Recommended Television Programmes

[LMcD]

Thanks, LMcD. I'll have to catch this later, & meanwhile put in a plug for Made in England - The Films of Powell and Pressburger, a fascinating 2 hour-long homage by Martin Scorsese shown later on BBC2 the same evening. Scorsese's main focus is Powell who became a friend and cinematic father-figure to the younger director late in life. There's little footage of Pressburger, a gnomic presence who retains an enigmatic central european aura in the film, but whose sensibility informs all their greatest work, and whose absence may perhaps be felt in Powell's late solo effort, the revolting Peeping Tom. Whenever I'm tempted to feel well-disposed towards the French, I recall Truffaut's dictum that the phrase "British Cinema'" denoted a jarring concept -- an idea amply contradicted of course by a number of gifted auteurs from these islands, and pre-eminently by The Archers themselves.

I really tried to like 'I Know Where I'm Going', but my boat remained resolutely unfloated, I'm afraid.

[smittims]

I've had an on-and-off affair with P&P. I adore I know where I'm Going, A Canterbury Tale (these two I can watch endlessly) , The Tales of Hoffman, The Edge of the World. and Black Narcissus. But I don't care much for The LIfe and Death of Colonel Blimp (maybe it's too much 'of its time' to be relevant now) and I really don't like A matter of Life and Death at all ; I can't understand why it's so highly regarded.

Everything I've seen about Powell himself suggests to me that he was a very odd person: the sort of person who can't fit into ordinary life; maybe that's another way of saying I sense a touch of genius. Maybe cinematic auteurs need to be eccentrics: Tati, Bela Tar, Bergman, Ozu. .

[vinteuil]

I really tried to like 'I Know Where I'm Going', but my boat remained resolutely unfloated, I'm afraid.

... sorry to hear that. There was rather charming piece about it in yesterday's Guardian -

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/18/my-feelgood-movie-i-know-where-im-going

.

[vinteuil]

I really don't like A matter of Life and Death at all ; I can't understand why it's so highly regarded.

.

... ah well - for me it is sublime (and I love Colonel Blimp too)

[smittims]

Thanks for that link, vinteuil, which I would not otherwise have seen .

I think my favourite line is 'If you wanted to commit suicide , why couldn't you do it in Manchester?' .

Steam train buffs, who love to find errors in films, will note that the train taking Joan to Oban is actually an up train (i.e . going in the wrong direction through the Pass of Brander) . They had a lot of trouble getting the light right for that shot , as preserved out-takes reveal, and then only about three seconds were used!

[Maclintick]

... sorry to hear that. There was rather charming piece about it in yesterday's Guardian -

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/18/my-feelgood-movie-i-know-where-im-going

.

Yes, thanks for that link, Vints, esp. as it flags up that I know Where I'm Going is currently available on the I-Player. Will catch up tonight. Another lacuna for me in P&P's oeuvre is The Small Back Room, in which the smouldering chemistry of Kathleen Byron and David Farrar is reignited in a milieu a million miles away from Black Narcissus, and one in which Farrar is not obliged, fortunately, to don the ludicrously unflattering shorts he sports in the Himalayan epic.

BTW, Blimp is also currently on the I-Player as well as I know Where I'm Going , while Black Narcissus, 49th Parallel (score by RVW plus splendid comic turn by Laurence Olivier) & Peeping Tom can all be streamed free on TUBI.

[vinteuil]

one in which Farrar is not obliged, fortunately, to don the ludicrously unflattering shorts he sports in the Himalayan epic.
.

... you are so right : painful for all concerned (I'm surprized his agent didn't object!). Thank you (I think) for the reminder - can't unsee them now

[vinteuil]

I see that this Thursday 21 November evening on BBC4 (button no. 9) they are showing -

8:00 Martin Scorsese remembers... Powell & Pressburger
8:20 I Know Where I'm Going!
9:50 I Know Where I'm Going : Fifty Years On
Documentary exploring the making of P&P's classic romantic comedy, first shown in 1994 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film
10:25 - 01:05am The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

On Saturday 23 November BBC2 are showing A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes

[Serial_Apologist]

I see that this Thursday 21 November evening on BBC4 (button no. 9) they are showing -

8:00 Martin Scorsese remembers... Powell & Pressburger
8:20 I Know Where I'm Going!
9:50 I Know Where I'm Going : Fifty Years On
Documentary exploring the making of P&P's classic romantic comedy, first shown in 1994 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film
10:25 - 01:05am The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

On Saturday 23 November BBC2 are showing A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes

[Sir Velo]

A Canterbury Tale; a film shot through with nostalgia for a vanishing world. The tragic irony, of course, being that Britain's post war planners wreaked far greater havoc on Britain's cities and landscape than the Germans ever did. Powell's film is a salutary reminder to beware the enemy within as much as the foreign foe.

[smittims]

Yes, I love that moment when Alison asks for directions and the lady says (referring to the destruction) 'yes, it's a terrible mess but you get a lovely view of the cathedral'.

A Canterbury Tale is much indebted in details to Humphrey Jennings' documentary Listen to Britain. If I were adept at editing I'd produce a mix of clips from both films. I think one wuld have to know them well to say which bit came from which film.

And what fine music P&P had. IKWIG has a lovely score by 'Allan Gray', the pen-name of Josef Zmigrod, a former Schoenberg pupil .

[Sir Velo]

Yes, I love that moment when Alison asks for directions and the lady says (referring to the destruction) 'yes, it's a terrible mess but you get a lovely view of the cathedral'.
.

I come close to weeping at that point.

[Maclintick]

And what fine music P&P had. IKWIG has a lovely score by 'Allan Gray', the pen-name of Josef Zmigrod, a former Schoenberg pupil .

…& conducted by another Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr, I noticed on the credits watching on I-Player last night.

[smittims]

Aha! Thanks, another reason for watching it again.

[kernelbogey]

I find Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie Cumming quite soothing: the gentle pace of the travel, his quite relaxed accounts of the industrial history he is travelling through, and affectionate description of his day-to-day boating life. A 2021 series is about to come to an end on BBC4 and there are repeats on other channels.

A repeat series (2013) began earlier this evening on BBC4.