A documentarian takes a great risk selecting a personality bigger than their subject to narrate their film, and in the world of cinema there are few personalities bigger than Martin Scorsese. However, to describe what Scorsese does in David Hinton’s film, Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, as mere narration is to underestimate his role drastically. Those familiar with Scorsese’s previous documentary work might already have a good idea what this means (see A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies). The director’s early life was lived primarily inside New York City’s movie theaters and in front of his parent’s black-and-white television set. His discussions of film history are as much essayistic recounts of his experience watching movies as they are exhaustive lectures. Made in England treats audiences to Scorsese expressing his admiration for and personal relationship with a pair of filmmakers who have inspired him from a young age, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Unconventional in its approach, the story is told by and through Scorsese and his experience of Powell and Pressburger’s lives and, most importantly, their contributions to cinema – powerful filmic fables of struggle, art, creativity and English life during wartime.
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as the Archers, were an English film director and Hungarian-born screenwriter who worked together from the ’40s through to the ’70s, creating extravagant features on their own creative terms from within the British film system, enjoying a brief window when such an arrangement was possible in the film industry. Eventually audience tastes began to shift away from the duo’s stylistic balladry and toward the more down-to-earth fare of the kitchen-sink dramas of the ’60s, once the comedown from the war years had firmly set in. Powell and Pressburger were forgotten for decades by the British industry they had helped to cultivate (as is often the price of independence) before Scorsese and the “film brats” of the New American Cinema movement revived an appreciation of their work and helped to ferment a resurgence of interest in the filmmakers from the repertory cinemas of New York City.
This is to say that Scorsese’s inclusion in this project is far from arbitrary. It is in large part thanks to Scorsese’s efforts that Powell and Pressburger have retained such a high stature today. The director himself factors largely into the biography of Michael Powell, whose career was given a life raft by Scorsese and company, and who found himself later in life with a job at Francis Ford Coppola’s production company, American Zoetrope, and married to Scorsese’s longtime collaborator, editor Thelma Schoonmaker. All originating from a childhood fascination with, and eventual professional admiration for, the films of Michael Powell. This is Scorsese’s show, he monologues through important moments in the Archers’ films and touches on necessary biographical notes. Accompanied by rare archival footage, old interviews and scenes from the duo’s filmography – which appear as striking and overpoweringly cinematic as ever – the documentary is expertly organized and well-layered, providing context to the Archers’ work. However, as interesting as it is to listen to Scorsese, a curious filmgoer in a contemporary culture of siloed and unimaginative film fandom, his words allow us access to only one angle of the Archers’ varied and highly influential career. Made in England is not a bird’s-eye-view documentary about the lives of Powell and Pressburger; instead, it is a picture constructed from inside the world of their films and narrated by their biggest fan as he watches them. Stretches of the film can feel like extended commentary on a cinematic career highlight reel. Considering the passion and literacy of our host, this is not all that bad, but perhaps might leave one wanting for a more holistic picture of the subjects. Instead, the biographies of the men are kept to the bare minimum for the duration of an over-two-hour run time.
With Scorsese leading the way, Made in England is a good introduction to Powell and Pressburger’s oeuvre, with a lot to offer film lovers for whom the duo’s cinema might be difficult to dive into or relate to aesthetically – too whimsical, old-fashioned, unabashedly stylized and formally ambitious, all qualities lacking in much contemporary filmmaking and underemphasized in film education today. The Archers still have an overwhelming amount to offer artists, in and outside of cinema. Their approach to imagery and the creative independence they managed to eke out for themselves are inspiring, and Made in England is a whirlwind through two nearly unparalleled careers in British film history.
Photo courtesy of Cohen Media Group
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