A Matter of Life and Death
Before plunging into a transformative encounter between an RAF pilot about to crash and the girl answering his Mayday call, the film opens with a brief meditation on... well, the infinite universe. For this stirring story of the pilot's battle for life - and the love of his life - is also one of the great films about time. Alternating between earth and heaven, the script incorporates eternity, the legacy of history, an ordinary human lifespan, the transience of happiness, the fleeting magic of a moment, and time stopped still - all eloquently evoked by expert play with pace and chronology. With heart-stoppingly beautiful images, the film embraces both the dizzy joys of being alive and the sad inevitability of death with such a sure sense of poetry and drama that by the time it ends, one still feels it has only just begun.
Nominated by
Liz Rosenthal
Director - Power to the Pixel
Tanya Seghatchian
Producer
Margaret Hodge MP
Minister of State
I absolutely love it because although technically its a masterpiece, it's also romantic, daring and visually stunning. A Matter of Life and Death is an example of British cinema at its very best.
| Credits | |
|---|---|
| Director | Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger |
| Cast | David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Raymond Massey |
| Country | UK |
| Year | 1946 |
Find out more about A Matter of Life and Death:
A Matter of Life and Death
Classic Powell and Pressburger production, with some wonderful performances (incl David Niven, not the most gifted of actors), and incredible cinematography from Jack Cardiff. Simply the best.
Matter of Life And Death
This is the perfect Saturday afternoon film with some biscuits and a gallon of tea.
The film is just so rich with great scenes. Heaven in Black and White, the camera obscura sequence, the closing of the eye, the stairway to heaven. The small jokes (technicolour, music, banality of cricket), the lack of "enemies" in heaven, everyone is allied - all fantastic.
Roger Livesy is simply brilliant, as is David Niven.
The haunting piano melody all the way through is so simple and so effective.
The fact that it's a cheesy love story and so much better than anything Richard Curtis could write.
I have seen this film so many times it's almost obscene but it is warming and comforting and I'm quite happy to go back and see it again and again.
When it had a re-release in 2000, I saw it at the cinema three times just to see it how the film was intended to be seen big,bold and beautiful.
If everyone watched this film the world would be a better place.
AMOLAD
Its sophistication in commingling fantasy and reality, its wartime setting, its references to psychoanalysis and the 'special relationship' with the US, the centrality of Shakespeare's work to its fabric, its gentle mockery of traditional views of the hereafter, its breathtaking visuals and witty dialogue and its steadfast belief in individuality and the supremacy of the human spirit, make of it a remarkable summing up of so much that was important and exciting about the first half of the first complete film century.
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