Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

6 Episodes

The greatest directorial partnership in film history, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger gave a much-needed jolt of expressionistic exuberance to the British cinema. While the quintessentially English Powell and the European sophisticate Pressburger may have made an unlikely duo, their contrasting sensibilities came together harmoniously in wondrously imaginative pastoral idylls like A CANTERBURY TALE and I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! The pair reached dizzying new expressive heights when working in Technicolor. As shot by virtuoso cinematographer Jack Cardiff, deliriously stylized fantasias like BLACK NARCISSUS and THE RED SHOES rank among the most glorious visual achievements ever committed to celluloid.

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Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
  • 49th Parallel

    Episode 1

    Directed by Michael Powell • 1941 • United Kingdom
    Starring Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook

    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 Michae...

  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

    Episode 2

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1943 • United Kingdom
    Starring Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr

    Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stirring masterpiece like...

  • A Canterbury Tale

    Episode 3

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1944 • United Kingdom
    Starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price

    Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s beloved classic A CANTERBURY TALE is a profoundly personal journey to Powell’s bucolic birthplace of Kent, England. Set amid the tumul...

  • I Know Where I’m Going!

    Episode 4

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1945 • United Kingdom
    Starring Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey

    In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s stunningly photographed comedy, romance flourishes in an unlikely place—the bleak and moody Scottish Hebrides. Wendy Hiller stars as a headstr...

  • Black Narcissus

    Episode 5

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1947 • United Kingdom
    Starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar

    This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns—played by som...

  • The Red Shoes

    Episode 6

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1948 • United Kingdom
    Starring Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring

    THE RED SHOES, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Tech...