{"id":90,"date":"2015-11-17T16:11:17","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T16:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/?p=90"},"modified":"2015-11-24T16:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T16:51:28","slug":"two-british-film-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/2015\/11\/17\/two-british-film-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Two British Film Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"British<\/a>My fall film appreciation course provides an opportunity to see two films by British directors – David Lean and Michael Powell.\u00a0 Both directors achieved critical acclaim and popularity.<\/p>\n

However, it would be difficult to find any artistic or even British similarity between these two directors.\u00a0 Their differences are so great that one could easily imagine them disliking each other.<\/p>\n

In his epic films such as “Doctor Zhivago” and “A Passage to India,” David Lean reveals his passion for depicting trains crossing a vast, continental space.\u00a0 Lean is unquestionably the film poet of a journey by train.\u00a0 His respectful portrayal of historical and cultural themes reflects his enormous sense of craft and intellectual discipline.\u00a0 Lean spares no financial expense to produce his grand effects and to make it all seem realistic.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>

Julie Christie in “Dr. Zhivago” (1965)<\/p><\/div>\n

Yet, there is an air of contrivance in his work.\u00a0 What David Lean can do with mastery is to take an actual situation and enlarge it enormously through naturalistic<\/u>, cinematic means.<\/p>\n

We are thrilled watching his actors in the locales in which he places them. We are interested in their emotional distress and outbursts.\u00a0 Peter O\u2019Toole in Lawrence of Arabia <\/em>is shameless and almost embarrassing in some scenes.\u00a0 But in the end, we have not really learned anything new about people from a David Lean film, however great the entertainment.\u00a0 They have merely been magnified.<\/p>\n

Michael Powell is in a class by himself.\u00a0 Though quintessentially British in background and manner, Powell had very little interest in the real or actual world.\u00a0 He was not interested in politics, social issues, or the depiction of historical events.<\/p>\n

\"creenshot<\/a>

Deborah Kerr in “Black Narcissus” (1947)<\/p><\/div>\n

What Powell understood completely was the way strong-willed women could be deflected, defeated, or humiliated by masculine egotism.\u00a0 In “The Red Shoes,” the heroine ballerina can only escape by leaping to her death.\u00a0 In “Black Narcissus,” Deborah Kerr is driven to becoming a religious recluse by one man\u2019s fecklessness. \u00a0Even then, she is repeatedly mocked by another man. There is nothing like the psychological novelty of a Michael Powell film.<\/p>\n

Even more astonishing is that Powell\u2019s films do not enlarge the real world as Lean\u2019s films do.\u00a0 Instead, they turn everything familiar into pure fantasy.\u00a0 We always seem to be in a fairy tale in Michael Powell films.\u00a0 In his own words, they bring us to \u201cthe other side of beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are moments in a Michael Powell film that haunt our imaginations.<\/p>\n

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\"rakower\"<\/a>Dr. Benito Rakower was educated at Queens College and Harvard University, where he received a doctorate in the teaching of English. Before getting his degree at Harvard, Dr. Rakower was trained professionally at the piano in German Baroque and French repertoire.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My fall film appreciation course provides an opportunity to see two films by British directors – David Lean and Michael Powell.\u00a0 Both directors achieved critical acclaim and popularity. However, it would be difficult to find any artistic or even British…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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