BFI Sets Major Powell and Pressburger Retrospective
Naman Ramachandran The BFI has set a major U.K.-wide film celebration of one of the greatest and most enduring filmmaking partnerships in the history of cinema: Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988), best known for iconic films including “The Red Shoes” (1948), “A Matter of Life and Death” (1946) and “Black Narcissus” (1947), the latter of which premiered on Wednesday at Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore as part of Il Cinema Ritrovato, screening from a new 35mm print made by the BFI. From Martin Scorsese to Matthew Bourne, Kate Bush to Tilda Swinton, Powell and Pressburger have influenced creatives for decades and this is the largest and most wide-ranging exploration ever undertaken about the work of the legendary writer-producer-director team. The celebration will kick off this fall with the BFI Distribution re-release of “I Know Where I’m Going” (1945), recently restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation.