THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PRESENTS Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art presents Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger at the Museum of Modern Art from June 21st through July 31st.

In close collaboration with the BFI (British Film Institute), MoMA is proud to present a comprehensive retrospective honoring the legendary filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, creators of such classic films as The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, and Black Narcissus. This series, the largest and most wide-ranging exploration of their work ever undertaken, celebrates Powell and Pressburger’s cultural legacy and enduring influence.

The series features several 35mm prints, as well as new digital restorations of such Powell and Pressburger classics as The Small Back Room, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and The Tales of Hoffmann. Of special interest to cinephiles is a section devoted to Michael Powell’s early work as a director in the UK’s “quota quickie” sector, low-budget films made to satisfy the government’s requirement that a certain percentage of films in theaters be of British origin. The program includes all 13 of Powell’s quota quickies known to exist, from Rynox (1931) to The Man Behind the Mask (1936), in newly remastered editions from the BFI National Archive. Many of these films will be screening in the US for the first time.

Rarely screened films from Powell’s late period will include Oh . . .Rosalinda!!, The Battle of the River Plate, Peeping Tom, and his long-unavailable 1963 adaptation of Bela Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle. The latter two titles are newly restored by the BFI National Archive and the Film Foundation.