Martin Scorsese enthuses on the films of Powell and Pressburger

"Made in England" is a love letter to two daring British filmmakers

When Martin Scorsese was a boy, the little black-and-white television in his house in Little Italy was a window into the world of cinema. But in the 1950s, American movie studios didn’t license their films for television.

So Scorsese’s earliest introductions to great cinema were often movies made by British studios, who did license to American television. He particularly came to look forward to seeing the logo of a bullseye target covered in arrows. It was the symbol of the production company The Archers, and Scorsese would know he was about to see a film by the inimitable duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

While their films, including “The Red Shoes” and “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” are revered as classics by cinephiles, the names of Powell and Pressburger aren’t as well known as say, Orson Wells or John Ford or Federico Fellini.

A new documentary “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,” aims to rectify that, with an enthusiastic Scorsese on camera guiding the viewer through the duo’s work. The documentary is now out on Blu-ray from Cohen Media Group and is streaming on Turner Classic Movies.

I have to confess that I’m among those who have overlooked the works of Powell/Pressburger until recently. When I sat down to watch 1946’s “A Matter of Life and Death” on the Criterion Channel a few months ago, I assumed I’d be watching a stiff-upper-lip British World War II drama starring David Niven.

It is a World War II movie starring Niven, but the lip is anything but stiff. “Life and Death” is a baroque and romantic fantasy about an airman who unexpectedly survives a plane crash, and then must petition the guardians of the afterlife to stay on earth. Shuttling between black-and-white and color, full of whimsical touches like a giant escalator that connects Earth to the afterlife (possibly the inspiration for Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”), it’s an utterly delightful film that is defiantly, ecstatically unrealistic. As Scorsese says in the documentary, one hallmark of a Powell/Pressburger film is that sense of experimentation. “You got the sense that anything could happen.”

“Made in England” is an unabashed love letter from Scorsese to his inspirations, and the filmmaker is an engaging and enthusiastic companion walking the viewer through the ups and downs of the Powell/Pressburger career. It’s an astonishing run - who could imagine the same filmmaker would make “The Red Shoes,” “Black Narcissus” and “Peeping Tom”?

At times, the movie feels like a “Powell/Pressburger 101” class with Scorsese as the instructor, enthusing over each of the films and showing how they influenced his own work. The duel in “Blimp,” for example, in which the camera focuses on the preparation for the contest and then drifts away just as the swordplay starts, was a direct inspiration for the championship fight in “Raging Bull.”

On a deeper level, their films inspired Scorsese to be bold in the types of films he made, to make not just “Goodfellas” and “Casino” but “After Hours,” “Silence” and “Hugo.” Late in his life, Powell became a friend and mentor to Scorsese, and there’s a photo in the film of Powell visiting the set of “King of Comedy.”

Devoted fans of Powell and Pressburger might be a little disappointed that “Made in England” so briskly covers their filmography – it’s clearly meant as more of an introduction to their work for the uninitiated than a deep dive. But those uninitiated will walk away with a list of great movies to catch up with.