BFI National Library

Michael Powell Display

From 10 August - 7 September 2005, Outside NFT 1

To coincide with the NFT's Michael Powell centenary retrospective in August, the bfi National Library presented a display of related materials on the work of the great British filmmaker, including items from the Michael Powell archive in Special Collections, donated by Powell's widow, the distinguished film editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell. There was a further display of material from the Powell archive in the display cases outside NFT 1.

About Michael Powell and his work

Michael Powell was born in Kent in 1905. He entered the film industry during the 1920s, working at Rex Ingram's studio in Nice, in the south of France. A decade toiling in British studios on 'quota quickies' followed, before the advent of World War II enabled Powell, with his new filmmaking partner Emeric Pressburger, to explore aspects of cultural and national identity and to forge their unique style, in such films as 49 th Parallel (1941) and A Canterbury Tale (1944).

After the war, Powell pursued his ambition to create a cinema which was artistically all-encompassing, through the astonishing virtuosity displayed in films like the ever-popular The Red Shoes (1948), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and Black Narcissus (1947), which employed music, cinematography and art direction in particular, to stunning effect.

Powell's controversial work without Pressburger did not meet with the same acclaim, and the vilification of Peeping Tom (1960) brought his British career to an end. After many years in the wilderness, Powell was befriended by American filmmaker Martin Scorsese a lifelong fan of his work who helped him become known again, making possible the current critical re-evaluation of Powell's cinematic vision.

Powell - A Reading List (PDF, 24kb)

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