Film series at OKCMOA capped by Scorsese’s ‘Made in England’

-- Month-long retrospective of Powell and Pressburger's films will end in January


Throughout December, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Sam Noble Theater has been running a series showcasing the highest drama, the most exaggerated emotion, and the most vivid visual styling of the first half of 20th-century cinema.

But it’s not Hitchcock or Welles or Capra. It’s not Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Stewart. It’s not the “Old Hollywood” majesty that OKC crowds became so familiar with over this summer’s smash hit Edith Head exhibition.

In fact, it’s not Hollywood at all.

It’s the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, two of the most groundbreaking, most gleefully subversive British filmmakers of the 20th century, whose influence has carried through the whole of the cinematic world, even as many modern audiences might not know them at all.

OKCMOA has been screening another of Powell and Pressburger’s greatest achievements each week, with perhaps the pair’s most enduring masterpieces – “Black Narcissus” and “The Red Shoes” – still to come on December 28th and January 4th.

The following week, the series is set to be capped with “Made in England,” a brand new feature documentary recounting the duo’s remarkable work and persistent influence, but more importantly, their creative bond and confident, uncompromising vision.

This new documentary takes us inside the emotionally and visually rich creative world of Powell and Pressburger, exploring their willingness to jump between wry, satirical comedy and heightened, crackling passion or terror.

Their films challenged everything from the conventions of wartime propaganda with “49th Parallel” and “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” to the prudish pearl-clutching of the time with “Black Narcissus” and the romanticism of artistry and obsession with “The Red Shoes.”

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Hi-Resolution grabs taken from the Restored “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” Starring: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, and John Laurie.

They didn’t just imbue their movies with operatic emotion, they conducted them as opera, drawing from symphony composition and ballet. These heightened art forms became vehicles for the pair’s insistence on shucking norms and experimenting with the possibilities of cinema from within a studio system almost constantly unaware of how to handle them.

But “Made in England” isn’t simply a biography. It’s also a deeply personal essay and love letter from the film’s narrator and central insightful mind: the master himself, Martin Scorsese.

Scorsese may well be the world’s single biggest fan of Powell and Pressburger’s work (and that includes Powell and Pressburger themselves,) but he also became a close friend to Michael Powell in the Brit’s latter years, and he continues to embrace the pair’s influence on his own filmmaking even now.

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Martin Scorsese in “Made in England” explains the significance of the Powell and Pressburger films.

Through archival footage, letters, recordings, and, of course, shot after gorgeous, vibrant shot from their films, Scorsese walks us through the lives and joint works of these one-time giants, from their early origins in the 1920s and 30s to their eventual rousing success in the 40s and 50s.

But he also shows clips of his own legendary films, illustrating the palpable inspiration he drew from Powell and Pressburger in works like “Raging Bull,” “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” and “The Age of Innocence.”

It’s a beautiful and clearly effective way to pull in modern American movie audiences that are likely to be far more familiar with Scorsese’s works than with these wild, operatic British films from eight decades past.

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From “Made in England – The Films of Powell and Pressburger”

But Scorsese makes a strong case for the work of Powell and Pressburger to be continuously rediscovered and to be embraced by current generations and young moviegoers right now.

Their films reflected the world of their time, a world beset by war, fascism, and increasingly rampant materialism and monetary power, all issues that we’re staring in the face once again.

But their stories from behind the scenes – the stories that Scorsese recounts like gospels and parables – are about the importance of creative independence and the strength of collaboration and genuine friendship, not to mention the dangers of burnout and creative exhaustion.

Near the end of “Made in England,” Scorsese recalls how important and instrumental Powell and Pressburger’s films became for him and his American contemporaries when they discovered them decades later, unbound by the societal and political complications of their time.

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Scene from “The Red Shoes” by Powell and Pressburger

But it can be just as important to rediscover them right now within the context of our own societal and political complications.

Sometimes, the most important or effective thing is to soften yourself and your ideals in the name of compromise and inoffensiveness. That can be true.

But the films of Powell and Pressburger, and the passion of Martin Scorsese and the countless other artists and icons they’ve inspired reminds us that often it’s much more powerful to trust your own instincts and to believe in your own creativity, even if no one else will.

The Powell & Pressburger Holiday Film Series at OKCMOA continues December 28th with “Black Narcissus” and January 4th with “The Red Shoes.”

“Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” screens Saturday, January 11th at OKCMOA. For showtimes, tickets, and more information, visit okcmoa.com.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.