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My name's Ian Christie
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and I'll be your guidethrough this commentary
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on the film thatMichael Powell considered
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his first really independentproduction.
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I'm joined by ThelmaSchoonmaker-Powell, Michael's widow,
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who was with himduring the years of his rediscovery
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by new generationsof film enthusiasts and film makers,
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including Martin Scorsese,
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one of Powell and Pressburger'sgreatest admirers.
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Thelma has worked for over 20 yearsas Scorsese's editor,
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so she'll be bringingher practised eye to bear
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on some sequences from a filmthat's now nearly 70 years old.
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We're also delighted to haveas a guest Daniel Day-Lewis,
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who'll be reading fromMichael Powell's remarkable book
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originally called200,000 Feet On Foula,
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which was published to coincidewith the film's release in 1938.
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Powell had the idea for the filmas far back as 1930,
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when he read aboutthe final evacuation
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of the Hebridean island of St Kilda,
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off the northwest of Scotland.
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Now, on a different island,
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Foula, up in the Shetlands,
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he was about to bring it to life.
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Michael Powell playedthe visiting yachtsman himself,
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along with his future wife,Frankie Reidy.
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And their yacht was borrowed
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from the actual owner of the island,Alastair Holborn.
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He decided that they shouldplay these parts
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to keep the budget down and notto have any more superfluous people
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