Master filmmakers Powell and Pressburger return from their much-more-famed stint to make their much-more-underrated "smaller" film "The Small Back Room", a combined thriller/romance in heady expressionistic tones. Emphasis put on the last phrase-work there, this movie is GORGEOUS. It's not really noir, but the lighting and staging put the genre to shame.
Among many surprises here are some of the actors of Black Narcissus taking on new amazing roles, a mysterious German boobie-trap, and an expressionistic interlude that matches the opera from Red Shoes but is structured more like The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra. The timing of this movie is great, too, as long involved sequences showcasing Sammy's alcoholism and doubt stretch to painful lengths, whereas his technically much longer scene defusing a bomb is so tense that it seems to whip by in a second.
Fans of the Archers should pretty much make it a point to see this. People unfamiliar with them could possibly get overwhelmed by all the promises of Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, and A Matter of Life or Death, but could start here for something considered a bit smaller but just as good. A Small Back Room may not have quite the credentials, but it has all of the quality of the Archers' oeuvre.
--PolarisDiB
Among many surprises here are some of the actors of Black Narcissus taking on new amazing roles, a mysterious German boobie-trap, and an expressionistic interlude that matches the opera from Red Shoes but is structured more like The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra. The timing of this movie is great, too, as long involved sequences showcasing Sammy's alcoholism and doubt stretch to painful lengths, whereas his technically much longer scene defusing a bomb is so tense that it seems to whip by in a second.
Fans of the Archers should pretty much make it a point to see this. People unfamiliar with them could possibly get overwhelmed by all the promises of Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, and A Matter of Life or Death, but could start here for something considered a bit smaller but just as good. A Small Back Room may not have quite the credentials, but it has all of the quality of the Archers' oeuvre.
--PolarisDiB