This article was written by Anthony Miglieri
The Gene Siskel Film Center has teamed with the British Film Institute to present the works of cinema’s foremost filmmaking twosome, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The Film Center received close guidance from Thelma Schoonmaker, Powell’s widow and Martin Scorsese’s editor since Raging Bull (1980). Following the already-sold-out screening of The Red Shoes (1948) on Saturday, October 5, Schoonmaker will join an in-person conversation about the legacy of the writer-director duo, known as “the Archers.”
Entitled “Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger,” the series includes 11 films released between 1943 and 1960, such as A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), and Peeping Tom (1960). The Film Center has also programmed two screenings of Made in England: the Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024), a Schoonmaker-and-Scorsese-produced documentary featuring archival footage and interviews with other renowned directors.
“Cinema Unbound” launches October 2 with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). Covering 40 years in the life and military career of the fictional Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey), this film was dubbed “England’s greatest film ever” by The Atlantic. Although Colonel Blimp is the oldest movie of the series and the longest of the Archers’ career at two hours and 43 minutes, time has not dulled its saber.
In fact, Powell and Pressburger may well have sprayed this film with age repellant, because its primary preoccupations are the passage of time and the divides between generations. The opening follows a group of young British soldiers on the eve of World War II. Inspired by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they decide to start fighting six hours early. But Major-General Wynne-Candy, bellowing from behind walrus mustache and “bay window” belly, insists on the old way: “War starts at midnight!”
Colonel Blimp then retreats to 1902 to show us how the intervening four decades littered this man’s Royal Army uniform with decorations. For his valour in the Second Boer War, Clive earns the Victoria Cross. At the close of World War I, he attributes the Allied victory to “clean fighting” in the face of the Central Powers’ inhuman tactics. With the Second World War in sight, he believes honorable warfare will again lead England’s side to victory. But, like every generation before him, his values finally pass their “Use-by” date.
Clive claims not to understand the young “gangsters” who seek to break the rules of war, but he forgets that he too was a wily soldier who woke his superiors from their naps and mischievously caused international incidents. War, in its violent and frivolous ways, buries the humanity that connects generations.
Colonel Blimp also believes it is this same humanity that crosses the invisible borders of countries in conflict, represented by Clive’s friendship with the German Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The two meet as foes in a sword duel but soon become friends as they nurse their injuries. World War I forces another barrier between the Englishman and the German, which collapses once they reconnect afterward. Powell and Pressburger make it clear: Without the will of politicians, people are just people, not soldiers.
The pair also share an infatuation with Edith (Deborah Kerr), an English teacher who marries Theo. The Archers depict another painful act of time, unrequited love, by having Kerr portray two more characters throughout the film, Barbara and Angela. Clive cannot help but see Edith’s face in other women, speaking to both his lovesickness and Edith’s sentiment about the evolving opportunities for women in the early 1900s.
Edith avoids becoming a duchess by teaching English, but she eventually marries Theo and dies at an early age. Barbara leaves life as a field nurse to marry Clive, but she too passes away before her time. Angela emerges as the most independent of the trio, acting as Clive’s confidant and defying her boyfriend, a British lieutenant. Although hardly a feminist statement, Colonel Blimp offers a more positive trajectory for its female characters than it does for the male ones.
This film offers no indication that future generations of men will stop cycling one after another, evolving only to adapt to the new methods and technologies of war. If Major-General Wynne-Candy had been born centuries earlier, his traditional outlook on battle might have remained relevant his whole life; this is not the case amid the march of the twentieth century.
At the time of Colonel Blimp’s release, neither Major-General Wynne-Candy nor the Archers knew World War II would produce the atomic bomb, but we can imagine the title character greeting the Cold War with disillusionment at the murderous capacity of mankind. And yet, multiple generations of men have already adapted to the nuclear age, tipping the scales back and forth so as to frighten one another without blowing up the world.
But Powell and Pressburger also have affection for the gentle push and pull of time, for that common humanity that waits to be unearthed. Just look to the warm craft of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, swelling with Technicolor, music, and humor. Admire the lovely and quaint sets representing the battlegrounds of World War I. Relish in some of the most elegant time lapses in cinema, as new hunting trophies and placquards demarcate the passing years on Clive Wynne-Candy’s walls.
Just as the Major-General does at the end of this film, the Archers salute the audience as they pass by, accepting the inevitable passage of time while offering this film and its wisdom to generations ahead.
Tickets to “Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger" are available online.
Did you enjoy this post? Please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support!