Powell & Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
September 18, 2024
Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
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. Be sure to read Tova Gannana's film notes on The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
Free Opening Night doughnuts at the screening generously provided by Mark Klebeck of Top Pot Doughnuts.
Individual Tickets: Select showtime to purchase.
Passes: $125 | $85 SIFF Members - includes full series access
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
British film director Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger (1902-1995) formed the independent production company The Archers (logo of arrow striking target bullseye) in 1941. Their first key masterpiece centers on the England of country gentlemen and gentleman soldiers like esteemed Colonel Clive Candy (Roger Livesey with his delicious husky voice), who lives by rules of fair play and tolerance, in war and love. But now that England is fighting the brutal German Nazis—and Candy’s younger colleagues believe that “Might makes right,” do whatever it takes to win—old rules and (and Colonels) don’t count any more. The film is set during World War II, but its focus is a man’s character, a lifetime of beliefs and feelings, not combat. The Archers show their cinematic wizardry as the aged Candy submerges in a steaming bath and emerges as the brash young soldier he once was. After he fights a duel with charming Prussian officer Theo Kretschmer-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) the two become lifelong friends, despite their nations being at war. With wit and warmth Powell and Pressburger show how opposing elements (old,young; traditional, modern; life, death) can organically grow towards a middle ground of unity. And the Archers’ wise, spirited women, presented as subjects not objects, can catalyze enlightenment. Powell the romantic believes unseen forces are at work in the world, and three significant women in Candy and Theo’s lives are played by one woman (Deborah Kerr). Powell says he was “a dreamy boy,” who, with his artistic collaborator Pressburger, became a visionary of passionate emotion, stirring beauty, wicked humor, nonconformist philosophy, and mystical spirit. The Archers’ Technicolor is the most sublime on the planet, as Powell paints with color, creating nuances of emotion, mood and atmosphere. Thelma Schoonmaker, Michael Powell’s widow and Martin Scorsese’s renowned film editor and collaborator, embraces The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp as her favorite Archers film.
—Greg Olson
- Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Principal Cast: Roger Livesay, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook
- Country: United Kingdom
- Year: 1943
- Running Time: 164 min.
- Producer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Screenplay: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Cinematographers: Georges Perinal
- Editors: John Seabourne Sr.
- Music: Allan Gray
- Filmography: A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948)
- Language: English, German, French