Author(s): Sam Proctor

Film, TV and Radio

Michael Powell (1905 - 1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902 - 1988), under the umbrella of their production company The Archers, created some of the most innovative and creatively original films of the 1940s and 50s. This partnership, between the quintessentially English Powell and the Hungarian-born Pressburger who made Britain his homeland, made at first predominantly lyrical and visually arresting black-and-white films (including A Canterbury Tale in 1944 and I Know Where I'm Going! in 1945) but are perhaps most celebrated for their work making the very best use of the highly saturated hues and sumptuous nature of Technicolor (Black Narcissus, 1947 and The Red Shoes, 1948).

Arguably their best-known work, A Matter of Life and Death, 1946, combines monochrome and Technicolor to showcase to great effect some of their favourite themes of love, duty and compassion. The duo gave us comedy too, perhaps most notably in their first Technicolor work, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), but even when treated with the lightest of touches the things that bind us inescapably to our fellows are ever present.

Sam Proctor's superbly-researched book guides us film by film through the career of this iconic duo, whose aim was to show us the universal truths about our humanity.