Powell and Pressburger were a British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers. They made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. They are now regarded as two of the most significant figures in British cinema. Image File history File links Powell-Pressburger. ... Michael Powell film-maker. ... Emeric Pressburger (December 5, 1902 – February 5, 1988) was a Jewish Hungarian screenwriter and producer, who emigrated to England in the 1930s. ... // Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... Michael Caine in Get Carter (1971) The United Kingdom has been influential in the technological, commercial, and artistic development of cinema. ...

Their collaborations were mainly written by Pressburger, with Powell directing. Unusually, the pair shared a writer-director-producer credit for most of their films.

"He knows what I am going to say even before I say it — maybe even before I have thought it — and that is very rare. You are lucky if you meet someone like that once in your life." – Pressburger on Powell

"He'd stood the story on its head, he'd turned a man into a woman and a woman into a man, he'd altered the suspense, he'd rewritten the end... I was rejoicing that I was going to be working with someone like this." – Powell on first meeting Pressburger

Early films

Michael Powell was already an experienced director when he made the WWI drama The Spy in Black (1939), his first film for Hungarian émigré producer Alexander Korda. Emeric Pressburger, who had come over from Hungary in 1935, already worked for Korda, and was asked to do some rewrites for the film. The collaboration would be the first of 19, most of which would be made over the next 18 years. World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Conrad Veidt in The Spy in Black. ... Hey. ... Sir Alexander Korda (September 16, 1893 - January 23, 1956) was a film director and producer, a leading figure in the British film industry and the founder of London Films. ...

After Powell had made two further films for Korda, he was reunited with Pressburger for Contraband (1940). It was the first in a run of Powell & Pressburger films set during the current war. The second was Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941), which won Pressburger an Academy Award for Best Story. Both are Hitchcock-like thrillers made as anti-German propaganda. Contraband (1940) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Wikipedia will not tolerate irrelevant posts. ... Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) is the third collaboration by the British-based filmmakers Powell & Pressburger. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (born on August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a British – American film director closely associated with the thriller genre. ... North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ...

Birth of The Archers

The Archers logo from A Matter of Life and Death.

The pair nicknamed themselves The Archers, and cemented their partnership by adopting a joint writer-director credit for their next film, One of our Aircraft is Missing (1942), which they also produced. From now on they would begin each film with a distinctive archery target logo. ImageMetadata File history File links Archers-AMOLAD-Logo. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Archers-AMOLAD-Logo. ... Bomber pilot Peter Carter (David Niven), washed up on a strange beach. ... One of our Aircraft is Missing (1942) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... This article is about the year. ... Archers in Competition Archery is the practice of using a bow to shoot arrows. ...

In 1943 they formed their own production company, Archers Film Productions. The company gave them new independence and allowed them to assemble a stable and capable crew around themselves. It would also release their most successful collaborations.

In a letter to Deborah Kerr, asking her to appear in Colonel Blimp, Pressburger explicitly set out 'The Archers' Manifesto'. Its five points express the pair's intention to make original, relevant and successful films: Deborah Kerr (born September 30, 1921) is a Scottish film actress. ... Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) reunited after WWI. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is a film by the British filmmakers Powell & Pressburger, starring Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. ...

1. We owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss.
2. Every single foot in our films is our own responsibility and nobody else's. We refuse to be guided or coerced by any influence but our own judgement.
3. When we start work on a new idea we must be a year ahead, not only of our competitors, but also of the times. A real film, from idea to universal release, takes a year. Or more.
4. No artist believes in escapism. And we secretly believe that no audience does. We have proved, at any rate, that they will pay to see the truth, for other reasons than her nakedness.
5. At any time, and particularly at the present, the self respect of all collaborators, from star to prop-man, is sustained, or diminished, by the theme and purpose of the film they are working on.

There are contemporary echoes in the Dogme 95 manifesto. Dogme 95 (in English: Dogma 95) is a movement in filmmaking developed in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring, and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen. ...

Powell & Pressburger also coproduced a few films by other directors under the banner of The Archers: The Silver Fleet (1943), based on a story by Emeric Pressburger, and The End of the River (1947). Esmond Knight in The Silver Fleet. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... The End of the River (1947) is a British film about a South American Indian boy who leaves the jungle to the city, where he is accused of murder. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The classic war films

The remainder of the war saw them release a series of remarkably inventive films:

• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
• The Volunteer (1943) a short propaganda film
• A Canterbury Tale (1944)
• I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
• A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) reunited after WWI. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is a film by the British filmmakers Powell & Pressburger, starring Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... The Volunteer (1943) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... A Canterbury Tale (1944) is a British film by the film-making team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) and Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey) look on at a Ceilidh. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Bomber pilot Peter Carter (David Niven), washed up on a strange beach. ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Post-war success and decline

• Black Narcissus (1947)
• The Red Shoes (1948) --- their most commercially successful film.
• The Small Back Room (1949)
• The Elusive Pimpernel (1950)
• Gone to Earth (1950). A substantially re-edited version was released in the US as The Wild Heart (1952) by coproducer David O. Selznick, after a court battle with Powell and Pressburger. The film was fully restored by the British Film Archive in 1985.
• The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

Black Narcissus (1947) is a film by the British director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger, based on the novel by Rumer Godden. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the 1948 film and the Broadway musical. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Small Back Room (1949) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger, based on The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Farrar and Jones in Gone to Earth. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... ... 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... David O. Selznick David Oliver Selznick (May 10, 1902–June 22, 1965), was one of the icon Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. ... The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

End of the partnership

In the early 1950s the Powell and Pressburger began to produce fewer films, with notably less success. The Archers' productions officially came to an end in 1957, and the pair separated to pursue their individual careers.

• Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955)
• The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
• Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)

Oh. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Battle of the River Plate (1956) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Poster for Ill Met by Moonlight. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Later collaboration

The pair would reunite for a couple of films, none of which matched their earlier successes.

• They're a Weird Mob (1966)
• The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972)

Poster for Theyre a Weird Mob. ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) is the last film collaboration by the British filmmakers Powell & Pressburger. ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ...

Critical opinions

British film critics gave Powell and Pressburger films a mixed reaction at the time, acknowledging their creativity but sometimes questioning their motivations and taste. For better or worse, The Archers were always out of step with mainstream British cinema.

From the 1970s onwards, British critical opinion began to revise this lukewarm assessment, with their first BFI retrospective in 1970 and another in 1978. They are now seen as playing a key part in the history of British film, and have become influential and iconic for many film-makers of later generations, such as Martin Scorsese. This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ... The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Martin Scorsese Martin Scorsese (pronounced as Scor-SEH-see) (born November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York, USA) is an American film director. ...

Regular cast & crew

Powell and Pressburger had a habit of reusing actors and crew members in a number of films. The Archers were always much more than just Powell and Pressburger themselves, they were a group of some of the most talented film makers around at the time. Some of the actors that made several appearances were:

• Esmond Knight
• Cyril Cusack
• David Farrar
• Googie Withers
• Marius Goring
• Pamela Brown
• Roger Livesey
• Anton Walbrook
• Conrad Veidt
• Deborah Kerr
• Eric Portman
• Finlay Currie
• Kathleen Byron
• Léonide Massine
• Robert Helpmann
• Valerie Hobson

Notable crew members include: The actor Esmond Knight Esmond Knight was an accomplished British character actor (4 May 1906 - 22 February 1987), with a career spanning over half a century. ... Cyril Cusack (November 26, 1910—October 7, 1993) was an Irish actor, born in Natal, South Africa. ... Kathleen Byron and David Farrar in The Small Back Room. ... Googie Withers (born March 12, 1917 in Karachi, Pakistan) is a British actress. ... Marius Goring (May 23, 1912 - September 30, 1998) was a British stage and cinema actor. ... Pamela Mary Brown (July 8, 1917 - September 18, 1975) was an English stage and film actress, born in London, England, U.K.. After attending RADA, she made her stage debut in 1936 as Juliet in a Stratford-upon-Avon production of Romeo and Juliet. ... Roger Livesey as Clive Candy, in the duel scene from Colonel Blimp. ... Anton Walbrook as Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, in the duel scene from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. ... Conrad Veidt in The Spy in Black (1939). ... Deborah Kerr (born September 30, 1921) is a Scottish film actress. ... Born in Halifax, Yorkshire, on July 13th, 1903. ... Finlay Currie was a Scottish-born British actor on stage, screen and television. ... Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (August 9, 1896–March 15, 1979) was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. ... Robert Helpmann Sir Robert Helpmann (April 9, 1909 – September 28, 1986), Australian dancer, actor and choreographer, was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia. ... Valerie Hobson (1917-1998) was a British actress, who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s. ...

• A succession of talented cinematographers: Erwin Hillier, Jack Cardiff and Christopher Challis.
• Production and costume designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth.
• Composers and musicians Brian Easdale, Allan Gray, Sir Thomas Beecham and Miklós Rózsa.
• David Lean (soon to become a famous director) edited Forty-Ninth Parallel and One of our Aircraft....

Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, meters Audrey Tautou on the set of A Very Long Engagement. ... Erwin Hillier (September 2, 1911 – January 10, 2005) was German-born cinematographer known for his work in Britain cinema from the 1940s to 1960s. ... Jack Cardiff (born 18 September 1914) is a British cinematographer, director and photographer. ... Christopher Challis (born 18th March, 1919) is a distinguihsed British cinematographer who has worked on more than 70 feature films since starting in the industry in the 1940s. ... Brian Easdale (10 August 1909 - 1995) was a composer born in Manchester, England. ... Thomas Beecham (April 29, 1879 - March 8, 1961) was a British conductor. ... Miklós Rózsa (April 18, 1907 - July 23, 1995) was a Hungarian-American composer, best known for his film scores. ... David Lean Sir David Lean (March 25, 1908 – April 16, 1991) was a British film director, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. ... Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) is the third collaboration by the British-based filmmakers Powell & Pressburger. ... One of our Aircraft is Missing (1942) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. ...

References

• Ian Christie (1978), Powell, Pressburger and Others. London: BFI
• Ian Christie (1994), Arrows of Desire: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571162711
• Ian Christie and Andrew Moor, Eds (2005), Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker. London: BFI. ISBN 1844570940
• Andrew Moor (2005), Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1850439478

External links

• The Powell and Pressburger Pages
• The Archers at the British Film Institute
• The Archers at screenonline.
• The Archers productions in the Internet Movie Database
• The Action/Suspense Movies of Powell & Pressburger
• Senses of Cinema

The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), owned by Amazon. ...