person

Michael Powell

The director of The Red Shoes and Peeping Tom, rescued from obscurity by Scorsese, married to his editor, and a standing note-giver on his films: too much red, the wrong gloves, and the ending of After Hours.

colour
director
british
scorsese
influence

Michael Powell (1905–1990) made Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann with Emeric Pressburger, then wrecked his career with Peeping Tom (1960). Scorsese discovered Peeping Tom as a student, met Powell in 1975, and in 1978 put up $5,000 to re-release it "on condition that the poster and print said 'Martin Scorsese presents . . .'" (sos 20).

What he saw in it is the thing that ties Powell to this site's interest in Point of view:

It's as if the process of film-making becomes an accessory to the crime and makes us all feel guilty.

— Scorsese on Scorsese, sos 20

The notes he gave

Powell's real role in Scorsese's films is as the one person who told him when something was wrong, and was usually right.

Mean Streets. A letter in 1975: he liked it, but "I used too much red" (Too much red). Scorsese had got the red from Powell.
Raging Bull. Shown the script, he objected to Jake La Motta reciting Shakespeare: "You can't have him doing that, whether he did it in reality or not, for this film it's just wrong" (sos 77). Shown 8mm tests, he said, "There's something wrong: the gloves shouldn't be red" (sos 80). Raging Bull was shot in black and white.
After Hours. He hated the first ending and proposed the one in the film (Michael Powell wrote the ending).

By then he was family. Thelma Schoonmaker: "I married Michael Powell in 1984" ([[Mary Pat Kelly — Martin Scorsese: A Journey|Kelly]], unpaged). Griffin Dunne remembers him on the After Hours set at all hours in "a butterscotch plaid suit and bright red tie" ([[Dunne on After Hours (2024)]]).

His influence also shows on screen: the projector in the Mean Streets titles recalls Peeping Tom (smc 46; see Mean Streets — the opening).

Related: Martin Scorsese, Colour.

Go on, then

idea Too much red In 1975 Michael Powell wrote to Scorsese to say Mean Streets used too much red. Scorsese had got the red from Michael Powell.
film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Scorsese's studio women's picture: a widow, a kid, a road east, and an argument with every film Alice grew up watching.
scene Mean Streets — Tony's bar Charlie walks into a room lit like hell in slow motion; later Johnny Boy walks in on the downbeat of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' with a girl on each arm. Two entrances, one room, and the camera's opinion of both.
film Mean Streets (1973) Four young men in Little Italy, a debt nobody will pay, and a would-be saint who keeps putting his hand in the fire. Scorsese's first film in his own voice, made in Los Angeles for almost nothing.
scene Taxi Driver — the shoot-out Three men dead in a stairwell, a camera that floats out through the ceiling, and an audience that cheered. Scorsese wanted a catharsis; he got applause, and it frightened him.
film Taxi Driver (1976) A returned soldier drives nights through a city he wants to wash away. Scorsese's first acknowledged masterpiece — and the strongest example here of point of view doing the work of an argument.