A season of imported and rarely seen 35mm prints of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's work will be part of the Cinémathèque screenings in Hobart, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988) wrote, produced and directed 22 films together and their work was deemed to be one of the greatest collaborations in the history of cinema, unlike anything else to have come out of Britain from the late 1930s to the early 1970s. The duo puzzled critics for most of their working lives but were critically reappraised in the early 1980s and championed by devotees Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese for their "real film magic".
Powell and Pressburger's films combine music, dance, painting, literature and photography, working across a number of familiar genres such as noir, melodrama, the war film, the ballet film, and the murder-thriller. Aesthetically singular, their films melded a quintessential Englishness with a baroque, often dark European sensibility.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Powell's birth, landmark films from his solo career will also screen, including The Edge of the World and The Red Shoes, reconstructed masterpieces such as Gone to Earth, the notorious cult classic Peeping Tom, and Antipodean odysseys such as They're a Weird Mob and the newly restored Age of Consent.
Hobart: State Theatre, 5 - 19 September
Perth: FTI Cinema, 7 - 28 September
Adelaide: Mercury Cinema, 3 - 17 October
Melbourne: ACMI Cinemas, 28 September - 12 October
The National Cinémathèque presents the classics, archival rarities and secret gems of the world's film heritage to Australian audiences, celebrating the diversity of the cinema experience on the big screen - as it was meant to be seen - and features curated seasons that showcase cinema's esteemed filmmakers and artists.
The National Cinémathèque is curated by the Melbourne Cinémathèque and presented by the Australian Film Commission with the assistance of partners across Australia.
See the National Cinémathèque website at www.afc.gov.au/cinematheque for further details and membership information. |
