Michael Powell

Birthday: 30 September 1905, Bekesbourne, Kent, England, UK

Birth Name: Michael Latham Powell

Height: 188 cm

The son of Thomas William Powell & Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the South of France (where his parents ran an hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury & Dulwich College he first worked at the National Provincial Bank from 1922 - 1925. In 1925 he joined Rex Ingram making Mare Nostrum (1926). He learnt his craft by working at various jobs in the (then) thriving English studios of Denham & Pinewood, working his way up to director on a series of "quota quickies" (Short films made to fulfil quota/tariff agreements between Britain & America in between the wars). Very rarely for the times he had a true "world view" and although in the mould of a classic English Gentleman he was always a citizen of the World. It was therefore very fitting that he should team up with an émigré Hungarian Jew Emeric Pressburger, a foreigner who understood the English better than they did themselves. Between them, under the banner of "The Archers" they shared joint credits for an important series of films through the 1940s & 1950s. Powell went on to make Peeping Tom (1960) which was so slated by the critics at the time, he couldn't work in England, UK for a very long time. He was "re-discovered" in the late 1960s & after Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese tried to set up joint projects with him. In 1980, he lectured at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He was Senior Director in Residence at Zoetrope studio in 1981. He married Thelma Schoonmaker. He died of cancer back in his beloved England in 1990. Show less «

Everyone has heard of Canterbury if only because they murder archbishops there.

The only genius in films was Walt Disney.

We decided to go ahead with [David O. Selznick] the way hedgehogs make love: verrry carefully!

[of his wife Frankie] In fact, if only I had been the perfect husband, she would have been the perfe...Show more »

[of his wife Frankie] In fact, if only I had been the perfect husband, she would have been the perfect wife. Show less «

For ten years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was ...Show more »

For ten years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was over. The Red Shoes (1948) told us to go out and die for art. Show less «

Of course, all films are surrealist. They are because they are making something that looks like a re...Show more »

Of course, all films are surrealist. They are because they are making something that looks like a real world but isn't. Show less «

[1987] I got my first assignment as a director in 1927. I was slim, arrogant, intelligent, foolish, ...Show more »

[1987] I got my first assignment as a director in 1927. I was slim, arrogant, intelligent, foolish, shy, cocksure, dreamy and irritating. Today, I'm no longer slim. Show less «

I make films for myself. What I express I hope most people will understand. For the rest, well, that...Show more »

I make films for myself. What I express I hope most people will understand. For the rest, well, that's their problem. Show less «

[on Deborah Kerr] Deborah Kerr is enormously sensitive and responds to a director particularly. I th...Show more »

[on Deborah Kerr] Deborah Kerr is enormously sensitive and responds to a director particularly. I think she could have gone on to become a very great actress, but she went on as a contract artist with MGM for just too long. Show less «

The truth lies in black and white.

[interview in Midi-Minuit Fantastique, Oct. 1968] I live cinema. I chose the cinema when I was very ...Show more »

[interview in Midi-Minuit Fantastique, Oct. 1968] I live cinema. I chose the cinema when I was very young, 16 years old, and from then on my memories virtually coincide with the history of the cinema . . . I'm not a director with a personal style, I am simply cinema. I have grown up with and through cinema; everything that I've had in the way of education has been through the cinema; insofar as I'm interested in images, in books, in music, it's all due to the cinema. Show less «

Art is merciless observation, sympathy, imagination, and a sense of detachment that is almost cruelt...Show more »

Art is merciless observation, sympathy, imagination, and a sense of detachment that is almost cruelty. Show less «

[After Peeping Tom (1960)] When they got me on my own [the critics] gleefully sawed off the limb and...Show more »

[After Peeping Tom (1960)] When they got me on my own [the critics] gleefully sawed off the limb and jumped up and down on the corpse. Show less «

Seventy years ago there were men like D.W. Griffith and seventy years later - now - there are not ma...Show more »

Seventy years ago there were men like D.W. Griffith and seventy years later - now - there are not many men like Martin Scorsese. But so long as there is one there will be others, and the art of the cinema will survive. Show less «

[on Walt Disney] He was one of the great innovators of film. One of the things I liked was when talk...Show more »

[on Walt Disney] He was one of the great innovators of film. One of the things I liked was when talkies came in, a lot of the timing of silent films went out of the window and nobody made those marvelous slapstick comedies anymore because there were only verbal jokes. But Disney kept on making those wonderful cartoons for at least another ten years so he kept the whole idea of film comedy and narrative through image alive. People don't realize that they owe an enormous lot to him. Show less «

I am the teller of the tale, not the creator of the story.

The great innovators have always been fearless . . . I have fallen off haystacks, out of trees, over...Show more »

The great innovators have always been fearless . . . I have fallen off haystacks, out of trees, over cliffs. I have been nearly drowned, shot and hanged. I have been in countless car crashes without getting a scratch. I have been alone in an office with Louis B. Mayer. Show less «

My master in film, Buñuel, [Luis Buñuel] was a far greater storyteller than I. It was just that in...Show more »

My master in film, Buñuel, [Luis Buñuel] was a far greater storyteller than I. It was just that in my films miracles occur on the screen. Show less «

Actors and technicians were being demobbed [demobilized] every day. Very soon the only ham actor lef...Show more »

Actors and technicians were being demobbed [demobilized] every day. Very soon the only ham actor left in the combined forces would be General George S. Patton. Show less «

Michael Powell

Michael Powell's FILMOGRAPHY

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