Hot Docs 2024: Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger

Do you like video essays? How about documentaries hosted and produced by Martin Scorsese? If the answer is yes on both accounts, you’ll likely adore Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger. The film is Scorsese’s personal journey through the films of British filmmaking titans Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as “The Archers” (the name of their production company), which have had enormous influence on Scorsese’s own work. Narrated solely by Scorsese and featuring nothing but archival footage, clips of movies, and an interview with Scorsese, Made in England works through the chronology of Powell and Pressburger’s partnership from the early 1940s through to the late 1950s. Scorsese offers a passionate examination of each film while underlining their unique artistic qualities and impact on his own life and work. It’s a tad long—what else is new with Scorsese’s work in the 21st century?—but it’s a delightful journey through the history of cinema for anyone interested in the great films of the past century.

While David Hinton is credited as director and remains an essential part of the film’s direction, Made in England is primarily shaped by Scorsese’s perspective and knowledge. Scorsese provides the voiceover. He provides the analysis. He and Thelma Schoonmaker (another of the film’s producers, and Powell’s widow) shaped the film’s edit and provided their own producer’s cut after Hinton had shared his version. Thus, what we see on the screen is personal to Scorsese and personal to Schoonmaker, even though neither of them share a directing credit with Hinton.

The film is upfront about this being about Scorsese’s personal journey through the works of Powell and Pressburger—and even his personal relationship with Powell the man, as he struck up a friendship with him that lasted from the mid-1970s through the end of Powell’s life. One of the first images on screen is a family photo of an infant Scorsese with his parents. Scorsese tells his familiar story about suffering from asthma as a child and watching old movies on his parents’ black-and-white TV. One of the movies that bewitched him was The Thief of Baghdad (1940), which Scorsese would eventually learn was co-directed by Powell. Even from a young age, Powell’s storytelling captured his imagination. As he grew older, it shaped his approach to editing and image making.

For instance, a key sequence examines the central ballet scene of The Red Shoes, where Powell and Pressburger pull off an unbroken sequence of constructed cinema, where every single visual element on screen is choreographed and executed to work as an artistic whole without dialogue. Key to the sequence—which recreates Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, and shows the central dancer bewitched by the red shoes that help her dance beautifully, but will never let her stop dancing—is that Powell shoots the sequence from the dancer’s point of view. We see the world as she does, and experience visualizations of her emotions during the dance, rather than watching from a theatrical remove.

Inspired by what Powell and Pressburger did, Scorsese filmed a central fight in Raging Bull, where Jake LaMotta defeats Sugar Ray Robinson, in a similar manner, mostly staying within the ring. We don’t get an objective, external point of view, but rather stay with Jake, feeling his punches, experiencing the dizzying energy of the fight as he does. Like in The Red Shoes, the camera becomes a part of the fight, a part of the dance. This sort of insight is the key pleasure of Made in England. With passion and love and an eye for detail, Scorsese unpacks the films of Powell and Pressburger and helps us understand not only their significance to cinema, but their significance to his own journey as an artist.

The film’s structure is not radical. There are many clips from Powell and Pressburger’s films, which shed light on Scorsese’s own interpretations and fascinations. Not every clip is novel or uncovers hidden wisdom; many are the obviously famous moments from the films. But that’s no problem, as the film also works as a primer on an important chapter in cinema, and could serve as an introduction for younger audiences who aren’t familiar with these filmmakers.

If you’ve never seen a film of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Made in England will make you seek them out. If you have seen some, it’ll make you seek out others you haven’t. If you’ve seen them all, it’ll make you revisit them. That alone makes it valuable; Scorsese’s passion makes it insightful.

8 out of 10

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024, UK)

Directed by David Hinton; featuring Martin Scorsese.

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