Comments on: The Essentials: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger

By: Paula Perez

Paula Perez — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

OK, in general, I really enjoyed this blog, and the interest in the amazing P&P. But seriously – how did you go 4 pages, including long reviews of THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP & BLACK NARCISSUS, and not ONCE mention Deborah Kerr!!?? She played three DIFFERENT roles in COLONEL BLIMP, and the lead in BN! I'm glad you didn't leave out Moira Shearer, but come on!

By: prinslington

prinslington — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

All right all right all right, I'll do it.

A Matter of Life and Death (194something)
Though Richard Attenborough's a bit too ingratiatingly queeney as the guardian angel, and the reversal of Wizard of Oz's color gimmick works less well here, it's hard not to just accept that this is a masterpiece, probably tied with Blimp as the Archers' best. Between Livesy and Niven we have the two best voices in cinema, and each lives up to those gifts with their performances here. The opening scene is one of the greatest of all time, and the ending makes you feel at once both intellectually satisfied and emotionally smitten. How in 194something they got that stairway to move like that still confounds us (bits like that rank this with Murnau's Faust as champions of old school special FX). The Archers at their most imaginative, and most profound.

By: SR

SR — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

What about "The Thief of Baghdad"?

By: Davey

Davey — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

I'll add my voice to the throng in asking how in the world you could have forgotten A Matter of Life and Death, one of their best, most renowned pieces of work?

By: Steve Crook

Steve Crook — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

In "One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing" it was Hugh Burden, not Purden

So where is your commentary on A Matter of Life and Death?

But apart from that lapse, very nice, thank you

Steve

By: ASDFK

ASDFK — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

Really, no "Stairway to Heaven" aka "A Matter of Life and Death"?

Back to film school for you…

By: A. Campbell

A. Campbell — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

uh, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH is awol…

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:25:02 +0000

Great piece, but por que no A Matter of Life and Death?