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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