Three-time Oscar winner and longtime Martin Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker was the star of an Edinburgh International Film Festival event on Sunday, where she spoke about the life and work of her late husband, Michael Powell .
Schoonmaker has worked on a whopping 22 of Scorsese’s films over his decades-long career, collecting Academy Awards for Raging Bull (1981), The Aviator (2005), and The Departed (2007). He met Powell through Scorsese, whose reverence for the partnership between Powell and fellow English filmmaker Emeric Pressburger led to the pair becoming close friends. Scorsese became influential in helping to restore Powell’s films and was a major advocate for recognizing her brilliance.
“When I started working with Scorsese, he immediately started giving me films of Powell and Pressburger to take home and watch at night,” Schoonmaker told producer Emma Boa at Edinburgh’s Tollcross Central Hall, the day after she introduced a retrospective, restored screening of Powell’s 1937 film The Edge of the World . “Scorsese had been bringing Michael to America… He said, ‘You love his films. Would you like to meet him?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yes, I would. ’ So I had dinner with Marty and Michael, and it was amazing, because Michael—even his face was so interesting.”
The couple were married from 1984 until Powell's death at age 84 in 1990. Among Pressburger's best-known films are The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), and The Red Shoes (1948).
Schoonmaker became visibly emotional when discussing her husband's relationship with Scorsese. "When Michael died, not a single British director came to his funeral," she said. "Bernardo Bertolucci came, and Martin Scorsese flew across the Atlantic to be there and throw the first clump of soil on Michael's grave. Their friendship was remarkable." She recalls Powell coming to her one day and saying, "Marty is really upset because he can't sell Goodfellas ."
“Can you imagine? He can’t sell Goodfellas ?” she continued. “And the studios said, ‘You have to take the drugs out. ’ And [Scorsese] said, ‘The story of Goodfellas is drugs. I can’t take it out. ’ So Michael said to me, ‘Read me the script. ’ I read the script to him on Sunday. … and he said, ‘Get Marty on the phone. ’ And I did. He said, ‘Marty, you have to make this movie. It’s the best script I’ve read in 20 years. You have to do it. ’ So Marty came in and somehow convinced Warner Bros. to do it.”
Schoonmaker also confirmed that she's still working on publishing Powell's Diaries, some of which detail her foray into theater directing, and is using AI to help. "We're using AI with the diaries... We have people read the diary in Michael's handwriting, because publishers want to see it in print, not in handwriting," she explained.
"It takes a lot of people to do it, and I have very dear friends I can trust. He actually wrote the diaries for his mother, which is very interesting, and there's a lot about his personal life with his family that I'll be removing because I didn't want to publish his diaries. So I'll only publish a few things that are relevant to the film's story."
The acclaimed film editor also delved into the rough patches in Powell and Pressburger's relationship. "Emeric was much more aware of how bad the British film industry was and how they were going to survive it," he explained, "and he was willing to try to find a way to do that. But Michael was attached to his feelings, and they went through a 20-year period of total oblivion where no one knew anymore," he said, adding that Michael "left" pretty broken."
Schoonmaker fielded a slew of questions about Powell’s childhood, her acclimation to New York, how it inspired her edit, and even when the pair fell in love. “I don’t think Marty was really [too happy],” she laughed, “because then he had to divide his devotion to Michael and me. And you know, if I said, ‘I have to go home and make dinner for Michael,’ he had to say yes. But he loved having him around. He loved having him on set.”
She also spoke about her own career, navigating the film industry and becoming friends with Scorsese. At the heart of the conversation, however, was Powell. She said of her favorite memories of him: "I think just his love of life. What affected him every day was the weather, the light outside, the window, what he was cooking. He just knew how to make the best of everything. And that was a great joy to live."
The Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 runs from August 14-20.
