By John Corrado

The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto

Director David Hinton’s expansive new documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger offers an absorbing mix of film essay and tribute to these cinematic masters, guided by Martin Scorsese’s enlightening narration.

Hinton’s documentary offers a thorough deep-dive into the work of British filmmaker Michael Powell and Hungarian writer Emeric Pressburger, who teamed up to form The Archers, a production company behind a number of influential Technicolor pictures like The Red Shoes. While Powell would primarily direct, and Pressburger would primarily write the screenplays, they shared directing, writing and producing credits.

Scorsese serves as our guide, with Made in England built around a long-form interview with him that plays alongside archival film footage. The director explains that his relationship with the work of Powell and Pressburger began by watching their movies on TV as a kid, with stations having an easier time getting the rights to British movies instead of American ones.

This led to him obsessively rewatching their operatic Tales of Hoffman whenever it aired, studying the camera movements and how it was made. Scorsese takes time going through each of their collaborations together throughout the 1940s and 1950s, from the initially misunderstood wartime satire of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to the fantastical, life-affirming A Matter of Life and Death.

Scorsese identifies their 1946 romantic fantasy A Matter of Life and Death as the moment when they rejected realism for an embrace of surrealism (to hear Scorsese talk about the symbolism in the film is quite moving), and led to more experimentation in their filmmaking with the ballet sequence in The Red Shoes and a ten minute sequence set to music in Black Narcissus. Powell continued to push boundaries with his solo film Peeping Tom, a Hitchcockian voyeur thriller interrogating his own relationship to the camera that British audiences weren’t ready for in 1960.

Scorsese draws parallels between their work and his own films, such as the duel in Colonel Blimp inspiring how he shot the boxing scenes in Raging Bull (Powell also famously advised Scorsese on the ending of After Hours). Aside from the obvious filmmaking influences, this project is also personal for him on a deeper level, with Scorsese later becoming friends with Powell, who was married to his long-time editor Thelma Schoonmaker. In some ways, Scorsese helped revitalize his standing in Hollywood after The Archers broke apart when financing and profits started to dry up.

Scorsese’s voice is compelling, and his passion for these films is palpable and enthralling throughout, despite the documentary’s lengthy 131 minute running time. If you are a fan of Scorsese and Powell and Pressbirger, Made in England serves as an invaluable film history lesson.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger screens as part of the 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.