NRR: Powell & Pressburger's Best Film

[alanmck]

No need for a poll, let's just let it roll.

here's some starters:

[john stapleton]

A Matter of Life and Death
A Canterbury Tale
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

I quite like The Battle of the River Plate too!

[SirSlim]

No need for a poll, let's just let it roll.

here's some starters:

mods

I'll add the masterpiece "peeping tom" and a personal fave "the small back room"

[john stapleton]

I'll add the masterpiece "peeping tom"

Cheat!

[babycart]

If I was a woman, Roger Livesey in I Know where I'm Going would be my ideal man. Dashing, witty, considerate and bekilted.

The honeymoon in The Red Shoes is wonderful, too.

[Rich Hero]

Rich, you are right about your choice, IAMOL&D is endearing and memorably so, but for me Peeping Tom has it, simply as the two feared not to tread on what was then explicitly very dangerous ground.

Oh certainly, it's only relatively recently that cinema has felt more comfortable treading this ground and 'Peeping Tom' is undeniably important for that. But, watching from a time when some of 'Peeping Tom's power to shock is dulled, it is, for me, it's a fairly simple film posing one fairly complex question. Whereas I think 'A Matter Of Life And Death' is more complicated, and more satisfying for it.

And, as John says, 'Peeping Tom' was produced by Nat Cohen, not Emeric Pressburger.

Plus, Karl Bohm's Mark Lewis is definitive forerunner for Kinski's derailed troubadour, Don Lope de Aguirre.

Well, if they'd got Popol Vuh in to do the music, that might have swung my vote. Maybe.

[ginghamkitchen]

My favourite is 'A Matter Of Life & Death', but I also love 'A Canterbury Tale'.

'Peeping Tom' is a Michael Powell film and doesn't count, but basically anything that Powell & Pressburger did is okay with me, with high recommendations for 'The Spy In Black', 'One Of Our Aircraft is Missing', 'The 49th Parallel', 'I Know Where I'm Going', 'Colonel Blimp', 'Black Narcissus', 'Gone To Earth' and 'The Small Back Room'.

I'm not so keen on 'The Red Shoes' or 'Tales of Hoffman', just because I don't really like ballet or opera, but the visuals are amazing.

A lot of emphasis is placed on Powell's direction, but Pressburger's scripts are incredible - and his grasp of the English character and language is astonishing given that he was a Hungarian who spoke with a heavy accent.

Genii.

[Slim Jim]

Gotta be "Black Narcissus" for me. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron as nuns going a bit mental in the Himalayas and having ungodly thoughts about raffish David Farrar. Can even forgive Jean Simmons "blacking up" to play an Indian girl....goodness gracious me indeed!!

[blacksheepboy]

Matter of Life and Death for me- amazing that it was made so close to the end of the War

[Filthy Rich]

"I'm not so keen on 'The Red Shoes' or 'Tales of Hoffman', just because I don't really like ballet or opera, but the visuals are amazing."

Tales of Hoffman.. is that as in the Sandman and stuff? Sounds intriguing.

[ginghamkitchen]

Tales of Hoffman.. is that as in the Sandman and stuff? Sounds intriguing.

The very same, based on Offenbach that is. Been a long time since I've seen it, so I can't vouch for the individual stories included.

Powell & Pressburger also made a film called 'Oh! Rosalinda' based on 'Die Fledermaus' that was set in post-war occupied Vienna. Again, it's a great looking film, but dependent on how you feel about oper(ett)a. Their partnership was past their best at this stage, and it was nearly the end of the line.

[MPFlapp]

It has to be "I Know Where I'm Going"

"The Edge of the World" - with the ever spendid John Laurie comes a close second.

There was a touring retrospective of the most of the films back in 2003 - looks to be doing the rounds again - http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Events2008.html

[nlgbbbblth]

Peeping Tom is one of the greatest films ever made.

I remember the first time I saw it.
1994. Sky Movies Gold.

Dilys Powell gave it Film Of The Week in the Sunday Times Culture section that week.

Here's that review in which she posthumously apologises to Powell for her original review at the time of its release.

I remember reading the column and realising that 'I have to see this film'.

The only person I knew with Sky Movies Gold was working abroad for the summer.
So I telephoned his parents (whom I had never previously met or spoken with) and persuaded them to record it for me - they lived on the other side of Dublin. They thought it was a most unusual request.

I took a bus to their house the following day and picked up the videotape from them.

The father greeted me and said 'you have strange taste in films' as he handed me the tape....

The best DVD edition I have seen is the Criterion Collection release. Proper aspect ratio and a decent documentary. Not got round to viewing the region 2 version that came out last year.

[john stapleton]

Peeping Tom is one of the greatest films ever made.

Indeed it is, but it's not by Powell and Pressburger!

[rainbowffolly]

Hi Alanmck,

Nice one for starting this thread! I haven't watched any of their films in the last few years, and I've already watched two of them today after remembering how incredible they are. At their best, they were an absolutely stunning pair, especially when the truly awesome Jack Cardiff came in as cinematographer; "A Matter of Life and Death", "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes" are three of the most visually audacious films I've ever seen. The only other movies from the era that can match them in my opinion are "Les Enfants du Paradis" and "Munchausen".

My favourite scene from their films, of which there are many, is the one from "A Matter of Life and Death" where Marius Goring catches a tear, from the face of a frozen Kim Hunter, in a rose to use as evidence for David Niven's appeal. One of the most romantic pieces of cinema, it kicks in at about 1 hour 11 minutes (guess what I've been watching ), and it never fails to raise a lump in my throat.

So it's got to be "A Matter of Life and Death" for me. So much about the film is almost near perfection. The script is incredibly witty, and the interplay in the scene with Goring and Niven, on the stairs to Heaven, where they're discussing who should be Niven's defence counsel is a fine example ("How about Richelieu?", "No I never liked him in The Three Musketeers"). The acting is superb, and the colour is fantastic, and I especially like the concept of Heaven being black and white, and the Earth in colour ("One is starved for Technicolor up there").

It's possible to see the film as "feel good" post-war propaganda (e.g. Heaven is populated by various troops of various colour from the commonwealth and the USA), but that doesn't, and shouldn't, take anything away from it's absolute beauty. If you fail to be moved by this film... well...

Cheers,


Stuart

p.s. I've a bunch of DVDs I've been saving for emergencies, one of which is a collection of Jean Vigo films, which thanks to this thread I think I'm now in the right frame of mind to watch...

[nlgbbbblth]

Indeed it is, but it's not by Powell and Pressburger!

I never even noticed the Pressburger on the thread title!

in that case

1 A Matter of Life and Death
2 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
3 The Red Shoes

[pitch]

A Matter of Life and Death

That's it.
Simple.
One of the best films ever made
Full stop

[ginghamkitchen]

A Matter of Life and Death

That's it.
Simple.
One of the best films ever made
Full stop

& there you have it. Oh, and best Hitchcock film? 'Vertigo'. Thread closed.

[rainbowffolly]

Come on, Hitchcock? Holes in the plot and he just stuffs them full of MacGuffins...

[nlgbbbblth]

& there you have it. Oh, and best Hitchcock film? 'Vertigo'. Thread closed.

can I re-open it with Frenzy?

[babycart]

Marnie and The 39 Steps are my favourite Hitchcocks.

I saw Spellbound the other day, and apart from the fact that it was pretty crap, I was struck by another exampleof Hitchcock's fun with food.
In The 39 Steps Robert Donat chats up the sexy spy with the phrase "D'you like haddock?" before slapping some wet fish in a pan.
In Spellbound Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman fall in love on a picnic and Cooper asks her "Would you like ham or liverwurst?". Bergman replies ectatically "Liverwurst!"
Then there's the "leg or a breast" scene in To Catch A Thief".

The last two are pretty easy to work out, but the haddock has always baffled me.

[ginghamkitchen]

Marnie and The 39 Steps are my favourite Hitchcocks.

I saw Spellbound the other day, and apart from the fact that it was pretty crap, I was struck by another exampleof Hitchcock's fun with food.
In The 39 Steps Robert Donat chats up the sexy spy with the phrase "D'you like haddock?" before slapping some wet fish in a pan.
In Spellbound Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman fall in love on a picnic and Cooper asks her "Would you like ham or liverwurst?". Bergman replies ectatically "Liverwurst!"
Then there's the "leg or a breast" scene in To Catch A Thief".

The last two are pretty easy to work out, but the haddock has always baffled me.

The haddock is to show Hannay's sang froid - faced with a foreign female spy in his flat, he nonchalantly puts on some supper, showing the audience that he is a man of capability.

[ginghamkitchen]

can I re-open it with Frenzy?

'Frenzy' has all of the prequisites to make it a VG+ favourite - set in London in the 70's with an all British cast, etc - but it's not in the top division of Hitchcock films by any means. The main issue I have with it is that the permissiveness of the age allowed Hitchcock to be more explicit and, as a result, the film is often sleazy, misogynistic and unsettlingly graphic.

My Hitchcock Top 10 would be --

Vertigo
Rear Window
North By Northwest
Psycho
Shadow Of A Doubt
Strangers On A Train
Notorious
The 39 Steps
Marnie
The Birds

With the exception of 'The Paradine Case', I've never seen a Hitchcock film that didn't have something extraordinary in it.

[Rich Hero]

'Frenzy' has all of the prequisites to make it a VG+ favourite - set in London in the 70's with an all British cast, etc - but it's not in the top division of Hitchcock films by any means. The main issue I have with it is that the permissiveness of the age allowed Hitchcock to be more explicit and, as a result, the film is often sleazy, misogynistic and unsettlingly graphic.

There was a Huw Wheldon interview with Hitchcock shown after 'Pop Goes The Easel' on Sunday. Hitchcock didn't come over very well and I had to turn it off after five minutes.

[ginghamkitchen]

There was a Huw Wheldon interview with Hitchcock shown after 'Pop Goes The Easel' on Sunday. Hitchcock didn't come over very well and I had to turn it off after five minutes.

Hitchcock was a great artist but, in later years, began to let his various hang ups overwhelm him. He was very repressed, scared of Hell, and had virtually no sex life after about 1935, so he became increasingly obsessed with his female stars and started making quite cruel, distasteful comments in public.

Associates describe him as almost pre-pubescent in his approach to women, i.e. I like you so I'm going to be horrible to you. He occasionally went much too far, but, by nature, he was too timid and frightened of his wife to break out and go mad.

[john stapleton]

'Frenzy' has all of the prequisites to make it a VG+ favourite - set in London in the 70's with an all British cast, etc - but it's not in the top division of Hitchcock films by any means. The main issue I have with it is that the permissiveness of the age allowed Hitchcock to be more explicit and, as a result, the film is often sleazy, misogynistic and unsettlingly graphic.

Agreed completely on 'Frenzy' - fascinating backgrounds but a deeply unpleasant film.

My favorites are probably

Vertigo
Rear Window
North by North-West
The Man Who Knew Too Much (50's version)
The 39 Steps
Dial M For Murder
Rope

[Filthy Rich]

"I saw Spellbound the other day, and apart from the fact that it was pretty crap, I was struck by another exampleof Hitchcock's fun with food."

Spellbound is definitely not one of his best by any means but all that Dali dream sequence stuff is really cool.

[Soul-Fiend]

indeed it is, but it's not by powell and pressburger!

let.........it..........go!

Peeping tom is the business, you all knows it. So what if it was not legitimately a p&p production, it still features half of the dream team and it doubtlessly occupies one of the darkest corners of british cinema and it's demonstration of escalating psychopathy is arguably one of the most sympathetic to date in that it actually treats the viewer to a more sensitive and appreciative understanding of the killer's condition as a defensive response to early childhood trauma and not simply that he is mad as a bag of spiders, removing itself from hollywood's tradition of rendering the insane or severely troubled as just bad. Seriously, this is significant shit!

can I re-open it with Frenzy?

The Hitchcockian's least favourite outing. Crashed and burned on release. I kind of like it. But never forget Strangers on a Train. That is a thriller. Bruno Anthony is one helluva character in that and once again, Hitchcock managed to imbue his loathsome narcissus with more than a touch of pathos leaving his audience once again in a state of ambiguity, a play thing for Hitchcock's own twisted irony.

[nlgbbbblth]

I love Frenzy although it's pretty grim in parts.

Has the following nasty dialogue [paraphrased].

Frantic woman: I hear he rapes them first before strangling them

Posh man: Well it's nice to know that every cloud has a silver living

Other top-ranking Hitchcock for me

Rope
The 39 Steps
Rear Window
Strangers On A Train
Rebecca

Bubbling under
Psycho
The Birds
Family Plot
The Wrong Man
Vertigo
North By Northwest
Marnie

[john stapleton]

let.........it..........go!

Peeping tom is the business, you all knows it. So what if it was not legitimately a p&p production, it still features half of the dream team and it doubtlessly occupies one of the darkest corners of british cinema and it's demonstration of escalating psychopathy is arguably one of the most sympathetic to date in that it actually treats the viewer to a more sensitive and appreciative understanding of the killer's condition as a defensive response to early childhood trauma and not simply that he is mad as a bag of spiders, removing itself from hollywood's tradition of rendering the insane or severely troubled as just bad. Seriously, this is significant shit!

I really like the Italian Job, and Robert Powell is in that, so can I nominate it as well?