Michael Powell | Author

About the Author

Michael Powell (1905-90) was one of Britain's foremost directors and a three-time Academy Award nominee for The Red Shoes, 49th Parallel, and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing. (Bowker Author Biography)

Works by Michael Powell

Popular Recent

The Red Shoes [1948 film] (1948) — Director/Screenwriter — 157 copies, 4 reviews

A Life in Movies (1986) 118 copies, 2 reviews

Black Narcissus [1947 film] (1947) — Director/Screenwriter — 110 copies, 2 reviews

A Matter of Life and Death [1946 film] (1946) — Producer, Director, and Screenwriter — 91 copies, 4 reviews

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp [1943 film] (1943) — Director; Screenwriter — 81 copies, 1 review

Million Dollar Movie (1992) 73 copies

Peeping Tom [1960 film] (1959) — Director — 70 copies

I Know Where I'm Going [1945 film] (1945) — Director — 65 copies, 1 review

The Red Shoes [novel] (1948) 61 copies, 2 reviews

The Last Voyage of the Graf Spee (1956) 55 copies, 2 reviews

The Thief of Bagdad [1940 film] (1940) — Director — 52 copies, 1 review

The Tales of Hoffmann [1951 film] (1951) — Director — 50 copies

The Battle of the River Plate [1956 film] (1956) — Director & Screenwriter — 40 copies, 1 review

49th Parallel [1941 film] (1941) — Director — 32 copies, 2 reviews

A Canterbury Tale [1944 film] (1944) — Director/Screenwriter — 31 copies, 1 review

One of Our Aircraft is Missing [1942 film] (1942) — Director — 31 copies, 3 reviews

Age of Consent [1969 film] (1969) — Director — 29 copies

Ill Met By Moonlight [1957 film] (1957) — Director — 29 copies, 3 reviews

The Edge of the World: The Making of a Film (1937) 24 copies

The Small Back Room [1949 film] (1949) — Director — 17 copies

The Spy in Black [1939 film] (1939) — Director — 14 copies, 1 review

The Edge of the World [1937 film] (2013) — Director — 13 copies

Michael Powell: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) (2003) 13 copies, 1 review

Contraband [1940 film] (1940) — Director — 11 copies, 2 reviews

A Matter of Life and Death [and] Age of Consent (Double Feature Video) — Director — 9 copies

The Powell and Pressburger Collection [11 films] — Director — 9 copies

Spithead: The Navy's Anvil (1977) 8 copies

They're a Weird Mob [1966 film] (1966) — Director — 7 copies

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp [Faber & Faber screenplay] (1994) — Author — 6 copies

The Battle of the River Plate / In Which We Serve / We Dive at Dawn — Director — 5 copies

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp [and] A Matter of Life and Death (Double Feature Video) — Director — 5 copies

The Lion Has Wings [1939 film] (1939) — Director — 5 copies, 1 review

Gone to Earth aka The Wild Heart [1950 film] (1950) — Director — 4 copies

The Heroes of Telemark / A Matter of Life and Death (2015) — Director — 4 copies

Oh... Rosalinda! [1955 film] (1955) — Director — 4 copies

A Matter of Life and Death: The Book of the Film (1946) 4 copies

The Phantom Light [1935 film] (1935) — Director — 3 copies

The Powell and Pressburger Collection (9 films) (1941) — Director — 3 copies

Red Ensign [1934 film] (1934) 2 copies

Powell and Pressburger [Import anglais] — Director — 2 copies

The Elusive Pimpernel aka The Fighting Pimpernel [1950 film] (1950) — Director — 2 copies

Pursuit of the Graf Spee / The One That Got Away 1 copy

Age of Consent / Cactus Flower (2018) — Director — 1 copy

The Powell and Pressburger Collection 1 copy

The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp / The Day Will Dawn / Secret Mission (Video) — Director — 1 copy

An Airman's Letter to His Mother — Director — 1 copy

The Volunteer — Director — 1 copy

Classic British Thrillers (The Phantom Light / Red Ensign / The Upturned Glass) (2008) — Director — 1 copy

The Battle of the River Plate [and] Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Double Feature Video) — Director — 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Magician [1926 film] (1926) — Actor — 5 copies

Essential Art House, Volume II (Black Orpheus / The 400 Blows / Ikiru / The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp / Pygmalion… (2009) — Director — 2 copies

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing Booklet & Storybook (BFI) (2021) — Contributor — 1 copy

10 unforgettable films. Part 2 : Carve her name with pride -- Genevieve -- Brief Encounter -- The red shoes -- A town… — Director — 1 copy

Femme Fatales #21 (Vol. 5 No. 1) — Featured Artist — 1 copy

Tagged

1940s (28) Anton Walbrook (12) autobiography (19) ballet (19) biography (20) Blu-ray (18) British (10) British cinema (21) British Film (17) cinema (25) core-Movies (10) Criterion (36) Criterion Collection (18) drama (45) DVD (160) Emeric Pressburger (23) England (17) fantasy (17) Feature Film (12) fiction (17) film (87) M-40s (14) Marius Goring (10) memoir (12) Michael Powell (44) Moira Shearer (10) movie (15) movies (19) non-fiction (19) On screen. Britain (13) Powell and Pressburger (38) romance (16) sbought (16) swrap (12) The Archers (16) thomson1000 (10) VHS (10) war (14) War Film (9) WWII (50)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Powell, Michael
Legal name: Powell, Michael Latham
Birthdate: 1905-09-30
Date of death: 1990-02-19
Gender: male
Nationality: UK
Birthplace: Bekesbourne, Kent, England, UK
Place of death: Avening, Gloucestershire, England, UK
Places of residence: Avening, Gloucestershire, England, UK
Nice, France
Education: King's School, Canterbury, England, UK
Dulwich College, London, England, UK
Occupations: film director
screenwriter
novelist
Relationships: Schoonmaker, Thelma (wife)
Pressburger, Emeric (collaborator)

Members

Reviews

A Canterbury Tale by Michael Powell

C (Indifferent).

The war takes three strangers to rural England, where they solve a quaint mystery.

It's weird for a movie to simultaneously be so charming and well-directed, while also being so aggressively off-putting. They've beautifully expressed a shitty point of view.

(Dec. 2024)

½

Flagged

comfypants | Dec 5, 2024 |

The Red Shoes by Emeric Pressburger

T/FB: 2023 movie #124. 1948. A ballet impresario (Walbrook) forces his young talented dancer (Shearer) to choose her art (and, by implication, him) or her husband. Nominated for Best Picture Oscar, won Best Writing Oscar.

Flagged

capewood | 3 other reviews | Jul 29, 2023 |

The Thief of Bagdad by Ludwig Berger

A film starring Conrad Veidt and Sabu (United Artists, 1940).

A thief helps a deposed king meet a princess.

C- (Meh).

They had some big special effects they wanted to get to, and were not concerned with whether the story made sense.

(Apr. 2023)

Flagged

comfypants | Apr 4, 2023 |

The Red Shoes (vhs) by Michael Powell

The story is a romance, with villains and heroes, and a bitter ending, which is in keeping with the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale on which the central ballet performance is based.
The filming is ostensibly of a stage performance, but incorporates "modern new cinematography" for special effects that would be impossible on a real stage.
In 1948 they were probably much admired; now they are a bit cheesy (see "Pied Piper of Hamelin" for similar effects).

Flagged

librisissimo | 3 other reviews | Dec 21, 2018 |

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