The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. Their collaborations—24 films between 1939 and 1972—were mainly derived from original stories by Pressburger with the script written by both Pressburger and Powell. Powell did most of the directing while Pressburger did most of the work of the producer and also assisted with the editing, especially the way the music was used. Unusually, the pair shared a writer-director-producer credit for most of their films. The best-known of these are The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
In 1981, Powell and Pressburger were recognised for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious award given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
History
Early films
Powell was already an experienced director, having worked his way up from making silent films to the First World War drama The Spy in Black (1939), his first film for Hungarian émigré producer Alexander Korda. Pressburger, who had come from Hungary in 1935, already worked for Korda, and was asked to do some rewrites for the film. This collaboration was the first of 19, most over the next 18 years.
After Powell had made two further films for Korda, he reunited with Pressburger in 1940 for Contraband, the first in a run of Powell and Pressburger films set during the Second World War. The second was 49th Parallel (1941), which won Pressburger an Academy Award for Best Story. Both are Hitchcock-like thrillers made as anti-Nazi propaganda. For these three films, Powell is the credited director (also producer on 49th Parallel), while Pressburger is credited with the screenplay:
- The Spy in Black (1939)
- Contraband (1940)
- 49th Parallel (1941)
Birth of The Archers
The pair adopted a joint writer-producer-director credit for their next film, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) and made reference to "The Archers" in the credits. In 1943 they incorporated their own production company, Archers Film Productions, and adopted a distinctive archery target logo which began each film. The joint credit "Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger" indicates their joint responsibility for their own work and that they weren't beholden to any studio or other producers.
In a letter to Wendy Hiller in 1942, asking her to appear in Colonel Blimp, Pressburger explicitly set out 'The Archers' Manifesto'. Its five points express the pair's intentions:
- We owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss.
- Every single foot in our films is our own responsibility and nobody else's. We refuse to be guided or coerced by any influence but our own judgement.
- When we start work on a new idea, we must be a year ahead, not only of our competitors, but also of the times. A real film, from idea to universal release, takes a year. Or more.
- No artist believes in escapism. And we secretly believe that no audience does. We have proved, at any rate, that they will pay to see the truth, for other reasons than her nakedness.
- At any time, and particularly at the present, the self-respect of all collaborators, from star to propman, is sustained, or diminished, by the theme and purpose of the film they are working on.
They began to form a group of regular cast and crew members who worked with them on many films over the next 12 years. Hardly any of these people were ever under contract to The Archers—they were hired film by film—but Powell and Pressburger soon learnt whom they worked well with and who enjoyed working with them. When Raymond Massey was offered the part of the Prosecuting Attorney in A Matter of Life and Death his cabled reply was "For The Archers anytime, this world or the next."
British film critics gave the films of Powell and Pressburger a mixed reaction at the time, acknowledging their creativity, but sometimes questioning their motivations and taste. For better or worse, The Archers were always out of step with mainstream British cinema.
From the 1970s onwards, British critical opinion began to revise this lukewarm assessment, with their first BFI retrospective in 1970 and another in 1978. They are now seen as playing a key part in the history of British film, and have become influential and iconic for many film-makers of later generations, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and George A. Romero, among others.
Filmography
- The Spy in Black (1939)
- Contraband (1940)
- 49th Parallel (1941)
- One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
- The Volunteer (1944)
- A Canterbury Tale (1944)
- I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
- A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
- Black Narcissus (1947)
- The Red Shoes (1948)
- The Small Back Room (1949)
- Gone to Earth (1950)
- The Elusive Pimpernel (1950)
- The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
- Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955)
- The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
- Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)
- They're a Weird Mob (1966)
- The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972)
Awards, nominations and honours
Four of their films are among the Top 50 British films of the 20th century according to the British Film Institute, with The Red Shoes placing in the top 10.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Award
! Powell
! Pressburger
! Others
|-
| 1937 || The Edge of the World || Presented at the Venice Film Festival || || ||
|-
| rowspan=5|1943 || rowspan=3|49th Parallel || Oscar nominated for Best Picture || || ||
|-
| Oscar winner for Best Writing, Original Story || || ||
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay || || ||<small>Rodney Ackland</small>
|-
| rowspan=2|One of Our Aircraft Is Missing || Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay || || ||
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Effects, Special Effects || || || <small>Ronald Neame<br />(photographic) and<br />C.C. Stevens (sound)</small>
|-
| 1946 || rowspan=2|A Matter of Life and Death || First ever Royal Film Performance || || ||
|-
| rowspan=4|1948 || Winner Danish Bodil Award for Best European Film || || ||
|-
| rowspan=2|Black Narcissus || Oscar winner for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color || || || <small>Alfred Junge</small>
|-
| Oscar winner for Best Cinematography, Color || || || <small>Jack Cardiff</small>
|-
| rowspan=6|The Red Shoes || Nominated for Venice Film Festival Golden Lion || || ||
|-
| rowspan=5|1949 || Oscar winner for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color || || || <small>Hein Heckroth and<br />Arthur Lawson</small>
|-
| Oscar winner for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture || || || <small>Brian Easdale</small>
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Picture || || ||
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Original Story || || ||
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Film Editing || || || <small>Reginald Mills</small>
|-
| 1950 || The Small Back Room || BAFTA Award nominated for Best British Film || || ||
|-
| rowspan=4|1951 || rowspan=4|The Tales of Hoffmann || Oscar nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color || || || <small>Hein Heckroth</small>
|-
| Oscar nominated for Best Costume Design, Color || || || <small>Hein Heckroth</small>
|-
| Cannes Film Festival nominated for Grand Prize of the Festival || || ||
|-
| Winner Silver Berlin Bear from Berlin International Film Festival as Best Musical || || ||
|-
| 1956 || rowspan=4|The Battle of the River Plate || Selected for the Royal Film Performance || || ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1957 || BAFTA Award nominated for Best British Film || || ||
|-
| BAFTA Award nominated for Best British Screenplay || || ||
|-
| BAFTA Award nominated for Best Film from any Source || || ||
|-
| 1959 || Luna de Miel || Cannes Film Festival nominated for Golden Palm || || ||
|-
| 1970 || || Partial retrospective of their films at the National Film Theatre || || ||
|-
| 1972 || The Boy Who Turned Yellow || Children's Film Foundation winner of the 'Chiffy' award for the best film || || ||
|-
| 1978 || || Made Hon DLitt, University of East Anglia || || ||
|-
| 1978 || || Made Hon DLitt, University of Kent || || ||
|-
| 1978 || || Retrospective of their extant works at the National Film Theatre || || ||
|-
| 1980 || || Dartmouth Film Award || || ||
|-
| 1981 || || BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award || || ||
|-
| 1982 || || Awarded Career Gold Lion from the Venice Film Festival || || ||
|-
| 1983 || || Made Fellows of the British Film Institute (BFI) || || ||
|-
| 1987 || || Awarded Hon Doctorate, Royal College of Art || || ||
|-
| 1987 || || Akira Kurosawa Award from San Francisco International Film Festival || || ||
|}
Powell and Pressburger, the people and their films have been the subject of many documentaries and books as well as doctoral research.
An English Heritage blue plaque to commemorate Powell and Pressburger was unveiled on 17 February 2014 by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker at Dorset House, Gloucester Place, London, where The Archers had their offices from 1942–47.