1946 Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
When a young airman miraculously survives bailing out of his aeroplane without a parachute, he falls in love with an American radio operator. But the officials in the other world realise their mistake, and despatch an angel to collect him.
The December Challenge: Film #100
What is life without love?
This is a question at the heart of Powell and Pressburger’s classic, A Matter of Life and Death: a movie I adore unreservedly and the only fitting choice for my 100th film of the December Challenge.
It seems to me that your first introduction to the work of The Archers often ends up becoming a lifelong favourite. Their films, particularly those made between ‘43-’48, are magical and transformative experiences that open your eyes to a whole new world of cinema you never even knew existed. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that your first taste is always going to be the sweetest and most enduring. Whilst A Matter of Life and Death…
I LOVED this!
With a wonderful opening that's eerily reminiscent of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life from the same year, but far superior in both execution and elocution, and a central conceit that may have been influenced by Alexander Hall’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but turned on its head, A Matter of Life and Death is simply charming.
There’s something about that particular time where it’s ok for true love to blossom in the space of minutes over the wireless. We believe it. Completely. When by chance, and I’m so glad that chance always works for the better in these types of films, our soon to be lovers meet, against all odds on heaven and earth, you know this…
I had seen this back in the day when I was a young pup under the title of "Stairway To Heaven" and loved it! David Niven and Kim Hunter were wonderful together as the star crossed lovers!
A marvelously charming and whimsical tale that was a real treat to watch!
My one and only gripe was the totally unnecessary and quite frankly unwanted heavy handed spiel about this American versus British garbage! Barring that little misstep it's still a winner in my book!
Film was recommended by Viktor Prentovski via my Movie Request Hotline List! Thank You Viktor for recommending it, it was a real blast from the past!
Part of The Archers Season - 1942 to 1957
If I had been smart, I would have prepared myself for this review by finding an online thesaurus and finding all the synonyms for 'wonderful' that I could possibly could.
I didn't do that, though, because I was too busy watching this film. It was a completely different experience watching this today compared to when I first saw it as a 19 year old. Back then my film tastes were not particularly defined (in fact, they're still not) and I was just watching anything that was on and that I fancied the look of. I didn't know anything about A Matter Of Life And Death when it came on Channel 4…
The decision to make all of the fantasy sequences black and white while the "real life" sequences are technicolor speaks so much to the unorthodox philosophy of this movie. The afterlife may not be such a bad place, but there's something more appealing, more romantic about the fleeting, the evanescent, the malleable. Eternity is static (everyone dead is wearing the uniform in which they died, clinging to the beliefs with which they died), while on earth there is love, sadness, hope, grief, learning, growing, drama, etc. The afterlife isn't necessarily heaven. Heaven is love, so choose life.
There's no way to approach this movie that doesn't find it an unmitigated success. It's wonderfully romantic. It's hilarious and entertaining. It's a fantasy spectacle with jaw dropping analog effects. It's a post-war curative that inspires patriotism and a spirit of cooperation. This is one of the best movies.
An english WWII soldier leaps out of a plane without a parachute and miraculously survives. As it turns out, he was supposed to die, but a glitch in the afterlife prevented that. Celestial beings attempt to rectify this mistake, but the soldier resists, having fallen in love with an american radio operator. It’s a constant struggle between life and eternity, and it may all just be a figment of the soldier’s imagination...
If I didn’t already know going in, I might not have known this was made in the 40s. It’s so witty and so expertly crafted that it’s barely aged in my opinion. It’s fantastical and fervently satirical at the same time, and you never really find out if…
Whenever I watch an Archers movie, all I want is to luxuriate in its magnificent sets, perfect British diction, and full technicolor glory. For this one, I loved the back and forth between Earth and the afterlife (an inspired choice to shoot heaven in B&W). It’s also charming to see all the classic visual effects like reverse motion, hidden rear projections, match cuts, and the sheer scale of the production design for spaces both intimate and cosmic.
The trial is such an interesting turn in what is inherently a romantic/fantasy drama. There were some political aims to assuage foreign relations post World War 2 but it was so beautiful and timely to see the part where America is represented by…
“One is starved for Technicolor up there.”
There is a lot about A Matter of Life and Death that I didn’t like. I thought the political angle overwhelmed and distracted from the central themes, and—like many have stated— the film did start to drag out near the end. There were many awkward elements in the narrative that did not mesh with the film as a whole. But even with all these things in mind, this is one of those rare films that made me inspired to just be alive. In an incredibly imaginative film, the most colorful and joyous moments are the simple interactions between two people, all filmed in vibrant Technicolor. The rest, the “fantastical”/spiritual/whatever, are in black and white; it’s like a reverse The Wizard of Oz. Because even though life may be tiresome or dull or finite, it’s still worth living for.
(Shout out to Jaime for always recommending me amazing films.)
4.4/5
I love the French conductor's delivery of what's basically "Heaven's best prosecutor's on the case, and he really hates you because of your nationality."
Some of the absolute raddest set design I've ever seen, great all-around performances, amazing technicolor work, and the freeze frames (especially the ping-pong game) are done amazingly. Up there with The Wizard of Oz in the "people seeing this when it first came out must have been going nuts" factor. Unfortunately everything grinds to a halt and Raymond Massey chewing scenery is the only thing that really works in the last 20-25 minutes. Really borderline call between 4 and 4.5 stars here.
[70]
Incredible for about 70 minutes, esp. the very opening scene wherein Powell and Pressburger set up an instantaneous bout of love with such a farcical contraption, yet find a way to make it uncommonly convincing; black humor, poeticism, tragedy, existential capitulation, and heartbreak -- all between two people who’ve just met, and the funny thing is that they really haven’t “met,” they’ve only heard each other speak : the one safe in her radio command post is distressed and visibly upset, while the other, plunging to his inevitably gruesome fate, remains cool as a cucumber. That’s how you establish a central relationship while simultaneously grafting humanistic characters; a true tour de force introductory sequence. Fantasy elements are brilliantly conceived…
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH has a great concept -- a British bomber pilot in World War II dies after jumping out of his burning plane without a parachute, only to find out heaven made a mistake and he's still alive -- and yet I felt little emotion by the unfolding of events outside of the first act. I'm not entirely sure why, but it may partially be because the third act turns into a court case between heaven and earth that basically becomes a dick measuring contest between America and Britain because... love.
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