Shot over four arduous months in the wild windswept Shetland Islands Michael Powell's first independent production establishes the daring techniques and experimentation that would later become familiar hallmarks of his career. The Edge of the World tells the moving story of a remote island and its inhabitants whose traditions and way of life are threatened by a rapidly industrialising world. This brand new digital restoration has been created from the original 35mm negative and personally supervised by Powell's widow Thelma Schoonmaker - Martin Scorcese's long -time editor.
Enter the insane mind of a psycho-killer obsessed with recording on film the most intense fear as it registers on the faces of desirable women. His camera tripod is fitted with a long blade designed to penetrate victims through the neck. And while they watch their own deaths reflected in a mirror attachment he captures their last gasps on celluloid for his evil home movie collection.
Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp: Drama about the life of Clive Candy an English soldier who served in three wars (Boer World War I World War II) and had relationships with three women along the way (each played by Deborah Kerr). Despite Candy's tours-of-duty he harbors no ill will towards the Germans instead he believes they have been the pawns of military leaders. Colonel Blimp an old befuddled British military officer reminisces about his past glories in this witty w
A complete collection of the best of British war movies! Films comprise: 1. The Colditz Story (Dir. Guy Hamilton 1955) 2. The Cruel Sea (Dir. Charles Frend 1953) 3. The Dam Busters (Dir. Michael Anderson 1954) 4. I Was Monty's Double (Dir. John Guillermin 1958) 5. Ice Cold In Alex (Dir. J. Lee Thompson 1958) 6. Went The Day Well? (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1942) 7. The Wooden Horse (Dir. Jack Lee 1950) 8. They Who Dare (Dir. Lewis Milestone 1954) 9. Cross Of Iron (Dir. Sam Peckinpah 1977) 10. The Way Ahead (Dir. Carol Reed 1944) 11. In Which We Serve (Dir. Noel Coward/David Lean 1942) 12. The Battle Of The River Plate (Dir. Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger 1956)
It is the early years of World War II and the Royal Navy must fight a desperate battle to stop Germany's best battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, from sailing to the South Atlantic.
Two masterpieces of British cinema are paired here--Powell and Pressburger's first Technicolor triumph, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and their even more ambitious A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Both pictures are transcendent examples of the filmmakers' craft, and remain models of great cinema long after their original wartime propaganda brief has expired. Based on a famously satirical cartoon strip that mocked outmoded attitudes of fair play at a time of "total war", Blimp subsequently became notorious as the film Churchill tried to have banned. Because the War Office objected to the screenplay, they refused to allow P&P's first choice for the role, Laurence Olivier, and the duo cast unknown stage actor Roger Livesey in his place. It is Livesey's sympathetic performance that transforms Clive "Sugar" Candy from an object of satire to one of warm affection, effectively reversing the film's intended message about old-fashioned decency versus wartime pragmatism. Anton Walbrook is a profound presence in a role that mirrored the actor's own plight as a German in Britain, while Deborah Kerr is a living leitmotif in the film, playing no fewer than three distinct but deliberately related roles. Briefed by the Ministry of Information to make a film that would foster Anglo-American relations in the post-war period, the duo, known as "the Archers", came up with A Matter of Life and Death, an extravagant and extraordinary fantasy in which David Niven's downed pilot must justify his continuing existence to a heavenly panel because he has made the mistake of falling in love with an American girl (Kim Hunter) when he really should have been dead. National stereotypes are lampooned as the angelic judges squabble over his fate. In a neat reversal of expectations, the heaven sequences are black and white, while earth is seen in Technicolor. Daring cinematography mixes monochrome and colour, incorporates time-lapse images, and even toys with background "time freezes" 50 years before The Matrix. Roger Livesey and Raymond Massey lead the fine supporting cast. On the DVD: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life and Death are presented in reasonably sharp 4:3 ratio with good mono sound. Blimp comes with a 25-minute documentary feature that tells us nothing revelatory about making the film, but has good new interviews with cinematographer Jack Cardiff (then an apprentice) and eloquent admirer Stephen Fry. Text biographies and stills are also included. Life and Death has no extras. --Mark Walker
Hazel Woodus is a peculiar young girl living on the Welsh border at the turn of the century. Dominated by superstitions and lore which she reads from a book she is devoted to her pet fox and to all the local creatures. One of the legends she reads says she must marry the first man who proposes. This turns out to be the mild mannered minister Marston and fearing the legend she agrees to marry him. Hazel feels no true desire for her husband and cannot resist the advances of the r
***WARNING***ALL DVD TITLES CONTAIN ENGLISH SUBTITLES EXCEPT FOR THE DVD TITLE - A CANTERBURY TALE*** Never in the history of British film have two figures become as iconic as those of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Reigning throughout the 40s and 50s these two magnificent filmmakers brought to life British films and continue to radiate immense critical acclaim and inspiration for all contemporary film making. Includes: 1. A Matter of Life & Death (1946) 2. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 3. A Canterbury Tale (1944) 4. I Know Where I am Going (1945) 5. 49th Parallel (1941) 6. The Battle of the River Plate (1956) 7. Ill Met By Moonlight (1957) 8. They're A Weird Mob (1966) 9. The Red Shoes (1948)
49th Parallel is a powerful and important piece of World War 2 propaganda which controversially was filmed from the point of view of a group of German soldiers. Asked to make a flag waver by the Ministry of Information the brilliantly gifted film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger elected to set the action in Canada. The film features a stellar cast who all waived their fees in the interests of the war. A Nazi U-boat is sunk by the Canadian Air Force and all the crew are lost except six men who had been sent ashore before the attack. They stumble across an Eskimo village where Scott Peter and his Eskimo servant Martin live. Also present is a French trapper Johnnie (played by Laurence Olivier) who panics when held at gunpoint and is shot by one of the Nazis. After this the Allies send an S.O.S. plane and it is the intention of the Nazis to hijack it and fly to neutral America. When the plane arrives there is a scuffle but they manage to take off. Will they be caught before they kill again?
One of Powell and Pressburger's most famous films, "The Red Shoes" is the tragic and romantic story of Vicky Page, the brilliant young dancer who must give up everything if she is to become a great ballerina.
Drama about the life of Clive Candy, an English soldier who served in three wars (Boer, World War I, World War II), and had relationships with three women along the way (each played by Deborah Kerr). Despite Candy's tours-of-duty, he harbors no ill will towards the Germans, instead he believes they have been the pawns of military leaders. Colonel Blimp, an old, befuddled British military officer, reminisces about his past glories in this witty war satire.
Sir Laurence Olivier is regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century. Olivier dazzled audiences with brilliant acting athleticism and elaborate costumes makeup and vocal techniques. He began acting as a child and went on to gain international movie stardom and a catalogue of prestigious awards. This collection celebrates the career of possibly the greatest acting talent Britain and the world has ever seen. Set Comprises: Richard III (1955) Henry V (1944) A
Anna Pavlova is a beautiful film about the most famous dancer of the world. A little girl from St. Petersburg dreams to become a ballet dancer. And when she is barely 16 years old, she manages to dance Giselle at the Marinsky Teatre and becomes an international star, and soon her fame spread all over the world. She travels to France, England, America, Australia and all over Latin America. Everywhere she goes, the theatres are full and critics consider her a phenomenon. Tragically she develops pleurisy. She refuses treatment as she knows she will never dance again. She dies in Holland, aged 50 years old.
Adapted from Nigel Balchin's famous novel about a military bomb disposal expert 'The Small Back Room' traces the struggles of Sammy Rice a crippled neurotic scientist. Sammy plagued by feelings of inferiority because of his lameness labours to solve the problem of a new type enemy bomb that is causing many casualties. When a close friend and collegue is killed attempting to dismantle one of the bombs Sammy is forced to face his demons take his life in his hands and prove his worth; to the military and himself...
When Bernardo Bertolucci went to the Himalayas to film Little Buddha, so the anecdote runs, he was disappointed by the scenery. Somehow, the real thing didn't quite live up to what he'd been led to expect by Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. It's not hard to see why he felt let down. Their film is almost ridiculously gorgeous--a procession of saturated Technicolor, Expressionist angles, theatrical lighting and overwrought design. It has a good claim to being the high watermark of lushness in the British cinema (and, incidentally, every original foot of it was actually shot in Britain). No wonder it took the Oscar for colour cinematography (shot by Jack Cardiff) as well as for art direction and set decoration (created by Alfred Junge).Audiences loved it on its first release, but the critics were cooler: hadn't the story been upstaged by the baroque images? Well, probably, but that's not altogether a bad thing, since the plot--quite faithful to Rumer Godden's popular novel --isn't wholly free of corn. A group of five Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) establish a school and hospital in a former harem among the Himalayan peaks. The wind blows, the drums pound, the Old Gods stir, and one by one the celibate sisters succumb to unchaste thoughts, above all Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron, terrific in the role), so consumed by erotic yearning for the one Englishman in sight (David Farraar) she puts on crimson lipstick, wears her wimple-free tresses like an early Goth and takes a downward turn. (Black Narcissus features the greatest scene involving a nun and a high place this side of Hitchcock's Vertigo and Jacques Rivette's La Religieuse.) Silly, to be sure, but also sublime at times and as curiously entertaining as it is picturesque. --Kevin Jackson
Powel and Pressburger added to their run of daring stimulating and stylistic pictures with this melodrama about a group of Anglican nuns establishing a remote mission high in the Himalayas. Their physical environment - extreme temperatures illness and a young Indian Prince's perfume (Black Narcissus) - leads to psychological disturbance coupled with emotional weakness. Jealousy sexual repression and hysteria all play their part in a fantastic climax which ripped through the British stiff upper lip attitude of the time. The casting is inspired with brilliant performances from the principals and the film deservedly won Oscars for Colour Cinematography and Art Direction.
Collection of feature films inspired by the Great War. In 'I Was a Spy' (1933), Martha Cnockhaert (Madeleine Carroll) works as a spy in a German hospital, acting for the allies. Aided by orderly Stephan (Herbert Marshall), Martha plots to blow up a German ammunition dump. When Martha accompanies a German Commandant to Brussels, a change in the Kaiser's movements inadvertently reveals Martha's true purpose. '1914 All Out' (1987) is a made-for-TV drama set during World War I in a quiet Yorkshire village. While the locals are enjoying a Bank Holiday cricket match, their fun is cut short when war breaks out and the men go off to fight for their country. Set in the Scottish Orkney Islands during the First World War, 'The Spy In Black' (1939) tells the story of three German spies plotting to sink the British fleet. When U-Boat Captain Hardt (Conrad Veidt) makes contact with his beautiful co-conspirator (Valerie Hobson), he falls in love with her, but she is already having an affair with the third spy in their group, Royal Navy traitor Lieutenant Ashington (Sebastian Shaw).
The Fleet Air Arm: At War and Peace is a unique DVD collecting together rare and previously unseen and unavailable films celebrating the Royal Navy's aviation history. As well as providing fascinating film records of Royal Navy aircraft carriers operations and aircraft it also offers an invaluable 'behind the scenes' look at life in the Fleet Air Arm. This collection features three films and covers the period 1943 to 1959. The Volunteer (1943) Ralph Richardson stars in this dramatised Fleet Air Arm wartime documentary which was produced written and directed by the distinguished team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Following the fortunes of a pilot and an air mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm it offers a fascinating look at life on board a wartime British aircraft carrier and action with Seafires Albacores and Martlets as well as footage of other Fleet Air Arm stalwarts including the Kingfisher and Walrus Flying Boat. Eagles Of The Fleet (1950) Ralph Richardson provides the narration for this stirring look at the Home Fleet on exercises off Gibraltar with the emphasis on the role of British carriers and their contingent of Hawker Sea Furies and Fairey Fireflies.
Michael Powell: Espionage (ITC Series)
The Thief of Bagdad falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Bagdad. The Caliph promises the hand of his daughter in marriage to whoever brings back the rarest treasure after seven moons. The thief sets off on a magical journey, one of four suitors on a mission to win the hand of the Princess.
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