A Matter of Life and Death
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1946 • United Kingdom
Starring David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter
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 wide 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.
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A Matter of Life and Death
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1946 • United Kingdom
Starring David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim HunterAfter 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 de...
Extras
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A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH Commentary
This commentary by film historian Ian Christie was recorded in 2009.
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Martin Scorsese on A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese discusses his appreciation for the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in general and A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH in particular in this interview, recorded in 2008.
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Thelma Schoonmaker on A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Academy Award-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker is the widow of director Michael Powell. In this interview, conducted in March 2018, she discusses Powell's personal connection to A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, as well as her own appreciation for the film.
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The Colour Merchant
Craig McCall spent many years making his 2010 feature documentary Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff. In the process, the filmmaker created this 1998 short, which features Cardiff discussing his cinematography on A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
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Special Effects
Visual-effects supervisor and film historian Craig Barron and visual-effects artist Harrison Ellenshaw discuss the groundbreaking use of effects in A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, as well as the work of the film's production designer, Alfred Junge.
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The South Bank Show: Michael Powell
This 1986 documentary, directed by David Hinton and hosted by Melvyn Bragg, features an extensive interview in which Michael Powell discusses his life in filmmaking.
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A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH Restoration Demonstration
