Michael Powell News

Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (35mm, 108 mins.) followed by a press viewing of the exhibition PERSOL MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS

Today the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) announced 2012's Michael Powell Award Competition Jury and the four other juries who will deliberate over the Festival's seven awards. Two of the jurors will also be the subjects of In-Person events that have been newly added to the EIFF programme. Jim Broadbent, Elliott Gould, Gerald Peary and Ewen Bremner are among those chosen to judge awards.

The Museum of Modern Art is a place that fuels creativity, ignites minds, and provides inspiration.

To Save and Project, MoMA's international film preservation festival, celebrates its ninth year with gloriously preserved masterworks and rediscoveries of world cinema. This year's festival comprises over 35 films from 14 countries, virtually all of them having their New York premieres, with some shown in versions never before seen in the United States. Guest presenters include Douglas Crimp, Joe Dante, Walter Hill, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Elaine May, Mario Montez, Thelma Schoonmaker, and Martin Scorsese, and highlights include films by Roger Corman, Forugh Farrokhzad, George Kuchar, Claude Lanzmann, Alberto Lattuada, Louis Malle, Agnes Martin, Georges Méliès, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Jean Rouch, Raúl Ruiz, and Seijun Suzuki.

The Museum of Modern Art will present To Save and Project: The Ninth MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, the annual festival of preserved and restored films from archives, studios, and distributors around the world, from October 14 through November 19, 2011.

The Chicago Dancing Festival, co-produced by internationally renowned choreographer and Chicago native Lar Lubovitch and highly esteemed Chicago dancer Jay Franke, celebrates its 5th Anniversary season with expanded programming to include five days of free dance-related events, in venues throughout downtown Chicago, August 23 - 27, 2011.

Born Georgette Lizette Withers on March 12, 1917 in Karachi, India, she was known as 'Googie' from an early age. Her family returned to England when she was aged seven and she began acting at the age of 12, appearing at the Victoria Palace in The Windmill Man. A student at the Italia Conti Academy of Arts, she was a dancer in a West End production when she was offered work as a film extra in Michael Powell's The Girl in the Crowd (1935). She arrived on the set to find one of the major players in the production had been dismissed, and she was immediately asked to step into the role.

The Chicago Dancing Festival, co-produced by internationally renowned choreographer and Chicago native Lar Lubovitch and highly esteemed Chicago dancer Jay Franke, celebrates its 5th Anniversary season with expanded programming to include five days of free dance-related events, in venues throughout downtown Chicago, August 23 - 27, 2011.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.

The Tony Awards® Admonsitration Committee has announced this year's recipients in three catagories. Among the honorees are a world-renowned playwright originally from South Africa, a longtime Broadway executive, a playwright/activist known for her work in combatting volience against women, a show-business animal trainer, a venerable theatre bookshop, and an organization dedicated to promoting diversity in the theatre, film, and television.

Today, perhaps the greatest gift a Broadway baby could receive was benevolently bestowed upon me in the form of an indepth and revealing discussion with the foremost composer and lyricist of his generation, one of the greatest writers in American history in any medium - the unmatched musical and lyrical genius himself, Stephen Sondheim. In this portion of our complete discussion we discuss his new book, FINISHING THE HAT, as well as take a look back at his legendary career both in Hollywood and on Broadway. Merman to Madonna, Brecht to Barbra Streisand, COMPANY to GROUNDHOG DAY (or not) - we cover it all. See here just a glimpse of the reason why the name Stephen Sondheim means more to musical theatre than any other name in the last fifty years. Plus, his promise to - in his own immortal words from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - 'give us more to see' in the very near future. That moment cannot come soon enough, as any fan of theatre - or art in America, for that matter - can assuredly attest.

President Thomas J. Schwarz, will preside at the 38th Commencement ceremony at Purchase College State University of New York on Friday, May 14 at 1 PM on the West Lawn adjacent to The Performing Arts Center (735 Anderson Hill Road). Degrees will be awarded to approximately 1032 undergraduates and 55 graduate students.

President Thomas J. Schwarz, will preside at the 38th Commencement ceremony at Purchase College State University of New York on Friday, May 14 at 1 PM on the West Lawn adjacent to The Performing Arts Center (735 Anderson Hill Road). Degrees will be awarded to approximately 1032 undergraduates and 55 graduate students.

Carolina Ballet invites you to a special one-night-only screening of the digitally restored and re-mastered print of The Red Shoes, co-directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Carolina Ballet invites you to a special one-night-only screening of the digitally restored and re-mastered print of The Red Shoes, co-directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

David Niven (1910-1983) was an actor of such diverse talents and charm that he is often categorized using clichéd phrases like 'urbane light comedian' or 'leading man.' These descriptions are indeed accurate, but one does not survive before the camera for a half-century on charm alone. The problem-if you can call it that-is that Niven made it all look too easy. Like Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, he took everything in stride, unflappably and (seemingly) effortlessly playing his part, always prepared for whatever came his way. He was, after all, originally a military man by profession. He then chose to 'bum' around America, eventually winding up in Hollywood. Just as his film career began to blossom, he was one of the first to answer Britain's call when World War II broke out, serving on active duty for the duration and rising to the rank of colonel. He even made two propaganda films during brief leaves, including The Way Ahead, which is included in this series. After making his return in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven), he resumed a glorious career in film, theater, television, and writing with his typical debonair insouciance. This series aims to recapture some of the special glory that was David Niven.

David Niven (1910-1983) was an actor of such diverse talents and charm that he is often categorized using clichéd phrases like 'urbane light comedian' or 'leading man.' These descriptions are indeed accurate, but one does not survive before the camera for a half-century on charm alone. The problem-if you can call it that-is that Niven made it all look too easy. Like Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, he took everything in stride, unflappably and (seemingly) effortlessly playing his part, always prepared for whatever came his way. He was, after all, originally a military man by profession. He then chose to 'bum' around America, eventually winding up in Hollywood. Just as his film career began to blossom, he was one of the first to answer Britain's call when World War II broke out, serving on active duty for the duration and rising to the rank of colonel. He even made two propaganda films during brief leaves, including The Way Ahead, which is included in this series. After making his return in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven), he resumed a glorious career in film, theater, television, and writing with his typical debonair insouciance. This series aims to recapture some of the special glory that was David Niven.