Dilys Powell

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 20:11

And the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My Castaway this week is a film critic perhaps I should say the film critic her influence on her profession has been so profound.

Presenter0:38

Since nineteen thirty nine her forthright and pithy comments have served as a natural accompaniment to the pleasures of going to the cinema in Britain.

Presenter0:46

Today, at the age of ninety, she still watches three or four films a week, reviewing them for Punch magazine, and she writes a weekly film guide for the Sunday Times.

Presenter0:56

Film producers should feel grateful for her addiction. Like all good critics, she has given far more to the art she's observed through the years than she has ever taken away. She is Dillis Powell.

Presenter1:08

Dilla, sixty-seven years a film critic. Is it possible to say how many films you've seen in that time?

Dilys Powell1:14

It is really impossible. I have seen thousands, of course. Some years ago quite a few years ago, I was asked how many, and we calculated it was about eleven thousand. But it must be more like twenty thousand by now. And you still look forward to the next one? I do.

Presenter1:26

And

Dilys Powell1:30

I mean sometimes'cause I

Dilys Powell1:33

I know, by sort of instinct by now, it's not going to be terribly interesting, but I try to get over my disappointment.

Presenter1:39

But is there still a a a magic for you in going to the cinema? Is it still do you still have a sense of occasion about it?

Dilys Powell1:47

Well, not exactly a sense of occasion, because after all, I go I see two films on Monday, and perhaps two or three on Tuesday. So you can't make it an occasion, even if you know that by experience it's going to be a marvellous film.

Dilys Powell2:03

But it's always a pleasure. It's always a kind of excitement, you know. It's

Dilys Powell2:09

It's part of my life by now. I enjoy it.

Presenter2:13

Yeah.

Dilys Powell2:14

Terrible.

Presenter2:14

I suppose in a sense we should be asking you for your eight Desert Island films, but we're not. We're asking you for eight Desert Island records. Do they your choice of records, do they reflect your love of the cinema at all?

Presenter2:26

The Rec

Dilys Powell2:27

Because I've chosen.

Dilys Powell2:28

Oh, really?

Dilys Powell2:29

Part of my life. I I always hear them in my head. It's always a pleasure to me to listen to them.

Dilys Powell2:38

So what's the first one? I would like to listen to.

Dilys Powell2:42

A bit of Oklahoma

Dilys Powell2:44

It's, I suppose.

Dilys Powell2:45

one of the first of the American musicals which I ever heard.

Dilys Powell2:50

And it has delightful music. I mean

Dilys Powell2:55

Popular music. Yes, but really

Dilys Powell2:58

Not just any old popular music.

Dilys Powell3:01

And Oklahoma

Dilys Powell3:04

has always been a memory to anybody who listens to American musicals, and has an absolutely lovely sort of love song, which I like very much. People will say we're in love.

Speaker 23:16

Don't throw bouquets at me Don't please

Speaker 13:25

Please my folks too much.

Speaker 13:31

Don't lie I might jokes tomorrow

Presenter3:38

Uh

Speaker 13:38

People will say we're in love.

Speaker 13:45

Don't sigh and gaze at me.

Speaker 13:52

Your song

Speaker 23:53

Eyes are so like mine.

Speaker 23:59

For eyes mustn't go like mine.

Speaker 24:06

People will say we're in love don't stop.

Speaker 24:15

Are collecting things

Speaker 24:20

Uh

Presenter4:20

Give me my rose and my glove.

Speaker 24:27

Sweetheart, less suspecting things.

Speaker 24:37

If I will say

Presenter4:47

People Will Say We're in Love, sung by Shirley Jones from the film score of Oklahoma.

Presenter4:52

So you're obviously a a lover of the musical, Dillis, but they're not much made any more, are they, these big musical films? Why do you think that is?

Dilys Powell5:01

Alas apparently they're terribly expensive to make. It's a great it's a great disappointment that one doesn't uh one reads in the newspaper about splendid

Dilys Powell5:11

stage musicals, and one longs to hear them again, because it was an enormous pleasure to hear them. But, alas, it is apparently terribly expensive, and so they aren't made any more. You've also got a soft spot for the Western, though, haven't you? I love Westerns. I think the Western is the kind of beginning of the cinema. It's really the basis of real cinema. People are rather apt to despise it now, because it's it's purely action and horses and riding.

Dilys Powell5:39

But it's just it's the basis of action.

Dilys Powell5:43

Against the background.

Dilys Powell5:45

and against a natural background. Uh

Presenter5:48

So which ones have been your favorites? I mean, are you a John Wayne or a Clint Eastwood lady?

Dilys Powell5:52

I'm this.

Dilys Powell5:54

I've always admired John Wen. I think he's a very fine actor.

Dilys Powell5:58

But I've been

Dilys Powell5:59

Lately come to find that Clint Eastwood he's one of my contemporary stars.

Dilys Powell6:05

He's a he's a s very nice man, anyway. But I think he has a a real feeling. I think he

Dilys Powell6:12

Well, he looks he looks all right on the whole, so that's nice.

Dilys Powell6:17

That he has the feeling for action and also for speaking. I think he has.

Dilys Powell6:25

the real elements of a star. Stars are growing scarcer and scarcer. A star is not only a wonderful actor, but

Dilys Powell6:36

It's somebody you want to see, and you want to know what happens to him. I think the cinema is rather inclined to forget that. But uh Clint Eastwood, I think, has all the right qualities.

Presenter6:47

You say that he's also a very nice man. Does that mean you know him, and have you made a habit of getting to know the people that you've reviewed?

Dilys Powell6:54

No. On the whole I don't like knowing stars. I like knowing directors, if they have anything to say, which is not necessarily frequent but I don't like knowing stars. It's very embarrassing, you know, after I've seen somebody

Dilys Powell7:13

You think you speak the

Dilys Powell7:14

I'm inclined to speak the truth about what I think about people.

Dilys Powell7:18

And it's very difficult to go back after seeing a film in which a star appears and meeting him, and you know that he can easily have read what you said, which said that he acts like a starfish. You know, it's it's embarrassing. Your next record.

Dilys Powell7:34

I've chosen a passage from On the Town. It's a record of excitement and pleasure.

Dilys Powell7:42

The characters in the in the film begin

Dilys Powell7:46

by having leave. They're military people and they have leave and they've got to spend it in New York.

Dilys Powell7:53

And this

Dilys Powell7:55

suddenly introduces that excitement of the

Dilys Powell7:59

BREAK OF DAY

Dilys Powell8:01

And they begin

Dilys Powell8:03

to enjoy themselves. They don't know what they're gonna do, what they're gonna see.

Dilys Powell8:09

But it's New York, New York.

Dilys Powell8:11

Ready next events in the tears, it's so lovely.

Speaker 18:32

We'll find the romance of danger a minute beneath the Broadway lights. A repair on our chest, so what we got the best for the nights.

Speaker 28:36

I'll be there on a

Speaker 18:40

Psych hiking! New York, New York, a hell of a town. The Bruns is up, but the battery's down. And people ride in a hole in the ground. New York, New York!

Speaker 28:49

Yeah.

Speaker 18:50

It's the hell of a town!

Speaker 19:06

Hey Davey, look! It says here there are 20,000 streets in New York City, not counting McDougal Alley in the heart of Greenwich Village, a charming... Here we go again!

Speaker 29:14

Here we go.

Speaker 19:17

The famous place is to visit our so many, or so the guidebooks say. I promised daddy I wouldn't miss so many, and we have just one day. Gotta see the whole town from Yonkers on down to the bay, in just one day. New York, New York, a visitor's place, where no one lives on account of the pace, and seven millions are screaming for space. New York, New York, it's a visitor's place!

Speaker 29:39

Go up.

Presenter9:43

New York, New York, from the original London cast recording of Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town.

Presenter9:48

You were talking earlier about um stars. Who were the great stars, who have been the great stars in your lifetime of films then, in your view?

Dilys Powell9:58

Gary Cooper is one of the first I I think of,'cause he was both a romantic star,

Dilys Powell10:05

and an action stir.

Dilys Powell10:08

He was very attractive.

Dilys Powell10:10

And a star has to be attractive, and you have to care about him. I thought he was wonderful.

Dilys Powell10:17

Spencer Tracy was a

Dilys Powell10:20

Both a great actor and a great star.

Dilys Powell10:24

Somebody very distinguished said that he was equal to any.

Dilys Powell10:29

Great star of the stage, and I think he was a wonderful actor.

Dilys Powell10:34

What about women in all of this? Who are the the the great women stars? Of course one immediately thinks of of Garbo.

Dilys Powell10:41

Who is out of this world? I mean, she's much more than a star.

Dilys Powell10:46

She's absolutely marvellous, Greta Garbo.

Dilys Powell10:49

I can't look at her.

Dilys Powell10:51

Even now, without wanting to cry.

Dilys Powell10:56

It's something in the personality. Being a star is a personality. Much, much more than a

Dilys Powell11:03

than being a marvelous actor or actress. It's some

Dilys Powell11:07

curious quality which emerges from the heart of the person concerned.

Dilys Powell11:13

Did Marilyn Munro have it? Ah, Marilyn Munro had it.

Dilys Powell11:18

And

Dilys Powell11:19

I remember somebody coming who knew her, coming to see her and saying

Dilys Powell11:24

She's dead.

Dilys Powell11:26

And I thought that's absolutely terrible. It's it's a it's a loss in one's life.

Dilys Powell11:31

I never set eyes on her except on the screen.

Dilys Powell11:35

I didn't care anything about her. I knew nothing about her.

Dilys Powell11:39

She began.

Dilys Powell11:40

Rather maddening, I thought, really. I didn't like her when I first saw her, but little by little one thought

Dilys Powell11:47

She belongs to us all.

Dilys Powell11:49

Extraordinary.

Dilys Powell11:51

The dear

Dilys Powell11:53

Hopeless, silly girl

Dilys Powell11:56

It really mattered. She was absolutely wonderful. Record number three.

Dilys Powell12:02

I I should like to have Petrushka. It reminds me of

Dilys Powell12:07

Be a child.

Dilys Powell12:09

Because

Dilys Powell12:11

I was brought up in Bournemouth.

Dilys Powell12:13

Had a my f two brothers were very musical.

Dilys Powell12:17

And

Dilys Powell12:19

They used to come home

Dilys Powell12:22

when I was still a child, and talk

Dilys Powell12:26

About

Dilys Powell12:27

Russian dancers.

Dilys Powell12:30

And so

Dilys Powell12:32

Petrushka

Dilys Powell12:34

has always stood for me for the great experience of the Russian dancers.

Dilys Powell12:39

At last, when I was a bit older and came up to London and work, I was able to

Dilys Powell12:44

Yeah, Batushka.

Dilys Powell12:46

and see it danced, because those were the days of the great Russian dancers. We take it for granted now.

Dilys Powell12:53

You need to have seen them in the early days when they were an astonishment to us all.

Dilys Powell12:59

And Petrushka

Dilys Powell13:01

In a way it's a terrible narrative.

Dilys Powell13:04

About the puppet.

Dilys Powell13:07

Who dances?

Dilys Powell13:09

and can't escape, can't get out.

Dilys Powell13:12

And the music says all that to me.

Presenter14:23

Part of scene two of Stravinsky's Ballet Petrushka, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteu.

Presenter14:31

So, if your brother's forte was music, Dillis, what what was yours as a little girl? What were you good at?

Dilys Powell14:37

Noun.

Dilys Powell14:39

Nothing. No. I was the sort of unmusical member of a of a very musical family. I always liked music, I always enjoyed it, and I was taught the piano, and played it abs disgustingly.

Dilys Powell14:51

The w

Presenter14:51

Were you good at anything? What what what did you enjoy doing as a child?

Dilys Powell14:55

Uh well I was I was good at my lessons. I I wanted to write. So I wasn't at all good at it and still I'm not at all good at it, but I

Dilys Powell15:05

Enjoyed it as I still enjoy it.

Dilys Powell15:08

Yes, I used to read like mad.

Dilys Powell15:11

I remember once when

Dilys Powell15:13

And I was pretty young.

Dilys Powell15:15

I had measles.

Dilys Powell15:17

and my mother insisted that it was very dangerous for children to use their eyes reading.

Dilys Powell15:24

When they had measles.

Dilys Powell15:26

And I'm it

Dilys Powell15:28

Read anything. I remember I used to take the

Dilys Powell15:31

the newspaper out of the chest of drawers, which had been used to put under under clothing, and I used to read that anything, anything to be able to read.

Presenter15:41

Yeah.

Dilys Powell15:41

And that

Presenter15:41

Then you went up to Somerville College, Oxford, to read modern languages. That was actually still a very rare thing for a young woman to achieve then, wasn't it?

Dilys Powell15:51

Yes, there were not very many of us. It wasn't a kind of terrible distinguished thing.

Dilys Powell15:58

If you could get a scholarship, which which I did, you could go and

Dilys Powell16:05

Enjoy Tud.

Presenter16:06

You certainly enjoyed it, didn't you? You got into a spot of bother and hit the headlines, didn't you? I got into terrible trouble.

Dilys Powell16:13

Double

Presenter16:13

Yeah.

Dilys Powell16:13

Yes, um

Dilys Powell16:15

Being released into the

Dilys Powell16:17

The ordinary and exciting and grown-up world.

Dilys Powell16:24

When

Dilys Powell16:25

was taken out to tea against the rules.

Dilys Powell16:29

I used to climb over the wall to go out with my young man, whom I hasten to say it was all very respectable I did marry him afterwards. And I used to

Dilys Powell16:39

Go out night after night, not do a great deal of work, I fear. And then w one day the principal sent to me and said, You were out last night. So reluctantly I said yes.

Dilys Powell16:50

And she said, Well, how did you get in?

Dilys Powell16:53

So it's

Dilys Powell16:54

Unusual truth, I said over the wall.

Dilys Powell16:57

At I was rusticated for two terms.

Presenter16:59

Weren't you written about in the Daily Mail at the time?

Dilys Powell17:02

Some some paper, I think.

Dilys Powell17:06

Had an account to it, I forget which it was.

Dilys Powell17:09

But I I know that the principal said I dragged the name of some of them in the dust.

Dilys Powell17:14

Which has always been a

Dilys Powell17:15

A phrase in the family.

Presenter17:17

But in the end, um, as you say, you not only got the man, Humphrey, you married him, but you also got a first class degree. Now, how did you manage that if you'd been rusticated for two terms?

Dilys Powell17:28

No, when you're rusticated, you see you're not allowed to be

Dilys Powell17:33

in Oxford, in your college, you're not allowed to go to lectures. But uh my parents are very good and allowed me to retire somewhere,'cause I said I really can't work at home. I absolutely must be absolutely quiet.

Dilys Powell17:46

And so my father, who had really very little money, let me go and stay somewhere.

Dilys Powell17:52

In lodgings, which was terribly uncomfortable, I did nothing, nothing but work.

Dilys Powell17:58

Uh

Presenter17:58

but sheer determination to prove that you could do very well in spite of them all.

Dilys Powell18:04

No, it wasn't a termination, it was vanity, really, and a feeling, I think, for my parents who had been so good to me.

Dilys Powell18:12

And I thought I'd

Dilys Powell18:14

I get a festive kills me.

Dilys Powell18:16

Yeah.

Dilys Powell18:17

Record number four.

Dilys Powell18:20

Well, before that.

Dilys Powell18:21

Russian bellet was coming to Bournemouth.

Dilys Powell18:24

I was taken, I suppose, probably by one of my brothers, and I was.

Dilys Powell18:29

Terribly excited, naturally, to see this

Dilys Powell18:34

She heard Zarda.

Dilys Powell18:36

Arabian Nights story.

Dilys Powell18:39

translated into action, into this wonderful movement, which seemed to be absolutely ravishing.

Dilys Powell18:48

The music still rings in my head.

Dilys Powell18:52

The story of

Dilys Powell18:55

The Slave in Love.

Dilys Powell18:58

That's a real love story.

Presenter20:08

Part of Rimsky Korsakoff's Scheherazada, Op. thirty five, played by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Presenter20:16

So, Dillis Powell, aged twenty three, with a first class degree and a talent to write, you knocked on the door of the Sunday Times. It was nineteen twenty four. What kind of response did you get?

Dilys Powell20:28

Has met with the S the Sunday Times is extremely good to me. I tried various offices.

Dilys Powell20:36

who are, you know, polite, but uh thank you very much. No, we don't have anything for you to do.

Dilys Powell20:42

But the Sunday times

Dilys Powell20:43

An elderly gentleman was the editor, who was really a musical authority.

Dilys Powell20:49

And um I was allowed to see him.

Dilys Powell20:54

And he threw a book at me. I forget what it was. Oh, it was a book of

Dilys Powell21:00

History of France, I think, part of it.

Dilys Powell21:04

And he said write me, you know, two hundred words, or a hundred and fifty words, or a hundred and ten words, or whatever it was. And I went home and probably spent about two days writing it, you know.

Dilys Powell21:15

And uh

Dilys Powell21:17

From that moment I wrote for the Sunday Times.

Presenter21:20

But it wasn't until much later, I think, nineteen thirty nine, in fact, that you were actually appointed the film critic of the Sunday Times. And even then you didn't actually want the job, did you?

Dilys Powell21:32

No, I has always wanted to be a theatre critic.

Dilys Powell21:36

I learned better.

Dilys Powell21:38

I

Dilys Powell21:39

think I was very fortunate to be able to be a a film critic.

Presenter21:44

But you were a bit sniffy about the cinema at the time, weren't you?

Dilys Powell21:47

So you thought it was a bit frivolous? I didn't think a great deal of the cinema.

Dilys Powell21:51

It suddenly dawned on me when I'd been at the job of

Dilys Powell21:55

A week or two?

Dilys Powell21:57

This was very serious, I thought good gracious me

Dilys Powell22:02

I

Dilys Powell22:03

Began

Dilys Powell22:05

Tried to catch up. She was rather late. It was nineteen thirty nine.

Dilys Powell22:11

I try to uh people begin

Dilys Powell22:14

talking in my presence about great Russian directors and great American directors, people I'd never heard of.

Dilys Powell22:21

But little by little I

Dilys Powell22:24

caught up with them. I think there are very few of the

Dilys Powell22:27

Great films.

Dilys Powell22:29

before nineteen thirty nine.

Dilys Powell22:32

which I I mean the great

Dilys Powell22:34

Serious great poems which I haven't seen.

Dilys Powell22:37

Next record.

Dilys Powell22:39

In the war, which was rapidly approaching,

Dilys Powell22:44

It was it became very fashionable to go and hear Mara Mara Hess play. I think it was at the National Gallery, which was of course not open in the war.

Dilys Powell22:56

And uh she used to

Dilys Powell22:58

play at lunch time, I think it was, at the National Gallery.

Dilys Powell23:04

It was the dumb thing to go and hear her play.

Dilys Powell23:08

She played absolutely marvellously.

Dilys Powell23:11

And uh she used to play the Bach chorale. I think it's Jesus Joy of my desiring. And she played it like an angel.

Presenter24:33

DAME MYRA HESS PLAING BACH'S GEEZU JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING. OBVESLY OVER THE YEARS YOU'VE BEEN IN A VERY POWERFUL POSITION. FILLM MAKERS AND ACTORS HAVE CARED VERY MUCH WHAT DILIS POWELL SAY ABOUT THE PRODUCT THAT THEY PUT FOR WORD.

Presenter24:51

Have you felt that power?

Dilys Powell24:52

Uh

Dilys Powell24:53

I've been rather ashamed of it.

Dilys Powell24:55

Obviously.

Dilys Powell24:57

All I can do is to speak.

Dilys Powell24:59

The truth.

Dilys Powell25:01

Of what I think, as far as possible. At the beginning one shows off.

Dilys Powell25:06

Which is disgraceful. One should never show off. But at the beginning one does show off. One thinks I'm a joke and one thinks I'm a straight in somehow.

Dilys Powell25:15

That's right.

Dilys Powell25:17

Yes, Eddie.

Presenter25:20

But that's the temptation, is it? To to use your column when you begin to to to to show off, really, to display a good pun or a good joke or

Presenter25:29

At the expense of the film or the book or the piece of theatre that you're writing about.

Dilys Powell25:34

It is a temptation. One must resist it. One must I mean the essential thing is to say.

Dilys Powell25:41

The truth your truth. I mean, you you can't speak

Dilys Powell25:45

Other people's truth.

Dilys Powell25:47

You may know that.

Dilys Powell25:49

Six other people admire

Presenter25:50

Oh very much, but you don't. Didn't MGM once ban you because you said something nasty about a film of that?

Dilys Powell25:57

Yes, yes, it was in very uh very early I'd only been a critic about two years, I should think.

Dilys Powell26:04

And I was asked her if you had gone with the wind.

Dilys Powell26:08

I thought it was f

Dilys Powell26:10

They boring, massive.

Dilys Powell26:13

I reali well, I've see it about three or four times.

Dilys Powell26:17

I went years after, so I kept on going to see and saying, Was I wrong?

Dilys Powell26:23

And I was wrong about one of the actors. But on the whole.

Dilys Powell26:29

I think I was right. I s I still go on thinking I was right. Who were you wrong about? Was it Clark Gable? Clark Gable, yes.

Dilys Powell26:36

He was marvellous at it. I dunno why I didn't see it. I was turned blind. I didn't see it.

Dilys Powell26:43

I see it now. It's a beautiful book, it's a wonderful.

Dilys Powell26:47

Very sharp edged performance.

Dilys Powell26:50

It's extraordinary. My author had noticed it and I didn't. Record number six.

Dilys Powell26:57

I feel it's time we got back to the musical.

Dilys Powell27:01

A few years ago there was a I can't remember when it was, but not very long ago.

Dilys Powell27:06

There was a wonderful

Dilys Powell27:08

Version

Dilys Powell27:09

If my fair lady

Dilys Powell27:12

There was a a marvellous performance which wasn't really sung, it was spoken by Rex Harrison.

Dilys Powell27:20

And

Dilys Powell27:22

At the very end of the film.

Dilys Powell27:26

when he nearly loses the girl.

Dilys Powell27:28

And he

Dilys Powell27:31

speak sings absolutely wonderfully.

Dilys Powell27:35

I've grown accustomed to her face.

Dilys Powell27:40

It really is absolutely wonderful. I mean, it's it's it's loving and angry.

Dilys Powell27:47

And critical.

Dilys Powell27:50

and devoted. Er, I've grown accustomed to her face. It's a beautiful performance.

Dilys Powell27:56

I've grown accustomed to her fate.

Dilys Powell28:02

She almost makes the day begin.

Dilys Powell28:05

I've grown accustomed to the tune that she whistles night and noon. Her smiles, her frowns, her ups, her downs are second nature to me now.

Dilys Powell28:15

Like breathing out and breathing in.

Dilys Powell28:18

I was serenely independent and content before we met. Surely I could always be that way again.

Dilys Powell28:29

I've grown accustomed to her looks, accustomed to her voice, accustomed to her.

Speaker 128:37

Face.

Speaker 128:42

Marry Freddie.

Dilys Powell28:44

What an infantile idea. What a heartless, wicked, brainless thing to do.

Dilys Powell28:49

But she'll regret it.

Dilys Powell28:52

She'll regret it.

Dilys Powell28:54

It's doom before they even take the vow.

Dilys Powell28:58

I can see her now, Mrs Freddie Einsford Hill, In a wretched little flat above a stall. I can see her now, not a penny in the till, And a bill collector beating at the door.

Dilys Powell29:10

She'll try to teach the things I taught her, and end up selling flowers instead.

Dilys Powell29:16

Begging for her bread and water, while her husband has his breakfast in bed.

Presenter29:23

Rex Harrison singing I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face from the original stage show production of My Fair Lady.

Presenter29:30

So, De Lispearl, if you've enjoyed the the romance and the charm of the Westerns and the musicals and romantic films over the years, how do you react these days to this kind of cinematic heavy metal, you know, the the Terminator films and Arnold Schwarzenegger? What do you think of all of that?

Dilys Powell29:48

I think there are moments, you know, when

Dilys Powell29:51

The cinema is

Dilys Powell29:53

Taking a wrong turn.

Dilys Powell29:56

I often feel it.

Dilys Powell29:59

Perhaps it's wrong to be so very unromantic as it nowadays is.

Dilys Powell30:06

I used to complain bitterly about the emphasis on the stars. I used to say it's absolute rubbish. I mean it's the film. I mean it's a serious film a film about Shakespeare, if you like.

Dilys Powell30:20

I think I was wrong.

Dilys Powell30:23

I think

Dilys Powell30:25

That the cinema must

Dilys Powell30:28

Allow you

Dilys Powell30:30

To warm.

Dilys Powell30:32

to the player

Dilys Powell30:35

Male and female?

Dilys Powell30:38

And

Dilys Powell30:39

To the narratives.

Dilys Powell30:41

And I think very often nowadays

Dilys Powell30:44

The cinema has become

Dilys Powell30:46

Too solemn. Not too serious. Too solemn.

Dilys Powell30:51

Too solemn and too devoted.

Dilys Powell30:55

to the unromantic.

Presenter30:56

There's also of course a a tremendous amount of violence and a tremendous amount of sex.

Presenter31:04

And I'm sure that you in your time have sat through some pretty steamy stuff, you know, pretty steamy art house movies. Are you at the age of ninety

Presenter31:13

unshockable in the cinema.

Dilys Powell31:18

I don't think so, no. I'm sh I'm sure that something can

Dilys Powell31:22

can think of a way of shocking me. But it would be increasingly difficult, I assure you, and when I think of the films I see.

Dilys Powell31:30

I'm shocked by the violence.

Dilys Powell31:32

The violence is really absolutely appalling.

Dilys Powell31:35

Because

Dilys Powell31:38

People say it doesn't matter that people aren't affected, but they are affected.

Dilys Powell31:43

I don't personally mind about the six.

Dilys Powell31:46

I think it's the emphasis on it can be boring.

Dilys Powell31:51

Tedious?

Dilys Powell31:52

Repetitive.

Dilys Powell31:54

and uninteresting.

Dilys Powell31:57

That

Dilys Powell31:59

Perhaps perhaps for a young audience you have to have it there.

Dilys Powell32:02

Record number seven.

Dilys Powell32:04

I think it's time.

Dilys Powell32:06

We had something which

Dilys Powell32:08

I have no particular reason for playing, just except that I enjoy it.

Dilys Powell32:12

I used

Dilys Powell32:14

Hello, it's lost your anger.

Dilys Powell32:15

Turn my bach wool ninybody.

Dilys Powell32:18

I remember my brother who was professional saying that he preferred Mozart.

Dilys Powell32:23

And

Dilys Powell32:24

I think you're rather nice to have.

Dilys Powell32:27

A passage from the magic fruit

Dilys Powell32:29

She's always very restful and very beautiful.

Dilys Powell32:33

And

Dilys Powell32:34

But I enjoy it.

Speaker 232:43

Engern Belcher Liebern, fit all

Speaker 232:57

Peace and dream it sulfur and peace.

Speaker 233:06

Give bar

Dilys Powell33:07

Ah

Dilys Powell33:08

Fears like me

Dilys Powell33:11

Yeah. Uh

Speaker 233:19

Levi.

Presenter33:37

Part of the duet from Act One of Mozart's The Magic Flute, sung by Annalise Rottenberger and Walter Berry, with the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera Munich, conducted by Wolfgang Sawalisch.

Presenter33:50

I wonder how much you'd miss the cinema on your desert island. I mean, you you really have seen enough films to last you a lifetime, if it's nigh on twenty thousand now. Do would you miss them?

Presenter34:01

It's a

Dilys Powell34:02

Think I should. I sometimes say to myself, Well, look, some of these days, you really have to retire. When you can't hear anything said in the cinema, you can't see it.

Dilys Powell34:12

You have to retire.

Dilys Powell34:13

And I think what what on earth should am I doing now?

Dilys Powell34:17

What should I be doing?

Dilys Powell34:19

Reading the paper? Yes, I read the paper.

Presenter34:22

What up next?

Presenter34:24

Can I ask you finally the the question that I dare say you you dread having to answer and you're always being asked, which is

Presenter34:32

What is your favourite, all-time favourite film?

Dilys Powell34:35

There's a Russian film which I

Dilys Powell34:38

particularly love called The Lady with the Little Dog.

Dilys Powell34:42

I've never seen it too often. I've seen it several times, but I

Dilys Powell34:46

I think I really like it better.

Dilys Powell34:49

than any of the American poems, even the greatest.

Dilys Powell34:52

is a story of

Dilys Powell34:55

A girl who is

Dilys Powell34:57

On Holmes, with her little dog.

Dilys Powell35:01

And she is seduced. She's seduced by a man. She thinks it's all over. He thinks it's all over.

Dilys Powell35:07

But it isn't. They meet again, and for no reason at all it starts again.

Dilys Powell35:13

They're both married. They can't marry again.

Dilys Powell35:17

And he's

Dilys Powell35:18

He is as he is caught, too, as he usually is the woman who's caught.

Dilys Powell35:22

and this time the man is caught too.

Dilys Powell35:25

That's that's rather satisfying.

Dilys Powell35:27

This is so

Dilys Powell35:28

Marvellous and heart breaking story.

Dilys Powell35:33

There's no no hope and no end, and that's that.

Dilys Powell35:36

Last record.

Dilys Powell35:39

I keep on getting back to the musical.

Dilys Powell35:44

Perhaps it's because

Dilys Powell35:47

In I suppose the happiest and busiest time of my life.

Dilys Powell35:52

It was it was the kind of film my husband and I used to put on at night.

Dilys Powell35:59

and feeling oh, that's that's been a nice day, it's been a busy day and I'm tired and I can go to bed.

Dilys Powell36:06

And

Dilys Powell36:08

We've listened to some romantic and dramatic films.

Dilys Powell36:14

But the American musical

Dilys Powell36:17

Also embraces slightly ironic films.

Dilys Powell36:22

And rather films we wish to enjoy

Dilys Powell36:25

is a film with

Dilys Powell36:28

With Maurice Chevalier?

Dilys Powell36:30

And an English doll?

Dilys Powell36:33

Hermani gingled.

Dilys Powell36:35

And the song is

Dilys Powell36:37

I remember it well.

Dilys Powell36:39

And it's delightfully ironic.

Dilys Powell36:42

comment on memory and the way people

Dilys Powell36:46

Think they remember things and pretend.

Dilys Powell36:50

It's from the very famous Gigi.

Dilys Powell36:55

I can remember everything as as if it were yesterday.

Dilys Powell37:00

We met at nine. We met at eight. I was on time. No, you were late.

Dilys Powell37:06

I did.

Presenter37:06

And

Dilys Powell37:07

I remember it well.

Dilys Powell37:11

We dined with friends A tenor sang A baritone

Dilys Powell37:18

I remember it well.

Dilys Powell37:22

That dazzling April moon There was none that night

Dilys Powell37:28

And the month was June.

Dilys Powell37:31

That's right.

Dilys Powell37:33

That's right. It warms my heart to know that you remember still the way you do.

Dilys Powell37:42

Ah yes.

Speaker 137:45

I remember it well.

Presenter37:53

Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold singing I Remember It Well from the film score of Gigi.

Presenter37:59

So which one of those records, Dillis Powell, if you could only take one, would you take?

Dilys Powell38:05

That's a terribly difficult question.

Dilys Powell38:09

I don't know.

Dilys Powell38:11

Well, it's had I remembered well because it reminds one of one's own faults.

Dilys Powell38:18

And what about your book?

Presenter38:19

Yeah.

Dilys Powell38:20

You've got the Bible in

Presenter38:20

Yeah.

Dilys Powell38:21

We've got Shakespeare waiting. Waiting for you.

Dilys Powell38:23

I think I should have to re return to my childhood. I was brought up on Dickens.

Dilys Powell38:28

Anna

Dilys Powell38:29

I suppose the first sort of long, serious book I ever read was Oliver Twist.

Dilys Powell38:35

And uh s sir.

Dilys Powell38:38

I still think Dickens is one of the greatest writers, absolutely the greatest.

Dilys Powell38:43

Enjoy.

Dilys Powell38:45

I think it'd be rather nice to have a mouth organ. A mouth organ with a with a guide, because I've never played the mouth organ. I suppose on a desert island with the years going by, one might discover how to use it in time. Well, you could have a a teach yourself the mouth organ book as well, if you like. Yes, if I could have if I could have a book telling you how to do it, and I sh

Speaker 239:02

Yes, if I could have

Presenter39:04

Telly how

Dilys Powell39:06

manage, I think, somehow to learn. Be interesting.

Presenter39:10

It's a deal.

Dilys Powell39:11

Mm-hmm.

Presenter39:11

To this PAL, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Dilys Powell39:15

And thank you.