Powell and Pressburger: how Martin Scorsese helped rescue Britain’s biggest filmmakers from anonymity

FOver the past three decades, few have been more dedicated to preserving the legacy of British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger than Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese. Schoonmaker, one of the most renowned film editors, and Scorsese, for many the world’s greatest living director, have set out to ensure that audiences remember the men behind such indelible films as The Red Shoes, black daffodil and A matter of life and death.

The pair (Powell died in 1990 at the age of 84, Pressburger in 1988 at the age of 85) were cinematic fabulists, responsible for visually rich Technicolor fantasies the likes of which had never been seen before or since. Schoonmaker and Scorsese have been a similar dream team since their first collaboration on the 1980 boxing saga. raging bullfor which Schoonmaker won an Oscar, the first of three, followed by awards for editing. The Aviator (2004) and The dead people (2006). It was immediately after raging bull that Scorsese introduced Schoonmaker to Powell, whom he had befriended in the 1970s, after the British director split from his Hungarian-born producer and screenwriter, Pressburger. They had enjoyed success in the ’40s and ’50s, but by the time Schoonmaker became a fan of his work, their names had fallen into oblivion.

“No one knew who they were in England anymore,” says the white-haired Schoonmaker, 84, when we meet in a Berlin hotel. “Marty won an award at the Edinburgh Film Festival for (his 1974 film) Alice doesn’t live here anymore. And they said, ‘Who do you want to give you the prize?’ He said, ‘Michael Powell,’ and they said, ‘Who’s that?’ They had no idea! But they tracked down Powell and he and Scorsese formed a bond. “The blood rushed through my veins again,” Powell wrote in his autobiography.

In 1984, Schoonmaker was married to Powell, who was 35 years her senior, while her own career as Scorsese’s go-to editor flourished. “I’m very lucky,” she reflects. “It’s the best job in the world. And (Scorsese) gave me the best husband in the world! So I’ve had it all.” Since Powell’s death in 1990, Schoonmaker and Scorsese have proudly overseen the restoration of his and Pressburger’s films. It is a work that continues: at the beginning of June one of his least known titles is reissued, The small back rooma 1949 British film noir starring David Farrar.

This appreciation of his canon seems to continue with Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, an in-depth documentary that sees Scorsese in front of the camera guiding audiences through his entire career. It is directed by David Hinton, who met Powell in the 1980s while filming a South Bank Show Special about the director. Sitting next to Schoonmaker, Hinton remembers that Powell was “full of energy” when they met, thanks to Scorsese’s friendship. “Since then, Powell and Pressburger’s reputation has gone from strength to strength. In a way, they keep rediscovering themselves over and over again.”

Last fall, the British Film Institute hosted a two-month-long season, “Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger.” “Every screening was packed with very young people,” Hinton adds. “I think there are still new generations that are discovering movies.” But it will undoubtedly be Made in England that further cements Powell and Pressburger’s reputation. Schoonmaker calls his work “very pure… very emotional, particularly for a British film at the time.”

It’s wonderful to work with, because it’s always changing and never repeats itself. And we share this great love of Powell and Pressburger.

Thelma Schoonmaker

Made in England It’s also a treat for Scorsese fans. The director is known for his documentaries about cinema, such as the one from 1999. My trip to Italy, in which he explored the films (by artists such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini) that influenced his youth. Likewise, he discovered Powell and Pressburger when he was young and speaks passionately in Made in England about how his unique and flavorful work influenced his own films; He even took direct shots of his work to raging bull and its 1993 Edith Wharton adaptation The Age of Innocence.

“These movies weren’t like the ones I’d been seeing in Hollywood,” Schoonmaker says. “They didn’t have real villains or real heroes. It was more about people. More like us. And (Scorsese) liked that a lot, because it was in his instincts. I think he was born to be a film director. He came out of the womb that way. And that’s why he was instantly drawn to these films.” Every time he saw the logo of his production company, The Archers, which depicted an arrow hitting his target, he “knew it was going to be something unusual.”

As fascinating and informative as it is to hear Scorsese wax lyrical about his films, the real meat comes when we learn about his friendship with Powell. There are some moving images of the British filmmaker on Scorsese’s set The king of comedy, his masterful 1982 short story with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis. Powell’s previous film, which would turn out to be his last, had been a decade earlier, in 1972. The boy who turned yellow. “He spent 20 very hard years of total oblivion, unable to make a film but writing and writing and writing wonderful ideas,” says Schoonmaker.

Several times, Scorsese tried to help Powell get projects off the ground. “Michael was very impatient with people. He would just insult them,” Schoonmaker laughs. “But Marty, who grew up in a mafia neighborhood and worked in his early days in Hollywood, learned to deal with people in power and raise money from them, even though they didn’t agree with what he was going to do. He had that technique. But Michael didn’t need it. Because in the war years, they just made masterpiece after masterpiece.”

Movies like war sagas. The life and death of Colonel Blimp and A Canterbury Tale were warmly welcomed but, as Schoonmaker points out, it was during the 1948 production The Red Shoes that “the problems began.” Set in the world of professional ballet and starring Moira Shearer as an aspiring ballerina, the film was a profitable hit, nominated for an Oscar, and continues to be recognized for its magical and timeless qualities. However, their backers, the Rank Organization, “didn’t get it,” putting enormous strain on the company’s relationship with Powell and Pressburger, ultimately leading to a parting of ways.

The success of his films subsequently waned and The Archers flopped, although Powell did not finish. Separated from Pressburger, he created one of his most famous films, voyeur (1960), a very disturbing psychodrama about voyeurism. However, he was critically criticized upon his release. Was Powell’s biggest heartbreak? “The thing about Michael is that he always believed that what he was doing was right,” Schoonmaker reflects. “And no matter how painful it was, no matter how destructive it was… he never stopped knowing that he was right. But it was difficult.”

Born in Algiers, Schoonmaker was not introduced to Powell’s work until her teens. Her father Bertram worked for the Standard Oil Company and her early years were spent on the Caribbean island of Aruba. She didn’t really watch television until her family moved back to the United States when she was a teenager. “One of the first movies I saw was The life and death of Colonel Blimp,” she recalls. “And for some reason it stuck in my mind.” She speaks fondly of the moment Lieutenant Candy (Roger Livesey) realizes she has feelings for Edith (Deborah Kerr). “I think it’s a “one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life.”

by the time voyeur When it was published, Schoonmaker was at Cornell University studying Russian and political science. She began passing State Department tests to find a position in the U.S. government, until representatives from the FBI, CIA, and State Department questioned her “very harshly” about apartheid. She was asked what she would say about the system if she were in South Africa. “And I said, ‘Well, this has to stop.’ It’s awful.’ And they said, ‘Well, as a diplomat, you can’t do that until your country decides to do it.'”

In search of another calling, Schoonmaker landed a job as a trainee assistant editor and later met the young Scorsese, joining him on the editorial team for Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 music documentary. wood (for which she was nominated for her first Oscar). They kept in touch during the seventies, but it was not until raging bull that they officially worked together again. The film cast De Niro as real-life boxer Jake LaMotta, and was Schoonmaker’s baptism of fire. “I learned a lot in raging bull,” she says. “I mean, (Scorsese) was teaching me.”

Did you ever have disagreements? “We never really disagreed, I don’t think, and the most important moment was at the end of raging bull where De Niro faces himself in the mirror. And they did 15 takes, which is very unusual. They were talking to each other, ‘Should we go that way? Should we go this way? I liked the warmer shots. Scorsese said, “No, he has to be cold.” And then we tested with our friends in two ways. And Marty was right!

Schoonmaker, who rarely works for other directors, has remained loyal to Scorsese’s side, until last year. Flower Moon Killers, which earned him a ninth Oscar nomination. “It’s wonderful to work with him, because he’s always changing and never repeats himself,” she says. “And we share this great love for Powell and Pressburger, which is something we talk about all the time.” And now, with Made in EnglandThe Archers will hit the target again.

‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger’ hits theaters starting May 10