Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger

Exeter Phoenix

The season in Exeter, peaks with a magical, immersive screening of The Red Shoes at Exeter Cathedral.

Director of the Exeter Phoenix, Patrick Cunningham said: “This season of film produced by Exeter Phoenix with support from the BFI has large national significance and it is ​significant to be bringing such important experiences, like The Red Shoes, to the region.”

Enveloped in the splendor of Exeter’s gothic landmark, Exeter Cathedral, dancers will perform, fizz will be served and you can expect to find a festive atmosphere with plenty of sparkle – before the film even begins. A special introduction will be delivered by Pamela Hutchinson, the leading expert on The Red Shoes, to mark the occasion and offer insight into a true cinematic masterpiece.

For an extra special night, or for the full Christmas Party experience, guests can select Premier Experience tickets.

Pre-Feature talk: In conversation with Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

Plymouth Arts Cinema

Plymouth Arts Cinema is hosting a multi-venue season of beautiful, dark and mysterious films, talks, workshops and events inspired by and culminating in an immersive screening of Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes in December with a newly commissioned dance work from Barbican Theatre.

The season will take inspiration from The Red Shoes and will revisit classic films, show new representations of dance on screen, and invite special guests to share their love and curiosity for these perfect cinema mavericks.

Details for all events can be found at https://plymouthartscinema.org/event-attribute/powell-pressburger/

Associate Professor of Filmmaking at the University of Plymouth, Mark Carey, will introduce ‘Powell & Pressburger’s crowning achievement’ A Matter of Life and Death, discussing its origins, production and cultural significance. David Niven plays a British airman who survives a plane crash and falls in love with an American radio operator (Kim Hunter), only to be summoned to the afterlife by a heavenly ‘Conductor’ (Marius Goring). But is heaven just a hallucination brought on by brain injury?

Described by Martin Scorsese as “an audacious film” that is “romantic, daring and beautiful” and by Mark Kermode as “one of the greatest movies ever made”, it has been referenced or riffed on by Aardman, the Harry Potter series, BBC’s Big Train, Marvel, Pet Shop Boys, Phil Collins, and appeared on British stamps and at the opening of the 2012 Olympics.

A darkness swirls at the centre of a world-renowned dance company in director Luca Guadagnino’s ambitious, dark and feminist re-imaging of Dario Argento’s sublime Suspiria. Unfolding in Berlin in the 70s, it follows Susie Bannion an ambitious young dancer auditioning for a place in a prestigious school. Students are disappearing, and its apparent that some kind of ancient violence lives in the school’s walls. With an eerily brilliant score by Thom Yorke and an earthy, muted colour palette of greens and pale pinks, Guadagnino has made a spellbinding look at corruption, innocence, and female power that expertly blends filmmaking, dance and performance.

It is impossible to imagine the world of Black Swan without the fever-fuelled influence of The Red Shoes.

Introduced by Anna Bogutskaya. Anna is an author, critic, film programmer, podcaster and creative producer. She is co-founder of the horror-film collective The Final Girls, writes widely for BBC Culture, Sight and Sound, The Guardian and her book, Unlikeable Female Characters, has been recently published. 

Introduced by Judith Noble

Powell and Pressburger weave their course of true love through flashes of surrealism, a life-threatening whirlpool and an ancient curse, disarming and enchanting in equal measure. But this is a film where small moments count the most – a cigarette passed between two windows or a slip on a ladder – as they build by stealth into something overwhelming. By the end we are left breathless and desperate to book the next night train and ferry to Mull.

Celebrating the intoxication of dancing feet, Barbican Theatre presents a new dance performance featuring Tap, Flamenco and Street dance – the footwork will lead you toward the brilliance of Powell and Pressburgers’ Red Shoes.