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Powell’s expressionist-hallucinatory adaptation of Bartók features a blazing performance by Ana Raquel Satre as Bluebeard’s bride

The Powell/Pressburger season at London’s BFI Southbank has given us this rediscovered gem from the later works that Michael Powell directed on his own. It is an amazing and expressionist-hallucinatory adaptation of Béla Bartók’s one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle, with original libretto by film critic and theorist Béla Balázs; it was first transmitted in 1963 on West German television, but mostly unseen since then, due to legal issues with the Bartók estate. Now it has been restored under the supervision of Powell’s widow Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese.

Bluebeard’s Castle was originally to be the first part of a double bill directed by Powell; the other half being Bartók’s nightmarish cabaret ballet The Miraculous Mandarin, about a young girl forced by three sinister figures to perform seductive dances at...

Martin Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker have seen more movies than you. Both of them have long been champions of independent and international cinema, and they have each done their part to amplify titles and filmmakers that might be lost in the sea of the commercial American film market. When they're not making movies, they're likely overseeing the restorations of lost classics or recommending great movies you've never heard of on Turner Classic Movies. But they're also constantly incorporating nods and tips of the cap to those films in their own work.

Schoonmaker was in a relationship with celebrated British filmmaker Michael Powell, the co-director (with Emeric Pressburger) of such classics as "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "I Know Where I'm Going!," "Black Narcissus," and "The Red Shoes." Their romance spanned a decade, starting in 1980 and sadly ending in 1990 when Powell died. In a recent interview with Little White Lies,...

On 11 February 2023, the Hungarian State Opera presents a Bartók double bill featuring two of his pieces that enjoyed their world premieres at the Budapest Opera House over a hundred years ago. The Wooden Prince is staged with a new choreography by László Velekei, whereas Bluebeard’s Castle can be seen in the 2018 production by the Danish star director Kasper Holten.

Bluebeard’sCastle. Photo: Valter Berecz

László Velekei, whose career as a dancer, choreographer and director has been intertwined with the Ballet Company of Győr for the past 25 years, is working with the company of the Hungarian National Ballet for the first time. In his interpretation, the tale told by librettist Béla Balázs about the love between the Prince and the Princess, and the Fairy Witch who challenges it, is combined with a sensitive psychological depiction. It thus becomes a certain type of development story, a coming-of-age tale, with impressive sets...

Translated by Andrey Kartashov. Originally published in Outskirts Film Magazine, an English-language biannual magazine of around 160 pages per issue, made up of original essays, interviews, reviews, and a single large dossier, the first of which is devoted to Soviet filmmaker Boris Barnet. It is now available to buy from the Outskirts e-shop.Final films are doomed to failure. Could it be, perhaps, because at that point their directors have broken away from any expectations of what a film “must” be? A plot summary of Boris Barnet’s final film Whistle Stop fits easily into just a few short sentences. The scientist Pavel Pavlovich, member of the Soviet Academy, goes to the countryside for a vacation with his easel and paints. Several seemingly trivial scenes from village life ensue. A tractor runs away from its owner. A friendly bull pays Pavel Pavlovich a visit. Kids next door insist on building a stove.

Following their Main Slate announcement, Film at Lincoln Center has now unveiled the slate of new restorations set to premiere at the 59th New York Film Festival. Featuring work by Mira Nair, John Carpenter, Michael Powell, Lynne Ramsay, Joan Micklin Silver, Melvin Van Peebles, and more, it’s an eclectic lineup of classics and rarities.

“We are delighted to share this year’s particularly strong Revivals lineup,” said Florence Almozini, Flc Senior Programmer at Large. “The section showcases groundbreaking works by John Carpenter, Mira Nair, Melvin Van Peebles, Nina Menkes, Wendell B. Harris Jr., Michael Powell, and more, in masterful restorations. One of the biggest satisfactions of programming Revivals within this festival is looking back at cinematic treasures of the past and seeing their continuity and relevance with today’s cinema. We think this selection is both a celebration and a thought-provoking adventure, and we hope audiences will enjoy exploring it,...

Groundbreaking works by John Carpenter, Mira Nair, Melvin Van Peebles, Nina Menkes and Michael Powell will be featured in the Revivals lineup of the 59th New York Film Festival. These films, which range from historical dramas to pulpy crime thrillers, have been digitally remastered and restored.

Films being highlighted this year include a 4K restoration of Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13,” Powell’s “Bluebird’s Ghost,” Menkes’s “The Bloody Child,” Nair’s “Mississippi Masala” and Van Peebles’s “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.”

“One of the biggest satisfactions of programming Revivals within this festival is looking back at cinematic treasures of the past and seeing their continuity and relevance with today’s cinema,” said Florence Almozini, Flc Senior Programmer at Large. “We think this selection is both a celebration and a thought-provoking adventure, and we hope audiences will enjoy exploring it, whether they are seeing these films for the first or 20th time.