Rich, vivid Technicolor is one of the hallmarks of the most well-known and celebrated of the gorgeous, masterful films from the production team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Archers. From the mid-1940s into the early '50s, almost all of their films were shot in striking 3-strip Technicolor, often by cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Cardiff had been a camera operator for Denham Studios when the American Technicolor Company recruited him as their first technician in Great Britain. He would shoot England's first color film and initially work with Powell and Pressburger as a second unit camera operator on their first Technicolor film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). He would graduate to cinematographer on their second color outing, A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (1946). But there would be a lengthy delay in the production of the second film because of a limited availability of Technicolor cameras and film stock in England at that time.
The Classic Movie Blog Association is hosting
its annual spring blogathon from May 19 – 22. This year’s theme is “Classics for
Comfort,” about films that soothe us in difficult times. Click here for
more info and links to participating blogs.
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When we first began to shelter-in-place in my
area two months ago, I pulled a Marilyn Monroe collection from the shelf. What
could lighten the heart more than frolicking through Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
How to Marry a Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot?
Not much. And so I did. Seems a very long time and lots of movies ago now.
Among the films I’ve watched since then that have given comfort or relief in different ways
are these.
