SUBJECTS

Blimp, Colonel (Fictitious character) -- Drama, Patriotism -- Drama, Soldiers -- Great Britain -- Drama, World War, 1914-1918 -- Great Britain -- Drama

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
United Kingdom, 1943
featuring

Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, Roland Culver,

A dubiously boastful British officer recounts his life and career from the Boer War through World War II in Powell and Pressburger’s mocking send-up of the English military upper crust, based on an old newspaper cartoon series. Termed both “the greatest English film ever made” (The New Yorker) and “disgraceful” (Winston Churchill), Blimp traces the history of modern English warfare through the unreliable recollections of a career officer and lifetime bumbler, from his hot-headed youth to his more mature years, when he’s just full of hot air. Entirely stagebound, shot on increasingly elaborate sets, this imperial(ist) fantasy was The Archers’ first Technicolor work.

Jason Sanders
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • Michael Powell
Cinematographer
  • Georges Périnal
Print Info
  • Color
  • DCP
  • 163 mins
Source
  • Park Circus
Additional Info
  • Restored by the Academy Film Archive in association with the BFI, ITV Studios Global Entertainment Ltd., and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by The Material World Charitable Foundation, the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, Cinema per Roma Foundation, and The Film Foundation
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp documents  

Matters of life and death : the films of Michael Powell (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, James Quandt, 2002

The life and death of Colonel Blimp (program note), Toronto International Film Festival, John Boorman, 1998

Legendary filmmaker Michael Powell in person! (flyer), California State University, Sonoma, 1997

A production of the Archers: the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (program note), Film Forum (New York), 1995

Powell and Pressburger: the best of British (article), Art Institute of Chicago. Film Center, Ian Christie, 1986

The life and death of Colonel Blimp (program note), San Francisco International Film Festival, 1986

Preview Dec. 31 - Feb.26 (program note), American Film Institute, 1981

Michael Powell (article), Films In Review, William K. Everson, 1980

Sixty-five years of British cinema: The life and death of Colonel Blimp (program note), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Manny Farber, 1971

The life and death of Colonel Blimp (program note), University of Illinois Film Society, T. J. Reiss, 1966

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