Powell and Pressburger

Powell and Pressburger were a British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers. They made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. They are now regarded as two of the most significant figures in British cinema.

Birth of The Archers

The pair nicknamed themselves The Archers, and cemented their partnership by adopting a joint writer-director credit for their next film, One of our Aircraft is Missing (1942), which they also produced. From now on they would begin each film with a distinctive archery target logo.

Related Topics:
One of our Aircraft is Missing - 1942 - Archery

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In 1943 they formed their own production company, Archers Film Productions. The company gave them new independence and allowed them to assemble a stable and capable crew around themselves. It would also release their most successful collaborations.

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In a letter to Deborah Kerr, asking her to appear in Colonel Blimp, Pressburger explicitly set out 'The Archers' Manifesto'. Its five points express the pair's intention to make original, relevant and successful films:

Related Topics:
Deborah Kerr - Colonel Blimp

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• We owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss.
• Every single foot in our films is our own responsibility and nobody else's. We refuse to be guided or coerced by any influence but our own judgement.
• When we start work on a new idea we must be a year ahead, not only of our competitors, but also of the times. A real film, from idea to universal release, takes a year. Or more.
• No artist believes in escapism. And we secretly believe that no audience does. We have proved, at any rate, that they will pay to see the truth, for other reasons than her nakedness.
• At any time, and particularly at the present, the self respect of all collaborators, from star to prop-man, is sustained, or diminished, by the theme and purpose of the film they are working on.

There are contemporary echoes in the Dogme 95 manifesto.

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Powell & Pressburger also coproduced a few films by other directors under the banner of The Archers: The Silver Fleet (1943), based on a story by Emeric Pressburger, and The End of the River (1947).

Related Topics:
The Silver Fleet - 1943 - The End of the River - 1947

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