The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) [Criterion Collection]

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943.

Directors : Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast : Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, Roland Culver, James McKechnie, Albert Lieven, Arthur Wontner, David Hutcheson, Ursula Jeans, John Laurie, Harry Welchman, Reginald Tate, A.E. Matthews, Carl Jaffe, Valentine Dyall, Muriel Aked, Felix Aylmer, Frith Banbury, Neville Mapp, Vincent Holman, Spencer Trevor, James Knight, Dennis Arundell, David Ward, Jan Van Loewen, Eric Maturin, Robert Harris, Theodore Zichy, Jane Millican, Phyllis Morris

SYNOPSIS

Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stirring masterpiece like no other. Roger Livesey dynamically embodies outmoded English militarism as the indelible General Clive Candy, who barely survives four decades of tumultuous British history, 1902 to 1942, only to see the world change irrevocably before his eyes. Anton Walbrook and Deborah Kerr provide unforgettable support, he as a German enemy turned lifelong friend of Candy’s and she as young women of three consecutive generations—a socially committed governess, a sweet-souled war nurse, and a modern-thinking army driver—who inspire him. Colonel Blimp is both moving and slyly satirical, an incomparable film about war, love, aging, and obsolescence, shot in gorgeous Technicolor.

IMDB

Newly remastered 2013 edition
Release Date: 19 Mar 2013

Two DVD Special Edition Features:
- New digital master from the Film Foundation’s 2012 4K restoration
- Audio commentary featuring director Michael Powell and filmmaker Martin Scorsese
- New video introduction by Scorsese
- A Profile of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” a documentary from 2000
- Restoration demonstration, hosted by Scorsese
- Optimism and Sheer Will, a 2012 interview with editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Michael Powell’s widow
- Gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production stills
- Gallery tracing the history of David Low’s original Colonel Blimp cartoons

Portrays in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. We meet the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy, a blustering old duffer who seems the epitome of stuffy, outmoded values. Traveling backwards 40 years we see a different man altogether: the young and dashing officer "Sugar" Candy. Through a series of relationships with three women and his lifelong friendship with a German officer, we see Candy's life unfold and come to understand how difficult it is for him to adapt his sense of military honor to modern notions of "total war."

The setting is 1943 Britain. Major General Clive Wynne-Candy, a forty year military officer, is seen by some of his younger eager officers as an old, soft, pudgy man with a ridiculous mustache, he who has outdated ideas of what is required to win the war. But they have no idea of his background and military history, which shaped his outlook and the man he is today, including why he wears a mustache. This history includes a diplomatic row in Berlin over the German view of the British military in the Boer War, his time in the front lines in France during WWI and what he believes was the reason for the end of that war, and his need to reinvent himself over the course of WWII. He is also shaped by his friendship with four specific people, one being Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, a German officer with whom he had an inauspicious inaugural meeting in 1902. The other three are the significant women of his life: Berlin based English schoolteacher Edith Hunter, Red Cross nurse Barbara Wynne, and Angela "Johnny" Cannon, his personal driver during WWII.
~Huggo

Clive Candy V.C. has fought in the Boer War and the first world war. He still believes he can win any fight with honour and maintaining "gentlemanly conduct". It takes an old German friend of his to point out how much the rules have been changed when fighting the Nazis. We follow this delightful gentleman through his life and the pursuit of his (various) ideals.
~ Steve Crook

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