Few directors have been as open about their influences asMartin Scorsese. FromElia KazantoJohn Cassavetestothe Italian neorealists, there are a variety of filmmakers whom Scorsese has paid homage to. Yet perhaps no other director has had as great an impact on him as the English-bornMichael Powell. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, Powell made a number of features with Hungarian writer-producerEmeric Pressburgerthat were characterized by their bold use of color, fantastical images, and often magical plots. Although, on the surface, you wouldn’t find much in common with Scorsese’s gritty, naturalistic dramas andthe films of the Archers(as Powell and Pressburger were known), their fingerprints are all over his work.
InDavid Hinton’s new documentaryMade in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Scorsese talks extensively about the many ways in which the Archers inspired his movies. One example is his 1980 boxing biopicRaging Bull,which follows the rise and fall of middleweight championJake LaMotta(Robert De Niro). Scorsese drew influence from Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 ballet dramaThe Red Shoesfor the fight sequences, as LaMotta’s footwork in the ring is meant to take on an almost dreamlike quality mirroring what dancer Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) experiences on stage. Yet as Scorsese reveals inMade in England,a jousting scene in the 1943 epicThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimphad a tremendous impact on one crucial boxing match, and not in the way you’d expect.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
This epic tale follows the life of British soldier Clive Candy from the Boer War to World War II. Through romance, friendships, and the challenges of changing times, Candy’s career and personal life reflect the broader changes in British society.
What Is ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’ About?
Drawing its inspiration in part fromDavid Low’sColonel Blimpcomic strip,The Life and Death of Colonel Blimpchronicles 40 years in the life of career British military officer Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey). Told mostly through flashbacks, the film follows the grandiose Candy through the Second Boer War through the beginning of WWII. During that period, he becomes friends with German officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) and falls in love with the beautiful Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr), who ends up married to Theo. Kerr also plays two other women who have crucial roles in Candy’s life: war nurse Barbara Wynne, who he eventually marries, and Angela Cannon, who becomes his driver duringWWII.
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’ Found Inspiration in a Buster Keaton Comedy
Keaton’s 1926 silent comedy couldn’t feel more different than Scorsese’s brutal and unrelenting Jake LaMotta biopic.
Released at a time when both British and American studios were tasked with creating wartime propaganda,Colonel Blimptook a satirical look at England’s militaristic code of honor. Its portrayal of a friendship between a British soldier and a German one was particularly scandalous at the moment the Allies were losing to the Nazis. Though the elderly Candy’s appearance was modeled after Low’s cartoons, audiences couldn’t help but think of British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, who was so outraged by the movie’s content thathe tried to have it banned. A British embargo keptColonel Blimpfrom American screens for two years, and when it finally was seen on the other side of the Atlantic,it was in a shortened version. (The restored 163-minute cut was released byCriterion.) Whatever version Scorsese initially saw had a profound effect, particularly when it came to a boxing scene inRaging Bullthat was less about the match itself and more about its impact on LaMotta.
How Did the WWII Movie Influence Martin Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’?
Early on inThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,Clive gets in trouble for insulting the Imperial German Army, and is forced to fight a duel with a man he has never before met. The first time Clive and Theo see each other is when they’re about to engage in swordplay, and Powell takes his time leading up to the moment the two start fighting. But once the duel begins,Powell uses a crane shot to pull away from the action, going so far as to leave the building entirely to show snow falling outside. When next we see Clive and Theo, they’re in the hospital recovering from their injuries and getting to know each other.As Scorsese points outinMade in England,Powell’s intention in not showing the highly anticipated bout was to say that it wasn’t as important to the story as what came before and after it:Clive and Theo forming their lifelong bond.
Scorsese took a similar approach to shootingLaMotta’s 1949 match againstMarcel CerdaninRaging Bull.The fight comes at a pivotal time for LaMotta, who is making a comeback after being suspended for throwing a fight. Scorsese uses an extended steadicam shot to follow LaMotta from his dressing room where he’s warming up with his brother/manager, Joey (Joe Pesci), through the hallway and into the stadium, where a crowd cheers his entrance. Like the duel inColonel Blimp,there’s a lot of buildup to the match, but very little actual boxing before LaMotta wins the middleweight championship. As with Powell, Scorsese is less interested in the fight itself but rather what it means for his character: LaMotta is making a triumphant return to the ring before forever losing his brother and his wife, Vicky (Cathy Moriarty), through jealousy and rage.
Martin Scorsese Became Friends With Michael Powell After ‘Mean Streets’
Before becoming a filmmaker, Scorsese’s relationship with Powell was purely reverential. After makingMean Streets,the young director became friends with the old master, who had been forced into retirement when his serial-killer-with-a-movie-camera thrillerPeeping Tomwas met with vitriol.Powell became a friend and mentor to his protégé, guiding him through the ups-and-downs of his career, and Scorsese repaid the favor by helping bring his idol’s films back into the public eye throughhis World Cinema project. Their relationship grew closer when Powell fell in love with Scorsese’s longtime editor,Thelma Schoonmaker, with whom he remained married from 1984 until his death in 1990.
The great project of Scorsese’s life —when he’s not making movies— is to preserve the rich history of cinema from around the globe. AsMade in Englandmakes clear, this isn’t just a side hobby, butan acknowledgment that every director working today is the sum total of everyone that inspired them to pick up a camera in the first place.One can only imagine what the films of Martin Scorsese would have looked like had it not been for Powell and Pressburger.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimpis available to watch on Max in the U.S.
