Michael Powell

Michael Powell (1905 to 1990) was an English filmmaker whose most celebrated work was made in partnership with Emeric Pressburger under their production company The Archers, where the two wrote, produced and directed a run of classic British films including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann. He entered the film industry in 1925 at the Victorine Studios in Nice, worked as a stills photographer on early Alfred Hitchcock pictures, and made low-budget quota films before his own directing career took hold. His film Peeping Tom (1960) was so vilified on release that it damaged his career, but it is now regarded as a classic. Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese have cited his influence, and in 1981 he and Pressburger received the BAFTA Fellowship.