In my trivial opinion, you must stop and then listen if you ever encounter Martin Scorsese lecturing on movies. While he is surely one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, he is also one of the most knowledgeable movie scholars, and that is why you should check out documentary film “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”, where he gives a 2-hour lecture on the exceptional career of two prominent figures of the British Cinema during the 1940-1950s.

They are Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and it is still amazing to see how much their movies have inspired Scorsese’s works, most of which surely feel quite different from the works of Powell and Pressburger on the surface. While many of Powell and Pressburger’s works are refined studio films, most of Scorsese’s works are quite gritty and realistic in contrast, but Powell and Pressburger’s works have actually exerted a steady influence over Scorsese’s artistic style and sensibility for many years, and Scorsese is glad to show more of his longtime fascination and admiration toward many of their masterpieces.

 When Powell and Pressburger came across each other around the late 1930s via legendary movie producer/director Alexander Korda, they could not be possibly more different from each other. While Powell was your average British dude who had established his directing career during last several years at that time, Pressburger was a Hungarian Jewish screenplay writer who had to move to UK due to the rise of Nazi Germany, but they instantly clicked well with each other in their first collaboration, and that was the beginning of many productive years between them.

When the country went into the war with Nazi Germany in 1939, Powell and Pressburger were driven to make propaganda films including “49th Parallel” (1941), which incidentally won a Best Story Oscar for Pressburger. Thanks to the critical and commercial success of that classic film, they could form their own production company together, and that allowed them to have the total artistic freedom over their next several films including “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943), which incidentally give me my first exposure to the artistry of Powell and Pressburger. When I watched it in 2003, I was only 20, but the movie reminded me that I should have some more understanding and compassion on those stiff old people who were once as youthful as I was at that time. As watching the excerpts from that great film shown in the documentary, I felt more need to revisit it sooner or later, because, after all, I am now as old as its hopelessly romantic but ultimately reserved hero in the middle of the story.

As a guy who has known and lived with movies much more than many of us, Scorsese enthusiastically explains to us the greatness of Powell and Pressburger’s works – and why they have been so special to him for many years. Even when he watched their works via a small black and white TV during his childhood period, the sheer artistry of their works impressed and enthralled young Scorsese, and he kept watching their works even while becoming one of the most promising young American filmmakers in the early 1970s.

Around that time, Powell was nearly forgotten along with his collaborator after he got unjustly lambasted for his exceptionally disturbing thriller film “Peeping Tom” (1960), but Scorsese eventually met him for asking many questions about what he made along with Pressburger, and Powell subsequently became a lifelong mentor to Scorsese in addition to going through the belated period of re-discovery and re-appreciation. Besides, Scorsese also introduced Powell to his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who eventually became Powell’s last wife before his death in 1990.

While introducing Powell and Pressburger’s works one by one, Scorsese sometimes acknowledges how their works actually influenced some of his notable works. So impressed by how Powell and Pressburger used red color in many of their works such as, yes, “The Red Shoes” (1948), Scorsese used a lot of red lighting in “Mean Streets” (1973), though Powell found it rather excessive. In case of the boxing sequences in “Raging Bull” (1980), Scorsese was actually inspired a lot by how Powell and Pressburger went for more style and emotion during that famous ballet sequence in “The Red Shoes”, and that aspect is quite evident to us when the documentary makes a comparison between these totally different works.

“The Red Shoes” was surely one of the highest points of Powell and Pressburger’s joint career, but, sadly, the following later years were a downhill for both of them as frankly pointed out by Scorsese in the documentary. While there were some high points like “The Tales of Hoffmann” (1951), Powell and Pressburger eventually reached to the point where they could not work with each other anymore, and that was the sad ending of their prime period, though, as shown from their archival interview footage clips, they remained friendly to each other for the rest of their life despite that.     

In conclusion, “Made In England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”, directed by David Hinton, is highly recommendable for anyone interested in movies, and it is still an entertaining guide even if you are quite familiar with the works of Powell and Pressburger like me. Seriously, you can never go wrong with Scorsese or Powell and Pressburger, and I assure you that the documentary will not disappoint you at all.