When filmmaker Martin Scorsese was a child, watching films obsessively, he was particularly thrilled to see the logo of The Archers, the film company run by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It heralded a world of "fantasy, wonder, magic—real film magic" that would shape his aesthetic.

Now, in this documentary, he tells the story of his lifelong love affair with their movies, including The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann. Drawing on a rich array of archive material, Scorsese explores in full the collaboration between the Englishman Powell and the Hungarian Pressburger—two romantics and idealists, who thrived in the face of adversity during World War II but were eventually brought low by the film industry of the 1950s. 

Scorsese celebrates their ability to create "subversive commercial movies" and describes how deeply their films have influenced his own work. "Certain films you simply run all the time and you live with them." Scorsese says. "As you grow older they grow deeper. I'm not sure how it happens, but it does. For me, that body of work is a wondrous presence, a constant source of energy, and a reminder of what life and art are all about."

D: David Hinton, US, Closed Captions, 2h11m