#939: POWELL, Michael and PRESSBURGER, Emeric: A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

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POWELL, Michael and PRESSBURGER, Emeric (United Kingdom)
A Matter Of Life And Death [1946]
Spine #939
Blu-ray


After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plane, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) encounters the American radio operator (Kim Hunter) to whom he has just delivered his dying wishes, and, face-to-face on a tranquil English beach, the pair fall in love. When a messenger from the hereafter arrives to correct the bureaucratic error that spared his life, Peter must mount a fierce defense for his right to stay on earth — painted by production designer Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff as a rich Technicolor Eden — climbing a wise staircase to stand trial in a starkly beautiful, black-and-white modernist afterlife. Intended to smooth tensions between the wartime allies Britain and America, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's richly humanistic A Matter of Life and Death traverses time and space to make a case for the transcendent value of love.

104 minutes
Color/Black & White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writers

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

 The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek.

Commentary

From 2009 featuring film scholar Ian Christie.

Interview

With editor Thelma Schoonmaker, director Powell’s widow.

Short documentary

On the film’s special effects featuring film historian Craig Barron and visual-effects artist Harrison Ellenshaw.

The Colour Merchant

A 1998 short film featuring DP Jack Cardiff.

The South Bank Show: “Michael Powell”

A 1986 television program featuring Powell.

Restoration demonstration

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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