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Far left: Martin Scorsese, Michael Powell and Schoonmaker on The Color of Money (1986); Left: Schoonmaker editing Gangs of New York (2002); Below: The Departed (2006); Below left: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
The radical use of jump cuts, freeze frames, and juxtapositions would come in handy again for Goodfellas (1990), for which both she and Scorsese were awarded BAFTAs for their efforts. Indeed, Schoonmaker has two BAFTAs to her name and seven nominations, highlighting a longstanding connection to the UK’s film culture and the British Academy. But there’s another reason why this Fellowship and British cinema are so close to Schoonmaker’s heart; her late husband was Michael Powell, a giant of British filmmaking and a recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship himself in 1981. She has spent much of her time since his passing in 1990 celebrating, restoring, and educating people about the incredible work of Powell and Pressburger. In many respects, Powell and his films had fallen into obscurity by the time of Scorsese’s rise to fame, and it was he who helped revive the director’s reputation – not to mention play matchmaker to the pair.
“THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER WERE A HUGE INFLUENCE ON US.”
“Michael was a wonderful man to live with,” says Schoonmaker. “The films of Powell and Pressburger were a huge influence on us. As filmmakers, they appreciated the audience. Michael used to tell Marty and me, ‘Never underestimate your audience, it is always lightyears ahead of you.’ And, ‘Never explain’, he would say. That was a benchmark for us, always.
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