An Oscar and Bafta winning filmmaker will visit the Electric Picture House Cinema in Wotton-under-Edge on Wednesday, November 27th, to introduce a documentary on the work of her late husband.
Thelma Schoonmaker is best known for her decades-long collaboration, as editor, with Martin Scorsese – she first worked with him on Who’s That Knocking on my Door, in 1967. She was also married to the celebrated British director Michael Powell, and along with Scorsese, has worked extensively to share and promote his work – which includes classics like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death.
Martin Scorsese first encountered the films of Powell and producer Emeric Pressburger when he was a child, sitting in front of the family TV. When their famous logo came up on screen, Scorsese says, “You knew you were in for fantasy, wonder, magic – real film magic.”
In the documentary Made in Britain: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, he tells the story of his lifelong love-affair with their movies.
“Certain films you simply run all the time, and you live with them,” Scorsese says. “As you grow older, they grow deeper. I’m not sure how it happens, but it does. For me, that body of work is a wondrous presence, a constant source of energy, and a reminder of what life and art are all about.”
Drawing on a rich array of archive material, Scorsese explores in full the collaboration between the Englishman Powell and the Hungarian Pressburger – two romantics and idealists, who thrived in the face of adversity during World War II but were eventually brought low by the film industry of the 1950s.
Mr Powell died in 1990 and was buried at the Holy Cross Church in Avening, near Gloucester, where he and Thelma were married.
Thelma Schoonmaker will introduce the film Made in Britain (12A) on Wednesday 27 November at 7.45pm and take questions afterwards. Tickets can be booked at wottoncinema.com, or by calling the box office on 01453 844601.
