A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

Michael Powell (written by) and
Emeric Pressburger (written by)

Release Date:

March 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance | War

Tagline:

Neither Heaven nor Earth could keep them apart!

Plot:

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court.

Plot Keywords:

Heaven | Trial | Love | Fog | England

Awards:

1 win

Cast

David Niven	...	Peter Carter
Kim Hunter	...	June
Robert Coote	...	Bob Trubshawe
Kathleen Byron	...	An Angel
Richard Attenborough	...	An English Pilot
Bonar Colleano	...	An American Pilot (also as Bonor Colleano)
Joan Maude	...	Chief Recorder
Marius Goring	...	Conductor 71
Roger Livesey	...	Doctor Frank Reeves
Robert Atkins	...	The Vicar
Bob Roberts	...	Dr. Gaertler
Edwin Max	...	Dr. McEwen
Betty Potter	...	Mrs. Tucker
Abraham Sofaer	...	The Judge / The Surgeon
Raymond Massey	...	Abraham Farlan

Also Known As:

Stairway to Heaven (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White (Dye-Monochrome) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | USA:PG (1995) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #11724) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:T | UK:U (video rating) (1995) (uncut) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | Ireland:G

Filming Locations:

D&P Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Archers, The

Trivia:

It was during a visit to Hollywood in 1945 that director Michael Powell decided to cast the then-unknown Kim Hunter as June, the American servicewoman, largely upon the recommendation of Alfred Hitchcock, who had done a series of screen tests of actors and actresses auditioning for parts in his upcoming production, Notorious (1946). The trouble was that in these tests, Hunter was not seen but, rather, heard off-camera, feeding lines and cues to the actors Hitchcock was actually testing. But Hitchcock assured Powell that he would arrange a "face-to-face" with Hunter and her agent, so that he could see for himself whether she fit the requirements of the "all-American" girl Powell had envisioned opposite David Niven. And upon first encountering Hunter, Powell agreed with Hitchcock that she indeed was a perfect choice for the role.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The prologue narrator refers to stars and regions of gas between them, then says that "the starlight makes the gas transparent, and where there are no stars, it appears as dark obscuring clouds." Transparency is actually caused not by starlight but by the absence of dust; starlight will either have no effect on the appearance of gas, or will cause it to be illuminated or perhaps to fluoresce. Dark obscuring clouds are those that contain dust and are not illuminated.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the universe. Big, isn't it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Shoo Shoo Baby

Stunning archery

The opening flourishes left me purring with delight at their inventiveness - the altered version of the Archers' logo, the introductory disclaimer, the way the camera pans over the cosmos. It's strange to think that `It's a Wonderful Life' came out in the same year. No great coincidence: the 1940s was awash with heaven-and-earth films; but the glowing cotton wool nebulas and cutesy angels of the competition look tattered, something best passed over in silence, when placed next to Alfred Junge's vision.

It continues to look great all the way through, as more and more striking ideas are sprung upon us. I'm not a great fan of mixing colour with black and white in general. One of the two visual schemes almost always looks ugly when placed next to the other. Not so here. Powell dissolves colour into monochrome and monochrome into colour as if it's the most natural thing in the world, a mere change of palettes. Both the colour photography and the black and white could stand on their own.

As for the story ... this may be Pressburger's best script, or at least it would have been had the conclusion been a more logical outcome of preceding events. Other than that it's tight, yet with more going on than I can possibly allude to here. Was the heavenly stuff real or imaginary? (Or both? Perhaps Carter dreamt up a fantasy that was, as it so happened, true.) Everyone says we're meant to neither ask nor answer this question, but I don't see why. I'm sure we ARE meant to ask the question. The film even gives us clues as to what the answer is - indeed, the problem is that there are too many clues and they seem at first to be pointing in different directions. The fact that other things ought to occupy our attention as well doesn't mean that this shouldn't occupy us as well. There is, as I've said before, a lot going on.

Consider the scene in which Abraham Farlan (Heaven's prosecuting lawyer) plays a radio broadcast of a cricket match, and contemptuously says, `The voice of England, 1945.' Dr. Reeves (the defence) acknowledges the exhibit with a great deal of embarrassment, and then produces one of his own: a blues song from America, which Farlan listens to as though he's got a lemon in his mouth. Reeves looks smug.

Snobbery? Well, I don't see why it's snobbish to condemn blues music - and that's not what Powell and Pressburger are doing, anyway. As the song is being played, we get a shot of the American soldiers listening to it: several of them nod their heads to the rhythm, perfectly at home. THEY don't find it incomprehensible. There's something valuable about the song and neither Reeves nor Farlan knows what it is. Reeves probably realises as much. All English audiences (and all Australian, Indian, etc. audiences as well) know without being told that there is something of value in the cricket broadcast, too; and that while Reeves understands THAT, he is unable to explain it to Farlan - hence the blues broadcast, which shows that people can understand each other without sharing an understanding of everything else. It's a clever scene.

One last thing. I found David Niven a bit cold, without the charisma he would acquire later in his career; but even so, I don't think a film has grabbed my heart quite so quickly after the action began, as this one did.