Mar­tin Scors­ese will nar­rate a doc­u­men­tary extolling Pow­ell and Pressburger’s genius

Well, it’s been just about two weeks since Mar­tin Scors­ese last made head­lines for an act of devout­ly undy­ing devo­tion to clas­si­cal cin­e­ma, so we must be due for anoth­er. Short­ly after announc­ing that his Film Foun­da­tion would launch a free screen­ing room exhibit­ing such gems of the past as Pow­ell and Press­burg­er​‘s romance I Know Where I’m Going, Scors­ese has now announced that he’s already got anoth­er mon­u­ment to his film­mak­ing idols in the works.

The num­ber-one super­fan of Michael Pow­ell and Emer­ic Press­burg­er, the direc­to­r­i­al duo known as The Archers, will nar­rate a new doc­u­men­tary about their life, works, and lega­cy. The as-of-now unti­tled film will be direct­ed by David Hin­ton, but allow Scors­ese a plat­form to speak per­son­al­ly about his long­time con­nec­tion to such mas­ter­pieces as Black Nar­cis­sus, The Red Shoes, and The Tales of Hoff­mann, and then even­tu­al­ly to Pow­ell himself.

The Archers reign supreme over Eng­lish cin­e­ma, hav­ing giv­en the medi­um some of its most rap­tur­ous expres­sions of fan­ta­sy, long­ing, adven­ture, and heart­break with inno­v­a­tive cam­era tech­niques and pro­duc­tion design. Dur­ing a boy­hood spent indoors, Scors­ese fell in love with the movies by see­ing these films, in which it felt like any­thing and every­thing could be made pos­si­ble through sheer tech­ni­cal and cre­ative inspi­ra­tion. In adult­hood, he’d cul­ti­vate a close friend­ship with Pow­ell as a men­tor-turned-peer, and intro­duced him to wife Thel­ma Schoon­mak­er, edi­tor on Scorsese’s films.

The upcom­ing film will col­late a huge array of archival mate­r­i­al from both Scorsese’s col­lec­tion and Pow­ell and Pressburger’s estates, using diary excerpts, audio record­ings, home movies, can­did pho­tog­ra­phy, and film clips to depict these men both as indi­vid­u­als and a grander gal­va­niz­ing force for a gen­er­a­tion of artists. Scorsese’s offi­cial state­ment artic­u­lates the high esteem in which he holds his sub­jects: ​“I still find it extra­or­di­nary that I knew Michael Pow­ell per­son­al­ly for six­teen years – and, through­out that time, he was not only a sup­port, but a guide, push­ing me along, giv­ing me con­fi­dence, keep­ing me bold in my own work. I’ve seen the films that he made with Emer­ic over and over again but the expe­ri­ence of excite­ment and mys­tery that I get from them doesn’t just remain, it deep­ens. I don’t know how it hap­pens but for me, their body of work is a won­drous pres­ence, a con­stant source of ener­gy, and a reminder of what life and art are all about.”

A date for the upcom­ing doc­u­men­tary has yet to be set, but cinephiles around the world won’t miss a chance to sit for a lec­ture from the dean of Amer­i­can film-lovers, already some­what pro­fes­so­r­i­al in the lucid, elo­quent way he explains his admi­ra­tion for the greats. Any­one who’s attend­ed an event in which Mar­tin Scors­ese is giv­en a plat­form to speak at length about any­thing knows what a priv­i­lege it is to share in his enthused pas­sion — spread­ing that to the world is an absolute good.