POWELL & PRESSBURGER BOX SET (VOLUME 1) [8 DVDS]

[5657]

Stock Status: In Stock

$89.95

Genre: Art House

Country: UK

THE RED SHOES (1948)

Powell and Pressburger, who called their unique creative partnership The Archers, were no strangers to controversy. Each film they made together aimed it's barb at complacency and tackled a new creative challenge. They intended for this story, of a ballerina's life backstage, to turn into a manifesto for the claims of art over mundane life. Through a young dancer's eyes, unforgettably played by Moira Shearer, we meet a young composer, played by Marius Goring, and we enter a ballet company under the leading dancer and choreographer Robert Helpmann.

At the center of the company is the malevolent charming impresario Boris Lermontov. Lermontov lives through his creations. People and relationships are ruthlessly subordinated to a drive that inevitably reminds us of the drive to make films. Under the authoritarian rule this charismatic ballet impresario, his proteges realize the full promise of their talents, but at a price: utter devotion to their art and complete loyalty to Lermontov himself. Under his guidance, the young ballerina is poised for superstardom, but earns Lermontov's scorn when she falls in love with the composer of "The Red Shoes," the ballet Lermontov is staging to showcase her talents.

This seminal dance film, created Powell and Pressburger, in which an impresario takes a ballerina under his wing, deftly combines interpretive dance with drama. This acclaimed adaption of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale results in a marked triumph of artistic collaboration and modernity. More than any other film, THE RED SHOES deals with the dangerous, magical process by which art is distilled from preparation and effort.

DVD FEATURES

DVD 1

Original Fullframe Version

English audio

Optional French subtitles

Introduction by Bernard Tavernier (French with English subtitles)

Trailers

DVD 2

"Memories of Michael - Episode 1" Featurette (English with optional French subtitles)

"The Daring of an Adventurer" Interview with Bernard Tavernier (French with optional English subtitles)

Red Shoes Profile (English with optional French subtitles)

"A Step into the Dance" (French with optional English subtitles)

48-page liner notes booklet with Photos and essays (In French only)

LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943)

Roger Livesey brilliantly portrays British officer Clive Candy, through the trials and tribulations of three wars, three loves and a lifelong friendship across enemy lines. During the Boer War, Candy is sent to Berlin to trap a German spy. There he befriends a German Officer, Theo (Anton Walbrook), who marries the girl (Deborah Kerr) Candy is in love with.

During the First World War, Candy marries a girl who resembles his lost love and helps Theo - now a POW - to be repatriated. Candy comes back in the Second World War as a Brigadier General and once again encounters Theo. On joining a Home Guard exercise, Candy is captured, however, and the two are forced to either aid or betray each other…

DVD FEATURES

DVD 1

Original Fullframe Version

English audio

Optional French subtitles

Introduction by Bernard Tavernier (French with English subtitles)

Trailers

DVD 2

"Memories of Michael - Episode 2" Featurette (English with optional French subtitles)

"The Daring of an Adventurer" Interview with Bernard Tavernier (French with optional English subtitles)

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP Profile (English with optional French subtitles)

"The Making of an Englishman" (English with optional French subtitles)

48-page liner notes booklet with Photos and essays (In French only)

BLACK NARCISSUS (1947)

British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger once again deliberately courted controversy and censorship with their 1947 adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron play the head nuns at an Anglican hospital/school high in the Himalayas.

The nuns' well-ordered existence is disturbed by the presence of a handsome British government agent (David Farrar), whose attractiveness gives certain sisters the wrong ideas. Meanwhile, an Indian girl (Jean Simmons) is lured down the road to perdition by a sensuous general (Sabu). While Kerr would seem most susceptible to fall from grace --we are given hints of her earlier love life in a long flashback--she proves to have more stamina than Byron, who delivers one of moviedom's classic interpretations of all-stops-out, sex-starved insanity.

The aforementioned flashback was removed from the US release version of Black Narcissus so as not to offend the Catholic Legion of Decency. While the dramatic content of the film hasn't stood the test of time all that well, the individual performances, production values, and especially the Oscar-winning Technicolor photography of Jack Cardiff are still as impressive as ever.

DVD FEATURES

Original Fullframe Version

English audio

Preface by Martin Scorsese (English audio)

Introduction by Bernard Tavernier (French with English subtitles)

Trailers of 3 Powell and Pressburger films

DVD 2

"Memories of Michael - Episode 3" Featurette (English with optional French subtitles)

"Daring with an Aventuer" Interview with Bernard Tavernier (French with English subtitles)

Profile of Black Narcissus (English with optional French subtitles)

Painting With Light (English with optional French subtitles)

This is Color Anamorphic short documentary (English with optional French subtitles)

48-page liner notes booklet with Photos and essays (In French only)

49TH PARALLEL (1941)

At once a compelling piece of anti-isolationist propaganda and a quick-witted wartime thriller, 49th Parallel is a classic early work from the inimitable British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. When a Nazi U-boat crew, headed by the ruthless Eric Portman, is stranded in Canada during the thick of World War II, the men evade capture by hiding out in a series of rural communities, before trying to cross the border into the United States.

Both soul-stirring and delightfully entertaining, 49th Parallel features a colorful cavalcade of characters played by larger-than-life actors Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook, and Leslie Howard

DVD FEATURES

DVD 1

Original Fullframe Version

English audio

Optional French subtitles

Introduction by Bernard Tavernier (French with English subtitles)

Trailers

DVD 2

"Memories of Michael - Episode 4" Featurette (English with optional French subtitles)

"The Daring of an Adventurer" Interview with Bernard Tavernier (French with optional English subtitles)

Preface by Martin Scorsese (English audio)

We also carry POWELL & PRESSBURGER BOX SET VOLUME 2.

POWELL & PRESSBURGER BOX SET (VOLUME 1) [8 DVDS]

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Product 406 of 652 in category Art House

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POWELL & PRESSBURGER BOX SET (VOLUME 1) [8 DVDS][5657]Stock Status: In Stock

$89.95

POWELL & PRESSBURGER BOX SET (VOLUME 1) [8 DVDS]

[5657]

Stock Status: In Stock