“All this filming isn’t healthy,” says blind but perceptive Mrs. Stephens (Maxine Audley) late in Michael Powell’s resolutely disturbing Peeping Tom, and every aspect of the film’s rigorously self-reflexive construction seems to bear her out. From the opening shot of an opening eye, to the final shot of a blank screen swathed in black and blood-red gel lighting, Peeping Tom obsessively examines the social and psychological ramifications of overactive cinephilia. This situates Powell’s film as a direct precursor to later 1960s autocritiques along the lines of Federico Fellini’s 8½, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, and Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool.
Powell and screenwriter Leo Marks originally wanted to make a film about Sigmund Freud and his theories, but word of John Huston’s upcoming Freud biopic put the kibosh on those plans. So instead they came up with the story of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), who works...
Powell and screenwriter Leo Marks originally wanted to make a film about Sigmund Freud and his theories, but word of John Huston’s upcoming Freud biopic put the kibosh on those plans. So instead they came up with the story of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), who works...
- 5/24/2024
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Stars: Karlheinz Bohm, Maxine Audley, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Brenda Bruce, Esmond Knight, Martin Miller, Michael Goodliffe, Jack Watson, Shirley Anne Field | Written by Leo Marks | Directed by Michael Powell
Originally released 64 years ago (!) and a Martin Scorsese favourite, Peeping Tom has already had a UK release from StudioCanal, with a print restored in association with The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive; and now comes another release, this time in the US courtesy of the Criterion Collection.
My immediate reaction, almost from the opening scene is that for a film that was made so long ago, it has aged extremely well and I imagine it might have seemed quite shocking at the time.
That does seem to be the case as “on its initial release in 1960, Peeping Tom received a savage reception from critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist.
Originally released 64 years ago (!) and a Martin Scorsese favourite, Peeping Tom has already had a UK release from StudioCanal, with a print restored in association with The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive; and now comes another release, this time in the US courtesy of the Criterion Collection.
My immediate reaction, almost from the opening scene is that for a film that was made so long ago, it has aged extremely well and I imagine it might have seemed quite shocking at the time.
That does seem to be the case as “on its initial release in 1960, Peeping Tom received a savage reception from critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist.
- 5/14/2024
- by Alain Elliott
- Nerdly
Stars: Karlheinz Bohm, Maxine Audley, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Brenda Bruce, Esmond Knight, Martin Miller, Michael Goodliffe, Jack Watson, Shirley Anne Field | Written by Leo Marks | Directed by Michael Powell
Released 64 years ago (!!!), a Martin Scorsese favourite, Peeping Tom, is getting a special edition 4K release this year after being restored by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive in association with StudioCanal.
This was a first-time watch for me, and my immediate reaction, almost from the opening scene is that for a film that was made so long ago, it has aged extremely well and I imagine it might have seemed quite shocking at the time.
That does seem to be the case as “on its initial release in 1960, Peeping Tom received a savage reception from critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist.” It then remained...
Released 64 years ago (!!!), a Martin Scorsese favourite, Peeping Tom, is getting a special edition 4K release this year after being restored by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive in association with StudioCanal.
This was a first-time watch for me, and my immediate reaction, almost from the opening scene is that for a film that was made so long ago, it has aged extremely well and I imagine it might have seemed quite shocking at the time.
That does seem to be the case as “on its initial release in 1960, Peeping Tom received a savage reception from critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist.” It then remained...
- 1/29/2024
- by Alain Elliott
- Nerdly
Take a look at more footage from the FX/BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean':
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu,...
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Take a look at more new footage from the upcoming BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX:
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
- 10/28/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
"Black Narcissus", referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir', is the new BBC drama miniseries, based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as "Sister Clodagh and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX:
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, David Farrar,...
"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..."
Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'.
"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...
...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, David Farrar,...
- 10/21/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Classic cinematics from first-rank filmmakers. No ballet or heroism, so not a crowd pleaser, but Michael Powell’s original version of Gone to Earth is another unique Archers creation. Jennifer Jones finally gets to chew on a character role with grit, as a natural virgin/vixen misunderstood by contrasting suitors. David O. Selznick’s revision The Wild Heart is a classic too — of unnecessary meddling.
Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 110, 86 min. / Street Date June 25, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Sybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, Esmond Knight, Hugh Griffith.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
From the novel by: Mary Webb
Music by Brian Easdale
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
This is one beautiful production, one that will thrill Powell & Pressburger fans eager to see all of his films. With his typical cinematic simplicity,...
Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 110, 86 min. / Street Date June 25, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Sybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, Esmond Knight, Hugh Griffith.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
From the novel by: Mary Webb
Music by Brian Easdale
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
This is one beautiful production, one that will thrill Powell & Pressburger fans eager to see all of his films. With his typical cinematic simplicity,...
- 7/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Criterion repackages Jean Renoir’s 1951 classic The River for Blu-ray, one of the master filmmaker’s several titles in the collection (fans may recall that Renoir’s Grand Illusion was the very first Criterion title). A title significant in many respects, being the first Technicolor film in India and Renoir’s first color feature, it’s simplistic beauty has gone on to influence future generations of filmmakers, including its prominently vocal champion Martin Scorsese. It also served as a launching pad for Satyajit Ray, who worked as an assistant on the film, and who would go on to create his own stunning debut four years later with the first chapter of his Apu trilogy, Pather Panchali (1955).
We experience the childhood of Harriet (Patricia Walters) in retrospect, her off-screen adult voice recounting one particular stretch of time while growing up in India with her mother (Nora Swinburne) and father (Esmond Knight...
We experience the childhood of Harriet (Patricia Walters) in retrospect, her off-screen adult voice recounting one particular stretch of time while growing up in India with her mother (Nora Swinburne) and father (Esmond Knight...
- 4/21/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Forty 1940s Films: ‘Black Narcissus
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, and Jean Simmons
UK, 100 min – 1947.
Black Narcissus recreates the western world’s allure for the exotic – with a twist. This is no escapist, romantic drama in the style of Arabian Nights. With Black Narcissus, Powell and Pressburger fill the screen with sexual tension and repressed desire that correlate with Britain’s failed attempts to maintain its empire, post war.
The ‘exotic’ in Black Narcissus are the Himalayas, where five nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) are sent to establish a convent. They arrive to find the palace promised to them, by the Old General (Esmond Knight), to be where the General’s father kept his women. Their first obstacle then seems to be reforming the wild nature of the people they refer to as “children.” Soon though, the nuns are affected by the windy environment,...
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, and Jean Simmons
UK, 100 min – 1947.
Black Narcissus recreates the western world’s allure for the exotic – with a twist. This is no escapist, romantic drama in the style of Arabian Nights. With Black Narcissus, Powell and Pressburger fill the screen with sexual tension and repressed desire that correlate with Britain’s failed attempts to maintain its empire, post war.
The ‘exotic’ in Black Narcissus are the Himalayas, where five nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) are sent to establish a convent. They arrive to find the palace promised to them, by the Old General (Esmond Knight), to be where the General’s father kept his women. Their first obstacle then seems to be reforming the wild nature of the people they refer to as “children.” Soon though, the nuns are affected by the windy environment,...
- 11/30/2012
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Deborah Kerr, pony, Michael Powell on the Black Narcissus set The Criterion Collection has posted a series of images providing a glimpse behind the scenes of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1947 classic Black Narcissus. Set in the Himalayas, this adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel was filmed entirely in Britain, chiefly at Pinewood Studios. Make sure to check it out here. In the beautifully nuanced Black Narcissus, Deborah Kerr stars as an Anglican nun sent to a convent in the Himalayas. The location's rarefied air and the presence of David Farrar brings to the surface the nun's latent ambivalence toward her vows. Tragedy ensues when another nun, played by Kathleen Byron, falls madly in lust/love with Farrar's character. Also in the Black Narcissus cast: Flora Robson, Sabu, Jean Simmons (in heavy makeup as a local girl), and Esmond Knight. For her efforts in both Black Narcissus and I See a Dark Stranger,...
- 7/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Halfway House (1943)
Director: Basil Dearden
A young girl tries to bring her estranged parents back together by contriving a mini-break at a charming Welsh inn. It might sound a bit like The Parent Trap, but The Halfway House is an intriguing but uneven wartime fantasy drama from Ealing Studios. Director Basil Dearden’s film was co-written by Angus MacPhail and Diana Morgan (Went The Day Well?) and also features one of the most grating Welsh accents I’ve ever heard – courtesy of Glynis Johns.
The Halfway House begins with a series of brief vignettes introducing the main characters. There’s young Joanna (Sally Anne Howes), whose bickering parents Richard and Jill (Richard Bird and Valerie White) are on the brink of divorce. A disgraced army officer Fortescue (Guy Middleton) is released from prison, after serving time for pilfering the regimental funds. At a Welsh port, ex-navy captain Harry Meadows...
Director: Basil Dearden
A young girl tries to bring her estranged parents back together by contriving a mini-break at a charming Welsh inn. It might sound a bit like The Parent Trap, but The Halfway House is an intriguing but uneven wartime fantasy drama from Ealing Studios. Director Basil Dearden’s film was co-written by Angus MacPhail and Diana Morgan (Went The Day Well?) and also features one of the most grating Welsh accents I’ve ever heard – courtesy of Glynis Johns.
The Halfway House begins with a series of brief vignettes introducing the main characters. There’s young Joanna (Sally Anne Howes), whose bickering parents Richard and Jill (Richard Bird and Valerie White) are on the brink of divorce. A disgraced army officer Fortescue (Guy Middleton) is released from prison, after serving time for pilfering the regimental funds. At a Welsh port, ex-navy captain Harry Meadows...
- 6/14/2011
- by Susannah
- SoundOnSight
Adrienne Corri (Mrs. Alexander in A Clockwork Orange) in Jean Renoir’s The River The Art Directors Guild (Adg) Film Society and the American Cinematheque (AC) will honor Production Designer Eugène Lourié with a double feature: Andrew Marton’s Crack in the World (1965), starring Dana Andrews and Janette Scott, and Jean Renoir’s classic The River (1951), with Nora Swinburne and Esmond Knight. The screenings will be held on Sunday, June 27, at 5:30 pm. at the Egyptian Theatre. A panel discussion will be held between screenings with panelists Bernard Glasser, producer of Crack in the World as well as Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red [...]...
- 6/11/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ken Annakin, best remembered for directing the big-budget 1965 adventure comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, died of natural causes on Wednesday, April 22, at his home in Beverly Hills. He had suffered a stroke and a heart attack in February, and had been in poor health since. Like fellow British filmmaker Jack Cardiff, who also died on April 22, Annakin was 94. Born Kenneth Cooper Annakin in Beverley, Yorkshire, in England, on Aug. 10, 1914, Annakin began his film career working as a cameraman on training films for the Royal Air Force in World War II. His first feature as a director was the 1947 family vacation comedy Holiday Camp, starring numerous stalwarts of the British film industry, among them Flora Robson, Dennis Price, Esmond Knight, Hazel Court, and Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison as the vacationing Huggetts. The following year saw the release of one of Annakin’s biggest British [...]...
- 4/24/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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