful of movies in between stints revolutionizing American musical theater on Broadway, Fosse maintained a consistency any director would envy — he’s five...

In the first of a new series in which writers explain their favourite mood-lifting watch, an ode to a charming 40s romance

In search of solace, I always turn to a film that will take me away from myself. I Know Where I’m Going! is, as you could absolutely guess if you didn’t know, a film about a journey. In this film from 1945, Joan (Wendy Hiller) a modern young woman with grand ideas, sets off by the sleeper train from Manchester to Scotland. Her stated destination is a Hebridean island where she plans to marry her wealthy industrialist fiance. But fate has other ideas in this magical film from the mercurial duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

The train journey is off-track from the start, tilted by Joan’s absurd bridal dreams, complete with Scottish hills draped in tartan, and the Archers’ whimsical camera trickery, which transforms a top hat into a smokestack.

In this special program, “Martin Scorsese Remembers: Powell and Pressburger,” airing at 9:00 Pm on Thursday, November 21, 2024, on BBC Four, the acclaimed director Martin Scorsese takes viewers on a journey through the influential works of filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Scorsese, a longtime admirer of their groundbreaking cinema, introduces a much-anticipated season of their films, offering insights into why their work has such a lasting impact on him personally and on the world of cinema.

Through his passionate reflections, Scorsese explains why Powell and Pressburger’s films are not only masterpieces of their time but continue to resonate with audiences today. He shares his thoughts on how their bold, imaginative storytelling and innovative filmmaking techniques have shaped the cinematic landscape. For anyone interested in film history, this program is a must-watch, as Scorsese’s recommendations provide a perfect entry point into the world of these legendary filmmakers.

“Martin...

The most famous films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the British filmmaking duo collectively known as The Archers, are characterized by their theatricality, vibrant colors, and fantastical plots. Yet there was another side to the duo that was almost the polar opposite to this aesthetic; it was moodier, more grounded in reality, and shot in austere black-and-white instead of lush Technicolor. Oftentimes they would veer back-and-forth between these two modes of filmmaking, as they did with The Small Back Room, their followup to The Red Shoes. Although it's as different from that balletic fantasy as can be, the small-scale character study showcases Powell and Pressburger's talents for suspense, romance, and melodrama, and concerns themes that run throughout their filmography.

Lyon’s Lumière festival screened a fascinating footnote to the great duo’s career: Behold a Pale Horse, an adaptation of Emeric Pressburger’s novel by Fred Zinnemann

The Lumière festival in Lyon in south-east France – the home of 19th-century movie inventor-pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière – always serves up mouthwatering classic films on the big screen. This is true once again this year, with a retrospective season of works by Fred Zinnemann, famously the director of High Noon and From Here to Eternity.

In one of its most interesting films, the festival also provided what could be the last remaining underexamined footnote in the history of the great Powell/Pressburger partnership that gave us Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

With six Oscar bids to her name, Scottish-born thespian Deborah Kerr is one of the most celebrated performers of all time. However, she never actually won one of those little gold statuettes, giving her the dubious distinction of tying Thelma Ritter and Glenn Close as the most nominated actress without a victory. Still, she must’ve done something right to rack up all that Academy recognition. Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1921, Kerr got her start on the London stage before appearing in her first film when she was just 20-years-old: “Major Barbara” (1941). She had her big break two years later in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s epic “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943). Kerr reunited with the filmmaking duo for “Black Narcissus” (1946), which brought her the first of three Best Actress victories at the New York Film Critics Circle.

For over 15 years, a remake of “The Crow” has been in development with countless directors and stars cycling in and out. A new spin on the stylistically influential comic book movie from 1994 that is mostly remembered for the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee would fall apart just as quickly it would generate heat or a star to coalesce in some way. At various points in time actors like Bradley Cooper, Jason Momoa and Luke Evans were attached to prior iterations of the project. All of them went away.

But now, a new version of “The Crow” finally opens wide courtesy of Lionsgate Friday, with Bill Skarsgård as the doomed title character and pop star FKA Twigs as Shelly, his equally doomed fiancée. The story follows these doomed lovers who are murdered, only for Skarsgård’s character to get a chance at revenge by sacrificing himself, traversing the lands...

It’s that time of the year again: Edinburgh has come alive.

With three different festivals taking over the Scottish capital for the month of August (Film, TV and, of course, the Fringe), the city is bursting at the seams with creativity.

That’s what the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) director Paul Ridd hopes, anyway. In his words, he’s worked to reboot this year’s event and embrace “the spirit of discovery” in an impressive slate of projects premiering, around half of them world premieres. With Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun starring Saoirse Ronan, Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus and the European premiere of Colman Domingo film Sing Sing among the lineup, Ridd has shown a commitment to take the Eiff to a league above.

“The long-term plan for me would be to [look at] the models of the likes of Sundance and Telluride,” Ridd tells The Hollywood Reporter.

George Miller gets biblical in the opening of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth installment in his postapocalyptic action franchise. The young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) picks a ripe piece of fruit from a tree growing at the edge of a verdant forest. “We’ve come too far,” says her companion, emphasizing the forbidden nature of the act with the perfect amount of allegorical on-the-noseness. What happens next certainly has the aura of divine punishment, as Furiosa is whisked away from her home (“the Green Place” first mentioned in Mad Max: Fury Road) by a masked group of motor bikers.

She’s no helpless waif, mind you, and with her steadfast mother, Mary Jo Bassa (Charlee Fraser), in hot pursuit, Furiosa gives as good as any of the lecherous brutes tormenting her. But the fates, not to mention the narrative dictates of an origin story with an already fixed outcome,...

Few directors have been as open about their influences as Martin Scorsese. From Elia Kazan to John Cassavetes to the Italian neorealists, there are a variety of filmmakers whom Scorsese has paid homage to. Yet perhaps no other director has had as great an impact on him as the English-born Michael Powell. Throughout the 1940s and '50s, Powell made a number of features with Hungarian writer-producer Emeric Pressburger that were characterized by their bold use of color, fantastical images, and often magical plots. Although, on the surface, you wouldn't find much in common with Scorsese's gritty, naturalistic dramas and the films of the Archers (as Powell and Pressburger were known), their fingerprints are all over his work.

“I hope in the future we will be seen as a kind of destination festival,” Paul Ridd tells us of his long-term goal for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), as he pulls away from his work desk for a short break. He’s speaking to us from his home in the Scottish capital and we’re just a few days out from his inaugural edition as festival director.

Central to his plan is a rejig of the festival’s competition strands, which now carry the names of local and global screen icons and strictly debut world premiere titles. There’s also a hefty cash prize.

“You will come here because of the strength of our curation and competitions,” Ridd says.

Another key piece of his puzzle is the festival’s engagement with the industry through its dedicated industry sidebar, set to relaunch this year across the festival’s first weekend,...

Martin Scorsese’s deep love of film shines through in his exploration of the marvelous movies by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. As directors with a true artist’s eye, Powell and Pressburger crafted some of Britain’s most imaginative and meaningful pictures. Through their company, The Archers, they strove to elevate cinema as an expressive art.

In Made in England, Scorsese brings their extraordinary body of work to new viewers. With infectious passion, he shares insights into their techniques and themes—and how deeply their films enriched his own career. At the documentary’s heart, of course, are illuminating clips and discussions that bring Powell and Pressburger’s brilliance alive. From The Red Shoes to Black Narcissus, their images leave a lasting imprint.

What makes this documentary so wonderful is Scorsese’s obvious joy in celebration. He treats cinema not as formula but as expressions of life. With Made in England,...

Martin Scorsese is one of our best-living directors and one of the most important filmmakers ever. But despite making classics in every decade of his career and showing no signs of slowing down in his 80s, Scorseses greatest contributions to film history might just be his love for the medium. Through The World Cinema Project, Scorsese has helped restore unsung films from around the world, giving them a new life and a new appreciation. And for a film lover, there are few greater things than hearing Scorsese passionately go on about the films that have meant the most to him in his life. But listen to any of these conversations and youre sure to hear two names over and over again: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as The Archers.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on July 25th, reviewing “Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger,” in theaters beginning July 26th, and will be playing throughout August in select markets.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger teamed up as filmmakers just before World War 2 began, and in that timing managed to make artistic war propaganda films that allowed the citizens of England and the world to get through that era with some creative integrity. They are best known for the ballet movie “The Red Shoes,” but also scored with the classics “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” “Black Narcissus” and “A Matter of Life and Death.”

“Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger” is in theaters on July 26th, and in select markets in August. See local listings. Featuring Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Martin Scorsese is recognized as a champion of cinema, a man who’s dedicated his life to preserving the seventh art, the former model for the single most 1970s beard ever and our greatest living American filmmaker. What folks usually forget to mention is that the 81-year-old director is also our nation’s unofficial film-history-professor laureate, and his side hustle as both a documentarian and talking-head-for-hire has occasionally allowed Scorsese to share his knowledge, his insights and most of all, his passion for movies from every era and all corners of the world.

David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.

Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan) and The Tales Of Hoffmann on a black and white TV, little Marty was already “bewitched.” Later, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp’s influence is vast on Scorsese, with the duel between Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) inspiring the way he shot (cinematography by Michael Chapman) and cut (by Thelma Schoonmaker) the fight scene in Raging Bull, and with...

David Hinton with Anne-Katrin Titze (holding up her Mansur Gavriel Square Toe Ballerinas) on Moira Shearer starring in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes: “She was a ballerina, she wasn’t an actress. And Michael insisted, we must have a ballerina!”

David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.

David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”

Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...

David Hinton with Anne-Katrin Titze (holding up her Mansur Gavriel Square Toe Ballerinas) on Moira Shearer starring in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes: “She was a ballerina, she wasn’t an actress. And Michael insisted, we must have a ballerina!”

David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.

David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”

Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...

Sing Sing, the powerful, poignant prison drama starring Colman Domingo, opens NY/LA, with indie love stories Dandelion and Touch debuting on hundreds of screens as distributors continue to tinker with release patterns. Martin Scorsese, eloquent as always, narrates (and executive produced) Made In England: The Films of Powell And Pressburger. Sorry/Not Sorry takes on comedian Louis C.K.

It’s a mixed specialty market still below pre-Covid levels but buoyed recently by hits like Thelma and hopeful that cinema goers are starting to sort out what to see, when and where.

“I think you’re starting to see who’s really theatrical and who isn’t. The lines are becoming clearer. Like, ‘Okay, I’m going to see this, Inside Out 2, in a theater, and I’m going to see that at the Angelika, or wherever, it might be. But I’m going to see it in a theater,...

In David Hinton’s documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, Martin Scorsese provides a semester’s worth of material to learn about two filmmakers near and dear to his artistry and life. An extended interview with Scorsese guides us through the filmography of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who made a legendary run of films within the British studio system of the 1940s and ’50s under the banner of their production company The Archers. Scorsese also breaks down what makes their films so special while also illuminating the many points of inspiration for his own body of work.

But as Made in England highlights, the connection runs deeper than anything on the screen. Scorsese befriended Powell in the ’70s after the British filmmaker had slipped into obscurity and helped rehabilitate his reputation. Scorsese also served as an unexpected matchmaker by introducing Powell to the woman he would later marry,...

Made in England: The Films of Powell and PressburgerImage: Cohen Media Group

Michael Powell was born in the coastal English county of Kent. He started in the silent-era film industry of the 1920s, working countless studio odd jobs before he was promoted, in the 1930s, to directing low-budget “quota quickies,...

In David Hinton’s new documentary “Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger,” Martin Scorsese talks about the profound influence the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had on him.

A young, asthmatic Scorsese grew up largely an indoor child when American films weren’t licensed to television, so he feasted on the duo’s great British films like “The Red Shoes” and “Tales of Hoffmann.” Co-written and narrated by Scorsese, “Made in England” makes direct connections between a Powell and Pressburger film like “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” and Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” and “Raging Bull.” In one remarkable sequence, Hinton even crosscuts between Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) from “Taxi Driver” and Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) from “The Red Shoes,” as Scorsese narrates, “They’re both characters on the edge of things, listening, observing other people, always on the verge of exploding.

The 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has launched its entire program for the Aug. 15-21 event, where it will screen 37 new feature films and 18 world premieres.

Ten world premieres will compete for the new Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence as the fest showcases talent from filmmakers in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Mexico, Norway, China, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Iran and beyond. Screenings will take place in the heart of Scotland’s picturesque capital at some of the city’s most iconic venues including Cameo Cinema, Summerhall, and 50 George Square.

Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, was previously confirmed as the Fest’s opening night film, with the world premiere of Carla J. Easton and Blair Young’s documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands set to close. Its Midnight Madness strand will close with the body horror The Substance, starring Demi Moore.

The revamped Edinburgh Film Festival will screen 37 new feature films, 18 of which will be world premieres during its 2024 edition, running August 15 – 21.

The full Edinburgh lineup was revealed this afternoon in the Scottish capital by the festival’s new director Paul Ridd, former head of acquisitions at Picturehouse. The festival’s international feature competition, now dubbed the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, will screen 10 films, all world premieres.

The competition titles include All The Mountains Give by Arash Rakhsha, Jack King’s powerful Yorkshire-set drama The Ceremony, and Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard’s Fuga. Scroll down for the full list.

The festival will screen 18 titles out of competition. The screenings will include the world premiere of Euros Lyn’s The Radleys starring Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald and Alice Lowe’s latest Timestalker. Popular titles from across the festival circuit like Camera D’Or Winner Armand featuring Renate Reinsve...

In the new documentary directed by David Hinton, “Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger,” Martin Scorsese pays tribute to the work and life of Michael Powell and his filmmaking partner Emeric Pressburger, as he analyzes their incredible body of work through the lens of the profound influence it had on him as a director. In the film, Scorsese also discusses the friendship that developed between Powell and himself in the ’70s and ’80s, and the invaluable guidance the great British director provided at critical moments of his own career.

When Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s longtime editor who was married to Powell before he passed away in 1990, was a guest on an upcoming episode of IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast she made clear there was another side of the Scorsese-Powell relationship that wasn’t as heavily emphasized in the documentary.

“Marty did so much for Michael, it’s not documented...

Given the sense of wonder and promotion of emotion over reason that courses through Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s work, it’s appropriate that David Hinton’s Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger starts with a recollection of a defining childhood moment. The film’s narrator and one of its executive producers, Martin Scorsese describes himself as an asthmatic child confined indoors and thunderstruck by these old films he was seeing on television. Giddy with the memory of being a young boy accidentally coming across fantastical mindblowers like The Thief of Baghdad, Scorsese says there was simply “no better initiation” into what he calls “the mysteries of Michael Powell.”

The film that follows does a thoroughly commendable job of providing that same initiation for unwashed viewers. But because Made in England is structurally a somewhat staid illustrated lecture from Scorsese on Powell’s directing career, and to...

The Spy in Black.Michael Powell knew where he was going. From the first day he set foot in a movie studio at nineteen and was put to work sweeping the floor, he had no doubts about his life’s purpose. “I just knew I was a director, and couldn’t understand why people didn’t stand in line to offer me a film,” Powell wrote of his presumptuous younger self. By 1938, he was a rising young filmmaker under contract to producer Alexander Korda, with the prospect of directing the great German star Conrad Veidt in a World War I thriller, The Spy in Black (1939), set against the mist-shrouded cliffs and basalt columns of the Orkney Islands. On reading the original script, however, he found it flat and lackluster, full of the “pleasant British dialogue scenes” he despised. Then, at a story conference arranged by Korda, he listened to a...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNo Other Land.The Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation (rbb), a state institution, has withdrawn funding for the €40,000 Berlinale Documentary Film Prize. The prize was most recently awarded to No Other Land (2024), which depicts the displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli military. While accepting the award, co-directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation of Palestine, statements which were met with opprobrium by German state officials.After more than three months of contract negotiations, IATSE has reached a tentative agreement with AMPTP, including structured wage increases matching those won by SAG-AFTRA last year and new streaming residuals to address the union’s pension and health plan shortfall.

We were just remarking a few weeks ago how it’s the summer of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with the largest-ever U.S. retrospective of the British masters now underway and the Martin Scorsese-narrated documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger coming in July. Now another filmmaker behind what is sure to be one of the most-discussed fall films is paying tribute to the filmmakers.

“Queer will be my most personal film,” Luca Guadagnino tells Cinecitta when it comes to his forthcoming William S. Burroughs adaptation. “It’s a tribute to Powell and Pressburger. I’ve seen The Red Shoes at least 50 times and I think they would appreciate the sex scenes in Queer, which are numerous and quite scandalous.”

Tipped for a Venice Film Festival premiere, Queer marks a reteam with many Challengers collaborators, including writer Justin Kuritzkes, cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross,...

The most direct metaphor in David Lynch’s canon arrives early on in 1986’s Blue Velvet. After an opening credits sequence set against blue velvet curtains and accompanied by Angelo Badalamenti’s swooning score, Lynch offers up a montage of classic Americana, including gleaming white picket fences, a fire truck with a dog, and roses that gleam with a feverish red hue. Bobby Vinton’s version of the title song serves as the soundtrack to these images, and, with this song, Lynch signals both his yearning for and disbelief in this idyllic world—a conflict in emotions that would drive his subsequent film and television productions. In case this conflict is lost on viewers, Lynch ends his montage with a father collapsing from a malady as he waters his front yard, and the camera homes in on blades of grass, pressing further into the ground until we can see black insects festering underneath the surface.

When Michael Powell made “Peeping Tom” in 1960, the reaction was swift and harsh: Critics who had celebrated the British auteur for lush spectacles like “The Red Shoes,” “Black Narcissus,” and “Tales of Hoffman” were appalled to see him wallowing in the sordid story of a young cameraman who killed women and filmed their murders. While Alfred Hitchcock‘s similarly transgressive “Psycho” brought him to a new level of success that same year, Powell’s deeply disturbing and personal film sent him into the wilderness; he worked only intermittently afterward and never with the same level of resources and support that he had once enjoyed.

Thankfully, Powell lived long enough to see “Peeping Tom” reclaimed by the next generation of great directors. Martin Scorsese, whose passion for Powell and his filmmaking partner Emeric Pressburger has been lifelong and well documented, helped fund an American theatrical release and presentation at the New...

There’s an argument to be made that the single image which best exemplifies pure cinematic wonder is the Archers logo. The introductory title reel belonged to the production company of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a guarantee that whatever film followed would whisk the viewer away to a world of ecstatic imagination. The British filmmaking duo delivered sweeping, epic tales on a vibrant cinematic canvas painted with a style uniquely their own, and often found themselves on the periphery of their country’s popular cinema during their careers. While they came to be appreciated in the decades that followed the peak of their creative output, they have long passed, so David Hinton’s riveting new documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger brings the most qualified voice possible to speak on their contributions to the medium: Martin Scorsese.

Considering Scorsese’s close connection to their work, from...

"What they offer is a vision of love... of longing and loss, hope and expectation of wonder... I've watched these movies so many times, they've become part of my life." Cohen Media Group has also released their own official trailer for the wondrous documentary film titled Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, set for a run this summer in limited theaters. The doc is a cinema history look back at the iconic Powell & Pressburger filmmakers. Narrated and presented by Martin Scorsese, this explores the history of the two famous filmmakers Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, known for their beloved films including Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, A Canterbury Tale, and Gone to Earth. It is "a love letter to one of cinema's greatest partnerships" with Scorsese taking us through his own admiration for their creations. Drawing on a rich array of archive material,...

True cinephilia lives outside the confines of your front door, way past the boundaries of your home and native language. So, for all the talk of Martin Scorsese as a preeminent master of American cinema, it’s always been heartening to know the filmmaker and cineaste has appreciated all aspects of international cinema, from the East to the West and beyond. Those who understand Scorsese’s many cinematic affinities know fully well that one of his longtime personal passions has been the films by the Archers, aka the English filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Powell and Pressburger) and their ravishingly colorful, imaginative, and luminous films.

Continue reading ‘Made In England’ Review: Martin Scorsese Offers An Intimate Tour Through The Radical Romanticism Of Powell & Pressburger Cinema [Tribeca] at The Playlist.

Martin Scorsese’s voiceover narration and on-camera presence foregrounds the personal nature of “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,” an irresistible documentary survey about the formative movies of mid-century British writer/director Michael Powell and his co-writer Emeric Pressburger.

Scorsese didn’t direct “Made in England,” but his insights and relationship with Powell and Pressburger’s movies serve as the clothesline that director David Hinton hangs his movie’s footage on, including clips from both his title subjects’ movies as well as some charming archival interview footage (both Powell and Pressburger are now dead). Even Hinton’s tendency of focusing on Powell over Pressburger makes sense when you consider Scorsese’s presence as the lightly held lens through which the movie presents formative Powell and Pressburger dramas like “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” “The Red Shoes,” and “The Tales of Hoffmann.”

“Made in England” begins...

Quick Links Pilot Peter Carter Cheats Death in A Matter of Life & Death A Matter of Life and Death Is Similar to Captain America A Matter of Life and Death Is a Timeless Film Marvel's declining popularity is evident in titles like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania and The Marvels. However, many films in the franchise still hold up. Captain America's iconic film moments are reminiscent of A Matter of Life and Death, a timeless British classic. A huge escalator, "Ethel," connects worlds in A Matter of Life and Death, showcasing Powell and Pressburger's wonderment.

There is no question that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been declining in popularity these days. Without speculating on future releases, already released titles like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania and The Marvels (along with Echo and Secret Invasion on Disney+) have not come to see anywhere close to the same level of success as pre-Endgame titles.