Tribute to Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 2010 / A Matter of Life and Death / United Kingdom 1946
This surreal romance about the strength of love and its delirium-inducing effects on the mind features an RAF pilot named Peter (David Niven) who miraculously beguiles fate, surviving a fall from a burning airplane. But the other world says Peter’s time has come, regardless that in the meantime he has fallen in love with attractive radio operator June. "The other world” agrees to hear his appeal at court....
Upon his return from a mission at the end of World War II, Peter Carter (David Niven), the commanding officer of an English bomber, is forced to jump out of a burning plane without a parachute. While the next world searches to locate him among the newly registered deceased pilots, the miraculously-saved young man manages to fall in love with an American radio operator named June (Kim Hunter). Representatives of the other world, however, don’t intend to give up without a fight, and Peter must now attempt, with the help of his friend turned defense attorney (Roger Livesey), to win a "stay of death” at a heavenly court. But in order to do so he must break the resistance of an American prosecutor famous for his hatred of the British. Focusing on Anglo-American relations, this extravagant allegorical story is a remarkable and now legendary example of Pressburger’s narrative talent spectacularly developed by Powell’s genius for unconventional and courageous direction. The imaginative romance about the strength of love and its delirium-inducing effect on the human mind is astonishing for its consummately modern visual effects from the workshop of cameraman and Technicolor specialist Jack Cardiff.
104 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
/ Screenplay Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
/ Dir. of Photography Jack Cardiff
/ Music Allan Gray
/ Editor Reginald Mills
/ Producer Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
/ Production The Archers
/ Cast David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Raymond Massey, Kathleen Byron
Vic Pratt
Film Institution Rep.
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