Arrows of Desire: The Films of Powell & Pressburger

November 19–December 30, 2016

The witty, daring, and lavish films of writer-director-producer duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, including the influential Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, and A Matter of Life and Death.

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  • The Tales of Hoffman

  • The Spy in Black

  • The Red Shoes

  • Black Narcissus

  • Gone to Earth

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Oh . . . . Rosalinda!!

    • Friday, December 30 1 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1955

    Imported Print 

  • The Tales of Hoffmann

    • Friday, December 23 7 PM
    • Thursday, December 29 1 PM
    Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
    United Kingdom, 1951

    Digital Restoration

  • The Red Shoes

    • Saturday, November 26 3 PM
    • Wednesday, December 28 1 PM
    Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
    United Kingdom, 1948

    Digital Restoration

    Recommended for ages 10 & up

    Ballerina Moira Shearer must choose between love and art in this ravishing melodrama. “No flatscreen TV will ever do it justice—see it in the theater” (New York).

  • The Small Back Room

    • Sunday, December 18 4:30 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1948

    Imported Print

    An embittered World War II bomb-disposal expert is tapped to conquer a sinister new German booby trap in a claustrophobic, expressionist film noir that includes “Powell’s most erotically eloquent lovers” (David Thomson).

  • Black Narcissus

    • Saturday, November 19 8 PM
    • Saturday, December 17 3:30 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1947

    Imported Print

    This tale of nuns in a remote Himalayan convent reaches delirious heights of psychosexual melodrama, thanks in large part to Jack Cardiff’s Oscar-winning cinematography.

  • Gone to Earth

    • Thursday, December 15 7 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1950

    Restored Print

    Jennifer Jones stars as a beautiful and free mountain lass caught between a kindly parson and a leering squire in a masterpiece of Technicolor splendor, based on a Victorian-era potboiler. “Visually spellbinding” (Time Out).

  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

    • Sunday, December 11 3 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1943

    A career officer and lifetime bumbler recounts his adventures in this mocking send-up of the military upper crust. “The greatest English film ever made” (New Yorker). “Disgraceful” (Winston Churchill).

  • A Matter of Life and Death

    • Friday, November 25 3 PM
    • Saturday, December 10 3:30 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1946

    Archival Print

    World War II fighter pilot David Niven is caught between a black-and-white heaven and a glorious Technicolor earth in this odd and compelling hybrid of romantic fantasy and wartime propaganda.

  • A Canterbury Tale

    • Wednesday, December 7 7 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1944

    Imported Print

    Three modern pilgrims almost accidentally retrace the ancient pilgrim’s path to Canterbury in an idyllic wartime ramble, one of Powell and Pressburger’s most personal films. “One of the richest and strangest treasures in British cinema” (David Thompson).

  • 49th Parallel

    • Sunday, December 4 6:30 PM
    Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
    United Kingdom, 1941

    Imported Print

    A band of stranded Nazi sailors make their way across Canada in this wartime propaganda feature, which earned Pressburger an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard star.

  • I Know Where I’m Going!

    • Sunday, November 20 4:45 PM
    • Saturday, December 3 3:30
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1945

    Recommended for ages 12 & up

    Powell and Pressburger’s most romantic, lyrical film sets a love affair against the vast beauty of Scotland’s Hebrides islands. “One of the finest of all screen romances” (Village Voice).

  • Contraband

    • Friday, December 2 6:30 PM
    Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
    United Kingdom, 1940

    Imported Print

    A Danish sailor (Conrad Veidt) is on the trail of illegal contraband (and Valerie Hobson) in this wartime thriller, tinged with both the whimsical and the nightmarish. “Playful and provocative” (Ian Christie).

  • The Spy in Black

    • Sunday, November 27 2:30 PM
    Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
    United Kingdom, 1939

    Imported Print

    Conrad Veidt plays a Nazi submariner hiding out in the Scottish isles as he plots to sink the British fleet in this “Hitchcockian blending of humor and thrills” (William K. Everson).