A Note on English Filmmaker Michael Powell

In advance of our new weekly Powell and Pressburger series opening on September 18, series curator Greg Olson reflects on how Michael Powell inspired him, and how they came to be friends:

In school I was an English major, in love with a misty green island layered with age upon age of stirring tales of valor, betrayals, hauntings, and the red red rose of love. Michael Powell was a Romantic Englishman with a Continental flair for fantasy, spectacle, surrealism, and his protean sensibility dreamed and realized some our greatest films.

Michael and I were pen pals (real hand-written letters), and in 1989 I brought him to SIFF for what turned out to be the last major tribute of his life. Michael loved America, our Constitution, and marveled at everything from Snoqualmie Falls and cows in a field, to the Space Needle. For him the universe was mysterious, spiritual, sacred.

He revered Native American culture, and had his wife Thelma Schoonmaker (Martin Scorsese’s editor) read him Chief Seattle’s words. “Our people never forget this world that gave them being. They ever yearn with affection over the living, and return to visit, guide, and comfort them.” Micheal looked at me with his far-seeing blue eyes: “That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?"

Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger opens September 18 at SIFF Cinema Egyptian, with weekly screenings happening on Wednesday evenings through November 20. Series passes and individual tickets available now.

Presented by the British Film Institute, SIFF, and Greg Olson Productions.

Image: still from The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp courtesy of Park Circus ITV