Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire Faculty of Creative Technologies Innovation in Cinematic Expression: How Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger Communicate and Interrogate the Mental Trauma of a Protagonist By Dan Seymour Submitted to the Faculty of Creative Technologies in candidacy for the Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Film and Television Production, Faculty of Creative Technologies 2021 Declaration of Originality This dissertation is submitted by the undersigned to the Institute of Art Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire in partial fulfillment of the examination for the BA (Hons) in Film and Television Production. It is entirely the author’s own work except where noted and has not been submitted for an award from this or any other educational institution. Signed: Dan Seymour Page | 2 Acknowledgements Tom Kennedy Paul Freaney IADT Library JSTOR.org Page | 3 Contents • Declaration of Originality…………………………………………… 2 • Acknowledgements………………………………………………….… 3 • Contents……………………………………………………………………. 4 • Pictures Included……………………………………………………….. 5 • Introduction………………………………………………………………. 6 • Chapter 1: A Matter of Life and Death……………………….. 8 • Chapter 2: Black Narcissus………………………………………… 17 • Chapter 3: The Red Shoes………………………………………….. 27 • Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 40 • Bibliography……………………………………………………………….. 43 • Filmography…………………………………………………………..…… 44 Page | 4 Pictures Included Figure 1, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 2, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 3, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 4, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 5, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 6, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 7, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 8, Black Narcissus (1947), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 9, Black Narcissus (1947), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 10, Black Narcissus (1947), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 11, Black Narcissus (1947), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 12, Black Narcissus (1947), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 13, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 14, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 15, Nosferatu (1922), photo credit to Prana Films, YouTube Figure 16, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 17, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 18, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 19, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Figure 20, The Red Shoes (1948), photo credit to The Archers; J. Arthur Rank Page | 5 Introduction British director Michael Powell began his renowned collaboration with the Hungarian screenwriter-cum-producer Emeric Pressburger in 1939 with the thriller A Spy in Black. However the duos legendary production company ‘The Archers’ sporting the iconic red-blue bullseye would not be officially birthed until their 1942 propaganda piece, One of our Aircraft is Missing.1 The pair would go onto collaborate on 16 further feature films but it could be argued that their most influential period of filmmaking was between the years 1946 and 1948. In this short period they produced and directed three films; A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), all of which with British director of photography, Jack Cardiff. The pair would, with these films, solidify their unique and antithetical style of filmmaking to other British pictures of that era2. Over the course of this dissertation, I will discuss in detail the aforementioned trilogy of films and analyze just one of the predominant ways they diverged from British filmmaking norms: their in-depth depictions of psychological trauma. While they were both credited as writer/director, their true dynamic has long since been established with Powell having directed each film and Pressburger providing the screenplay. For the sake of this analysis, the title of the Archers will refer not only to Powell & Pressburger but to their frequent partners such as Jack Cardiff, Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth. In the systematic exploration of each of the films in question, we will identify how these different artists worked in tandem with Powell & Pressburger to interrogate and communicate the pscyhes of the films’ protagonists. We do this not only to reveal the symbolic and subtextual methodology by which they carried this out but ultimately to expose an observable evolution in their experimentation with psychological themes as they became more prominent in the British film industry. 1 Harris, Scott Jordan. “Directors: Powell and Pressburger.” Directory of World Cinema: Britain, edited by Neil Mitchell and Emma Bell, vol. 14, UK, Intellect Ltd, 2012, p. 58. 2 Ibid, p.58 Page | 6 Chapter 1 explores how Powell & Pressburger convey the guilt of the protagonist through symbolism and the device of the two worlds in A Matter of Life and Death (1946). I discuss the how importance of colour or the lack thereof is used to establish the dual realities of the film and the elements of production design that contribute to this effect. I also refer to Jack Cardiff’s innovative use of POV shots and how it solidifies the subjective nature of the story by putting us in the protagonist’s head. Chapter 2 deals with Powell & Pressburger’s depiction of repression in Black Narcissus (1947) and how it is conveyed through mood and subtext. There is much discussion of the idea of a mirror character for the protagonist through which darker ideas about the protagonist’s psyche can be conveyed. I return to the use of Technicolor and how their use of it has evolved. I analyse the efficacy of the ‘constructed’ studio based sets and their possibility as a means of expression. Chapter 3 continues my examination of the trends and evolutions in Powell & Pressburgers portrayal of trauma. This analysis focuses on The Red Shoes (1948), reading it as a tragedy of emotional abuse. I explore the interplay between the protagonist’s reality and fairytale and how this can be viewed as a coping mechanism. I highlight the parallels in set design between this film and that of the German Expressionist era and take a final look at Technicolor and camera operation as means of further expression. Finally I identify the trend in the differing psychological arcs of the three protagonists discussed in the dissertation. Page | 7 Chapter 1 A Matter of Life and Death: Depicting Guilt in War Time Figure 1 Page | 8 “This is the story of two worlds, the one we know and another that exists only in the mind of a young airman who’s life and imagination have been violently shaped by war…” It is with this disclaimer that Powell & Pressburger’s seminal 1946 film, A Matter of Life and Death (AMOLAD) opens. At once establishing the documentarian inflections that will permeate the film and planting the flag of its subject matter firmly in the realms of the psychological. This quirky opener is a microcosm of the conflict at the heart of the story and thusly, in the mind of our hero, Peter Carter. A conflict of two opposed ideologies: patriotism and romanticism, resulting in tremendous, if externalized, survivors guilt. In so doing, AMOLAD wears its divided heart on its sleeve. It is not a stretch to say that this is Powell and Pressburger’s most literal and overt depiction of the human psyche. The subject of the human mind never appears quite so textually anywhere else in their filmography. However, through further analysis, AMOLAD reveals itself to be just as subtle and idiosyncratic as any other film in the Archers canon. With that, I can think of no better place to start our exploration of how Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger use the technical and design aspects of filmmaking to express the mind on screen. Powell & Pressburger, co-wrote the screenplay for AMOLAD so it is on the page that they begin to paint the picture of Peter D. Carter’s psyche. As stated above this is a unique case where the plot of the film so explicitly references the psychology of the protagonist. Therefore our analysis can start with the script and Peter’s characterization. From the first scene, Peter is presented as an ideal British soldier, settling his affairs and facing death with militaristic decorum. However he is also a poet with dreams, hopes and emotions. These two contradictory sides of him will provide much of the conflict for the story. On one level, Peter, having survived an impossible fall, wants to live and pursue a love life with June but on another subconscious level, he feels he must join his wingman, Bob who is waiting for him in Peter’s own construction of the afterlife. In this way, the set up for the plot is analogous of Peter’s survivors guilt and his struggle to overcome it. The juxtaposition of the two sides of his personality is manifested in the Lee Wood House scene as a squad of British soldiers rehearse a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The troops are stand-ins for Peter himself and as they are all in a similar way, military-artists. A vignette plays out here when one soldier turned actor reads the part of Bottom with a loud flat tone (‘like a gangster’) before being encouraged by the director to give it more emotion and flamboyance.