Capital Celluloid 2023 — Day 301: Sun Oct 29

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell/Pressburger, 1943):
BFI Southbank, NFT1, 5.20pm


This 35mm presentation is part of the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger season at BFI Southbank. The film is also being shown on November 26th (with a Stephen Fry introduction) plus 5th (35mm) and 23rd (digital screening). Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
It's almost impossible to define this 1943 masterpiece by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was ostensibly based on a cartoon series that satirized the British military class, yet its attitude toward the main character is one of affection, respect, and sometimes awe; it was intended as a propaganda film, yet Churchill wanted to suppress it; it has the romantic sweep of a grand love story, yet none of the romantic relationships it presents is truly fulfilled, and the film's most lasting bond is one between the British colonel (Roger Livesey) and his Prussian counterpart (Anton Walbrook). Pressburger's screenplay covers 40 years in the colonel's life through a series of brilliantly constructed flashbacks, compressions, and ellipses; Powell's camera renders the winding plot through boldly deployed Technicolor hues and camera movements of exquisite design and expressivity. It stands as very possibly the finest film ever made in Britain. 
Dave Kehr 

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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