Out of the Past - KVIFF 60/80 / A Matter of Life and Death / United Kingdom 1946
Returning to England from a mission in the final days of the Second World War, RAF squadron leader Peter Carter is forced to jump out of his burning plane without a parachute. While the next world tries 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. Representatives of the afterlife, however, don’t intend to give up without a fight… This extravagant, imaginative romance about the strength of love and its delirium-inducing effect on the human mind is a legendary example of Pressburger’s narrative talent, spectacularly developed by Powell’s genius for unconventional and courageous filmmaking. The picture’s first festival screening was held on 3 August 1947 at the Spa House in Mariánské Lázně.
Karel Och
Film stills © Image courtesy of Park Circus/ITV Studios
105 min / Color, DCP
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
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Selected filmography: One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Ill Met by Moonlight (1957).
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