San Sebastian Film Festival ::

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

The crew of ?B for Bertie' bales out of their damaged bomber over Holland and is hidden by the Dutch resistance movement, despite the presence of collaborators, as they make their way to safety. As well as an admiring portrait of the Dutch withstanding occupation, the crew stands as a cross-section of English attitudes to war.

49th Parallel

Michael Powell

A German U-boat is destroyed off the coast of Canada, and the surviving crew members set out to reach neutral America. On their travels, they meet a cross-section of Canadians, all with different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs, but all resistant to the Nazi arguments put by the Germans. As the band diminishes, only the fanatical Lieutenant Hirth is left, and he is finally captu...

A German U-boat is destroyed off the coast of Canada, and the surviving crew members set out to reach neutral America. On their travels, they meet a cross-section of Canadians, all with different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs, but all resistant to the Nazi arguments put by the Germans. As the band diminishes, only the fanatical Lieutenant Hirth is left, and he is finally captured by a Canadian hobo on the US border.

A Canterbury Tale

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Three wartime ?pilgrims' find themselves near Canterbury, and try to solve the mystery of the ?phantom glueman' who is attacking girls at night. Their inquiries lead them to suspect the local magistrate, a staunch advocate of traditional values. As they converge on Canterbury, all receive unexpected ?blessings', which point toward their postwar futures, and the glueman's unmask...

Three wartime ?pilgrims' find themselves near Canterbury, and try to solve the mystery of the ?phantom glueman' who is attacking girls at night. Their inquiries lead them to suspect the local magistrate, a staunch advocate of traditional values. As they converge on Canterbury, all receive unexpected ?blessings', which point toward their postwar futures, and the glueman's unmasking is forgotten amid celebrations on the eve of D-Day.

A Matter of Life and Death

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Peter Carter should have died when he jumped from his bomber, but heaven failed to find him, and meanwhile he fell in love with June, an American WAC controller. As medical diagnosis and celestial diplomacy proceed in parallel, his doctor is killed and becomes his advocate in heaven, securing a new lease of life for Peter.

Age of Consent

Michael Powell

Brad, a jaded expatriate Australian artist, returns to the scene of his first inspiration on the Brisbane coast and discovers the innocently seductive Cora, who poses for him. Despite trouble from Cora's drunken grandmother and an unwelcome visit from an old mate on the scrounge, Brad and Cora find each other in the end.

An Airman's Letter to His Mother

Michael Powell

- (Short film)

Inspired by a letter from a pilot published posthumously in The Times, this short film was made spontaneously by Powell, and shows the imagined mother receiving the letter in her cottage, surrounded by reminders of her son's youth.

Black Narcissus

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

A group of nuns is despatched to a remote Himalayan community, on the invitation of the local ruler, to establish a school and clinic for his people. But few of the group are prepared for the stress of isolation in this windy mountain-top palace, amid the challenges and temptations they face. Sister Ruth conceives a passion for the local ruler's English manager, Mr. Dean, and w...

A group of nuns is despatched to a remote Himalayan community, on the invitation of the local ruler, to establish a school and clinic for his people. But few of the group are prepared for the stress of isolation in this windy mountain-top palace, amid the challenges and temptations they face. Sister Ruth conceives a passion for the local ruler's English manager, Mr. Dean, and when she is rebuffed tries to kill her superior, Sister Clodagh. The nuns retreat from their mission as the rains begin.

Bluebeard's Castle/Herzog Blaubarts Burg

Michael Powell

Bartók's only opera, not staged until 1922, was based on a symbolist libretto written in 1911 by the future film theorist Balazs. The Duke reluctantly opens the seven doors in his castle to show his eighth wife their bloody secrets, before she joins the ghostly wives as darkness becomes total.

Contraband

Michael Powell

Quickly following their success with The Spy in Black, Powell and Pressburger devised a thriller set in the early days of the war, with many satirical elements. Andersen is a Danish captain who sets out to uncover a German spy-ring in London, largely based in restaurants and cabarets, and progress of the chase provides many opportunities for homages to Fritz Lang and inventive ...

Quickly following their success with The Spy in Black, Powell and Pressburger devised a thriller set in the early days of the war, with many satirical elements. Andersen is a Danish captain who sets out to uncover a German spy-ring in London, largely based in restaurants and cabarets, and progress of the chase provides many opportunities for homages to Fritz Lang and inventive design by Junge.

Crown v. Stevens

Michael Powell

Chris goes to visit a pawnbroker, only to find him dead, and his own employer's wife, Doris, leaving the premises. She asks him to say nothing, but he goes to her house and discovers his employer dead in the garage. When he confronts her, Doris breaks down and gives herself up to the police.

Gone to Earth

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Hazel is a child of nature living on the Shropshire borders at the turn of the century, the daughter of a blind harpist and haunted by her dead mother's superstitions. Although she is drawn to the sadistic squire, Jack Redding, she agrees to marry the meek Reverend Marston, but the conflict between these two is too great and she eventually plunges to her death, while being hunt...

Hazel is a child of nature living on the Shropshire borders at the turn of the century, the daughter of a blind harpist and haunted by her dead mother's superstitions. Although she is drawn to the sadistic squire, Jack Redding, she agrees to marry the meek Reverend Marston, but the conflict between these two is too great and she eventually plunges to her death, while being hunted along with her beloved fox.

Her Last Affaire

Michael Powell

The secretary to a leading politician wants to marry his daughter, Jody, but first has to clear his own name, since his father died with a tarnished reputation. He devises an elaborate plan to persuade the politician's wife to provide evidence of his father's good name, but she dies unexpectedly, due to a mistake in dispensing her medicine, and the secretary falls under suspici...

The secretary to a leading politician wants to marry his daughter, Jody, but first has to clear his own name, since his father died with a tarnished reputation. He devises an elaborate plan to persuade the politician's wife to provide evidence of his father's good name, but she dies unexpectedly, due to a mistake in dispensing her medicine, and the secretary falls under suspicion. In the end, her confession clearing his father is discovered and he is free to marry Jody.

His Lordship

Michael Powell

Recently discovered, this odd mixture of musical comedy and political satire, with a gang of comic anarchists trying to kidnap the unlikely heir to an aristocratic title, shows Powell's humour and willingness to mix genres.

Hotel Splendide

Michael Powell

The innocent inheritor of a seaside hotel discovers that few of his guests are what they seem, and that the loot from a famous robbery was buried beneath where the hotel now stands.

I Know Where I'm Going!

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Joan has always known where she wanted to go, from an early age up to her impending marriage to the head of a major company. But as she travels north for the planned Scottish island wedding, she discovers there is more to life than material success. While waiting for a storm to abate, she meets and reluctantly falls in love with the impoverished Laird of the island her fiancé ...

Joan has always known where she wanted to go, from an early age up to her impending marriage to the head of a major company. But as she travels north for the planned Scottish island wedding, she discovers there is more to life than material success. While waiting for a storm to abate, she meets and reluctantly falls in love with the impoverished Laird of the island her fiancé has rented. After the storm, they decide to make their future together.

Ill Met by Moonlight

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Based on a wartime escapade, the story of an audacious plot to kidnap the general commanding German forces on Cyprus, under the noses of his own troops, carried out in nonchalant style by Leigh-Fermor and Moss, with help from the local resistance movement.

Lazybones

Michael Powell

A comedy of impoverished aristocracy endeavouring to retrieve the family fortune by marrying the lazy eldest son to an American heiress.

Luna de miel/Honeymoon / Honeymoon

Michael Powell

Kit and his wife Anna, a ballerina who has given up her career for marriage, tour Spain on their honeymoon. They meet dancer Antonio, who tries to persuade Anna to dance again as his partner. Wherever they drive in their convertible, be it Santiago, Madrid or Granada, Kit and Anna run into Antonio. The dancer tempts Anna to dance the leading role in his latest production, with ...

Kit and his wife Anna, a ballerina who has given up her career for marriage, tour Spain on their honeymoon. They meet dancer Antonio, who tries to persuade Anna to dance again as his partner. Wherever they drive in their convertible, be it Santiago, Madrid or Granada, Kit and Anna run into Antonio. The dancer tempts Anna to dance the leading role in his latest production, with which he is about to set off on a world tour.

Oh... Rosalinda!!

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Strauss's popular operetta updated to a post-war Vienna, misruled by the four occupying powers - USA, URSS, France and Britain - whose pleasure-seeking representatives are easy prey for Dr. Falke, ?the Bat?. Using the still-new Cinemascope process, Vienna was designed by Heckroth as a chocolate-box confection amid the drabness of post-war Europe.

Peeping Tom

Michael Powell

Mark, a studio camera assistant and amateur filmmaker, has grown up in the shadow of his father's psychological experiments, practised on him as a child. While he now experiments by filming his murders, he forms a tentative relationship with Helen, who lives with her blind mother in the same house, and wants him to illustrate her children's book about a magic camera. But Mark c...

Mark, a studio camera assistant and amateur filmmaker, has grown up in the shadow of his father's psychological experiments, practised on him as a child. While he now experiments by filming his murders, he forms a tentative relationship with Helen, who lives with her blind mother in the same house, and wants him to illustrate her children's book about a magic camera. But Mark cannot resist his murderous compulsion and finally films his own death.

Red Ensign

Michael Powell

A Clydeside shipbuilder risks his business to develop a new design, but his board will not back him. Rather than risk defeat, he forges a signature to gain extra finance and is arrested, but the new ship is a success. Filmed partly on location in Glasgow, and with a dynamic performance by Banks, the film struck an unusual note of topicality after the Depression.

Return to the Edge of the World

Michael Powell

A return visit to the island of Foula, with members of the original cast and crew of The Edge of the World, including Powell, John Laurie, Grant Sutherland, Sydney Streeter and Frankie Reidy Powell. In the form of a prelude and epilogue to the 1940 version (62 minutes) of this 1937 film.

Rynox

Michael Powell

- (Short film)

A businessman is threatened by a mystery stranger and later found dead, but the insurance inquiry reveals that he had invented his assailant.

Something Always Happens

Michael Powell

A carefree young motor salesman falls in love with a business tycoon's daughter, who introduces him to her father without revealing who she is. But the tycoon is not impressed by his plan for a new chain of petrol stations, so he sells the idea to a rival concern.

The Battle of the River Plate

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

The hunt for the German ?pocket battleship', which had been attacking merchant ships in the Atlantic early in World War II, leads a squadron of British cruisers into a fierce battle, before the Graf Spee takes refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo. The script was partly based on Captain Dove's account of being captured by the Graf Spee, whose captain is portrayed with quiet ...

The hunt for the German ?pocket battleship', which had been attacking merchant ships in the Atlantic early in World War II, leads a squadron of British cruisers into a fierce battle, before the Graf Spee takes refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo. The script was partly based on Captain Dove's account of being captured by the Graf Spee, whose captain is portrayed with quiet dignity, leading up to his decision to scuttle the ship.

The Boy Who Turned Yellow

Michael Powell

A schoolboy suddenly turns yellow while travelling on the underground and is later visited by an alien, Nick, who emerges from the family television and takes him on a tour of the Tower of London. Caught and accused of treason, he is about to be beheaded when he manages to get home with Nick's help, and return to his original colour.

The Edge of the World

Michael Powell

Inspired by the evacuation of St. Kilda, Powell created two families who stand for the two factions of the remote island of Hirta. The Mansons want to stay and eke out a living in the traditional ways, while the Grays conclude the time has come to seek a better life on the mainland, working on the new trawlers. Andrew Gray wants to marry Ruth Manson, but fate steps in: Ruth's b...

Inspired by the evacuation of St. Kilda, Powell created two families who stand for the two factions of the remote island of Hirta. The Mansons want to stay and eke out a living in the traditional ways, while the Grays conclude the time has come to seek a better life on the mainland, working on the new trawlers. Andrew Gray wants to marry Ruth Manson, but fate steps in: Ruth's brother Robbie dies while racing against Andrew up to the top of the cliff.

The Elusive Pimpernel

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Sir Percy Blakeney poses as a fop in the entourage of the Prince of Wales, but secretly helps smuggle refugees from the Revolutionary Terror out of France, pitting his wits against Chauvelin. Originally conceived as a musical, but finally made as jokey period drama.

The Fire Raisers

Michael Powell

A fire investigator builds up a large business and marries the daughter of a Lloyds underwriter. He also runs up big betting debts and goes into partnership with an arsonist in an attempt to pay them off, but when he is unmasked, he goes to his own death, after rescuing another investigator. Based on a typical newspaper headline story of the day.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

General Candy is caught napping on the eve of a Home Guard exercise, and defends himself by recalling his exploits before and during World War I, which lead to an enduring friendship with Theo and a search for his elusive feminine ideal. Accused of being out of date, he acknowledges the need for new tactics to defeat the Nazis, but reaffirms his own values.

The Lion Has Wings

Michael Powell, Desmond Hurst, Adrian Brunel, (Alexander Korda)

A morale raiser, quickly devised and made under Korda's leadership, with Richardson as an RAF officer contemplating the struggle ahead, intercut with documentary material contrasting German regimentation and British tradition, reconstruction of early fighting, training material, and an extract from Fire Over England (William K. Howard, 1937), with Flora Robson as Elizabeth I.

The Love Test

Michael Powell

The directors of a plastics company announce a contest to develop a new fireproof material in order to decide who will become Chief Chemist, and Thompson is afraid of being beaten by Mary. He therefore persuades John to distract Mary by pretending to be in love, but the pretence turns real. Thompson tries to frustrate the romance, but is found out.

The Night of the Party

Michael Powell

A newspaper magnate gives a lavish party in honour of a visiting princess and the guests are invited to play ?murder?. When the lights are turned on again, the magnate is dead and almost everyone present is a suspect. Although his secretary, Guy, is charged, during the trial, Chiddiatt, a foppish ?modern? novelist, becomes deranged and confesses before killing himself.

The Phantom Light

Michael Powell

A new keeper arrives at a lighthouse near where some mysterious sightings have been reported. An undercover naval officer and a female detective appear on the scene, and discover a wreckers' plot to black out the lighthouse and lure ships ashore to be plundered.

The Queen's Guards

Michael Powell

During the trooping of the colour, a young officer recalls in flashback his training at Sandhurst and a Middle East airlift operation, in which he tried to live up to the expectations of his father, now crippled but still living in a military dream-world, fighting battles with toy soldiers and grieving for another son lost in action. He finally comes to terms with his living so...

During the trooping of the colour, a young officer recalls in flashback his training at Sandhurst and a Middle East airlift operation, in which he tried to live up to the expectations of his father, now crippled but still living in a military dream-world, fighting battles with toy soldiers and grieving for another son lost in action. He finally comes to terms with his living son's achievements, listening to the ceremony on Horseguard's Parade.

The Red Shoes

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Marrying Trilby to Hans Christian Andersen, Pressburger's original script about a ballet dancer was written for Korda in the late 30s, but The Archers reclaimed it to create an allegory of art feeding off and ultimately destroying normal life, as Vicky Page achieves stardom under the impresario Boris Lermontov, but is then forced to choose by her composer husband, Julian, which...

Marrying Trilby to Hans Christian Andersen, Pressburger's original script about a ballet dancer was written for Korda in the late 30s, but The Archers reclaimed it to create an allegory of art feeding off and ultimately destroying normal life, as Vicky Page achieves stardom under the impresario Boris Lermontov, but is then forced to choose by her composer husband, Julian, which leads to her death.

The Small Back Room

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Sammy Rice is a crippled scientist specializing in artillery and bomb fuses, embittered by his disability and resentful of the politicking between civilian and military big-wigs that surrounds his work. Not only that, but his overbearing boss R.B. Waring makes confident passes at Susan, with whom Sammy is in love. Sammy's obsessive quest to understand a new German bomb is inter...

Sammy Rice is a crippled scientist specializing in artillery and bomb fuses, embittered by his disability and resentful of the politicking between civilian and military big-wigs that surrounds his work. Not only that, but his overbearing boss R.B. Waring makes confident passes at Susan, with whom Sammy is in love. Sammy's obsessive quest to understand a new German bomb is intertwined with his tortured love for Susan.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Michael Powell

- (Short film)

A ballet created in Stuttgart, where Heckroth now worked, based on the story used as the basis of Paul Dukas's scherzo, which accompanies Disney's version in Fantasia, although Powell's film owes nothing to either.

The Spy in Black

Michael Powell

During World War I, a German officer infiltrates the British naval base at Scapa Flow, not realising that his contact has been discovered and replaced by a British agent. Although they seem attracted to each other, Hardt remains committed to his sabotage mission, and ?Joan' to ensuring it fails.

The Tales of Hoffmann

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Offenbach's last opera, based on eerie stories by the master of the supernatural tale, E.T.A. Hoffmann, who is featured as the hapless poet, eternally deceived in love - first by the inventor of a mechanical doll with whom he falls in love; then by a Venetian courtesan and her protector; and finally by a dying singer under the influence of the sinister Dr. Miracle.

The Thief of Bagdad

Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan, (Zoltan Korda), (William Cameron Menzies), (Alexander Korda)

A reworking of the same Arabian Nights material on which Fairbanks and Walsh's classic 1924 film was based - about a beggar boy who thwarts the evil Vizier Jaffar, with the help of the magical Djinn he releases - now with more emphasis on spectacle and the use of colour. Impatient with Ludwig Berger's approach, Korda brought in Powell and Whelan to direct separate scenes - main...

A reworking of the same Arabian Nights material on which Fairbanks and Walsh's classic 1924 film was based - about a beggar boy who thwarts the evil Vizier Jaffar, with the help of the magical Djinn he releases - now with more emphasis on spectacle and the use of colour. Impatient with Ludwig Berger's approach, Korda brought in Powell and Whelan to direct separate scenes - mainly with Sabu and Veidt, in Powell's case.

The Volunteer

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

- (Short film)

A recruitment promotion film for the Fleet Air Arm, which capitalised on The Archers' friendship with Ralph Richardson, already serving as a pilot, and contrasted to comic, almost surreal, effect his prewar life as an actor with active service on an aircraft carrier.

They're a Weird Mob

Michael Powell

Nino, a young Italian journalist, comes to Sydney to work on his cousin's Italian language newspaper, only to find that the cousin has fled to Canada, leaving nothing but debts. Nino starts to pay them off and to learn English, discovering Australia and its customs in the process.