Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Sep 18-Nov 20, 2024

The British Film Institute, SIFF, and Greg Olson Productions present 10 restored Powell and Pressburger films weekly on Wednesdays from September 18 to November 20 at SIFF Cinema Egyptian.

The wellsprings of myth, magic and Neo-Romantic modernism surge through the spellbinding films of Powell and Pressburger. The legendary writing-directing team, known as the Archers, set a dazzling high standard for breathtaking beauty and thematic daring, in films that reveal the mystical power of nature and stir our hearts, minds and souls. The Archers champion the liberated freedom of thought, artistic expression and choices in love, often centering on spirited female characters.

Series Pass: $125 | $85 Members
Pass provides access to all in-person Enchanted Evenings screenings, September 18-November 20 at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. Screening of Raging Bull (October 10, SIFF Cinema Uptown) is also included with pass.

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The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Tales of Hoffmann, Peeping Tom, and the entire Archers canon have charmed and inspired film artists like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Greta Gerwig, and Tilda Swinton. In addition to the Archers’ artistic genius, Scorsese feels their passion. The way their films can seem thrillingly out of control, “not the emotions of the characters, but the emotions of the people who made the films. Their passion is out of control.” 

Thelma Schoonmaker, the late director Michael Powell’s wife, Martin Scorsese’s triple Oscar winning editor (44 years), and internationally renowned cinematic treasure, will be here to present Powell’s favorite film, A Matter of Life and Death, on Wednesday October 9. Powell chose to appear with this glorious film at his 1989 Egyptian Theater SIFF tribute.

And Thursday October 10 at the SIFF Cinema Uptown Theater, Schoonmaker will present the restored Scorsese masterpiece Raging Bull, which earned her her first Oscar and Robert de Niro his second (Best Actor). She will discuss some of the most stunningly cinematic editing ever created, how Powell and Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp inspired De Niro to bulk up for his role, and detail Powell's collaborative contribution to Raging Bull. This extra special added night is free to Enchanted Evenings pass holders.

Series curated and written by Greg Olson.

Free Opening Night doughnuts generously provided by Mark Klebeck of Top Pot Doughnuts on September 18.

Tova Gannana, poet, film curator and teacher, will provide essays on all the films.

Powell & Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

United Kingdom | 1943 | 164 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

September 18, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

On the British World War II home front an aging gentleman soldier (Roger Livesey), and a brash young one (James McKechnie), learn how to most effectively fight battles of love and war. Mysteriously, a woman Livesey encounters at various stages of his life seems to be the same woman (Deborah Kerr). This is Thelma Schoonmaker Powell’s (Powell’s widow, Scorsese’s triple-Oscar editor) favorite film, not least for its ingenious flashback structure. With Anton Walbrook.

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Powell & Pressburger: A Canterbury Tale

United Kingdom | 1944 | 125 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

September 25, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Like modern-day Chaucer’s seekers on the Pilgrims Way to the Canterbury Cathedral, two young soldiers (Sgt. John Sweet, Dennis Price) meet a woman (Sheila Sim) in the dark, and later confront a perhaps dangerous magus-like landsman who might help enact their spiritual destinies.

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Powell & Pressburger: I Know Where I’m Going!

United Kingdom | 1945 | 92 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

October 2, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

A brash status-obsessed woman (Wendy Hiller) heads north to marry into corporate wealth. But stormy weather strands her on a tiny Hebridean isle, where the landscape, and the alluringly simple life of the locals, seem magical. Are she and the local laird (Roger Livesey) part of an ancient legend? Where is she going?

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Powell & Pressburger: A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)

United Kingdom | 1946 | 104 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

October 9, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Michael Powell’s favorite film makes reality fantastical, as a pilot (David Niven) bails out without a parachute, having fallen in love with radio operator Kim Hunter’s voice. Thelma Schoonmaker scheduled to attend.

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Powell & Pressburger: Black Narcissus

United Kingdom | 1947 | 100 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

October 16, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

In the high Himalayas Anglican nuns (Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron and company) try to establish a convent school, but the natives’ earthy ways, and the erotic fires of human nature, are seductive. Can “civilization” tame timeless forces? Red lipstick as rebellious liberation.

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Powell & Pressburger: The Red Shoes

United Kingdom | 1948 | 133 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

October 23, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

The Archers’ most famous film feverishly accompanies a young ballerina’s (Moira Shearer) rise to fame. Dedicated to Art, she’s tempted by earthbound love (composer Marius Goring), but her red shoes dance her on and on. The film that launched ballet dancers of all genders.

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Powell & Pressburger: The Small Back Room

United Kingdom | 1949 | 106 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

October 30, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

A scientist (David Farrar) harmed physically and emotionally by the war struggles to keep himself together. His girlfriend (Kathleen Byron) helps, but he’s in danger of disappearing into his nightly whisky bottle. What has he got to lose? He’s just the man to confront an unexploded bomb on a deserted beach. Director Michael Powell knows his suspense: he devised the first Hitchcock Climax for his friend Alfred’s Blackmail, 1929.

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Powell & Pressburger: Gone to Earth

1950 | 111 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

November 6, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

A nature girl (Jennifer Jones) of the Welsh hills is courted by a pious vicar (Cyril Cusack) and tempted by a roguish squire (David Farrar). Amidst an evocatively rendered sense of place, sacred and profane love entwine in the Celtic twilight.

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Powell & Pressburger: The Tales of Hoffmann

United Kingdom | 1951 | 138 min. | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

November 13, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Set to Jacques Offenbach’s enchanting music, an archetypal Poet (Robert Rounseville) courts women, his muses (Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina), in various lands and times, ever pursued by his nemesis (Robert Helpmann). Delectably intoxicating.

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Powell & Pressburger: Peeping Tom

United Kingdom | 1960 | 101 min. | Michael Powell

November 20, 2024

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

A psychologist experiments on his young son, who grows into a gentle, photography-obsessed man (Carl Boehm) who lives to see fear on others’ faces. Can we sympathize with a murderer? Powell calls this a “tender film,” full of empathy for a twisted soul. With Moira Shearer.

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