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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- my all time favourite film, 3 February 2005 Author: Sean68 from United Kingdom
I first see this film almost 21 years ago when it was an ITV (before the days of cable and satellite) Matinée. i was off School with the Mumps and i was totally wrapped in the film. i have had it on bought video for about 10 years and i want to obtain a DVD copy of it. David Niven is my all time favourite actor and i think it is a travesty that he was over looked so many times when the Oscars came around. i also think that the queen should have knighted him as he easily did as much for the movie industry if not more than Sean Connery or Anthony Hopkins. the way the film switches from black and white to colour and back again is well done and the film has such stellar actors as Roger Livesy, Marius Goring and an early appearance from Richard Attenborough.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Wonderfully witty, very imaginative, deeply romantic, 23 December 2003 Author: trpdean from New York, New York
I just watched this for the first time in a long time - I had forgotten both how imaginative the images were, and how witty the movie is. I had not forgotten however the opening scenes which are (with the scene at the Candlelight Club in Waterloo Bridge) among the most romantic ever filmed.Anyone interested in politics or history will love the movie's offhand references - anyone interested in romance will be moved by Hunter-Niven, and anyone who loves visual imagery will enjoy the depiction of the afterworld.My favorite movie remains "Odd Man Out" made near the same time - but this one is superb.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- The Archers' Greatest Film, 14 October 2003 Author: Howard Morley (luke@morleys.demon.co.uk) from London, England
I watched the film tonight for the nth time known to us in the U.K. as, "A Matter of Life & Death" and in the U.S.A as, "Stairway to Heaven".I feel I must add my eulogy to the litany of praise that has gone before by my esteemed colleagues and as my own tribute to the late Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger who produced this the Archers' greatest film.I had previously read MP's autobiography, "A Life in Movies" (1986) to understand more about this imaginative producer and director.Conceived as a film during WWII to help improve Anglo-American relations, it poses many philosophical questions to the viewer.The very justification of Britain's colonial past is examined during the celestial trial but it's central tenet is that whereas love is the most powerful force on Earth, in the heavens it is the law of the Universe which governs all things.How can the viewer not fall a bit in love with our beautiful American WAC controller, June (Kim Hunter), as she instinctivly feels the power of love for Sqn. Ldr. Peter Carter (David Niven) from the time she first hears his hopeless speech on air from the burning cockpit of his Lancaster before he falls to Earth without a parachute, to her absolute willingness to prove her love for him (and to the jury), by stepping onto the "Stairway to Heaven" during the trial.She will provide the Hereafter with an acceptable substitute to make up for Peter's missing soul which should have been delivered by the French conducter, (Marius Goring) into the celestial account book, but due to English fog, could not be traced for 20 hours by which time his life had radically changed.This seems to indicate that throughout our lives, our destiny is being constantly changed by our relationships with the people we meet here on Earth and by circumstance.I was a bit surprised that colour was not used in the Hereafter scenes and B&W on Earth rather than vice-versa.However since most of the action takes place on Earth, we would have missed out on the lush "Technicolor" sequences.As a strong amateur chess player, I do own Dr. Alexander Alekhine's, "My Best Games of Chess 1924-1937" borrowed by the French conductor.Alekhine who was Russian by birth, became world champion in 1927 in Buenos Aires when he defeated the previously invincible Cuban, Jose Raoul Capablanca y Graupera in a titanic struggle.Alekhine died undefeated in Lisbon, Portugal in 1946 and this was the same year the film was produced.Incidentally Andre Danican Philidor, French by birth (1726-1795) and mentioned by the French conductor, was probably the strongest player of his day.This film was produced before computer cloning was invented for large crowd scenes (e.g. "Gladiator") and the number of extras used in the trial scene takes your breath away as they are revealed rank upon rank as the camera recedes back into a wide angle shot.Indeed the scope of the film embraces Astronomy, Politics, Philosophy, Theology, Medical Science and Poetry amongst other disciplines.The staircase scene should have taken the Oscar for "Most Imaginative Set" as it transports the viewer to a place where time stands still in space.This unique film was written, directed and produced by Powell & Pressburger.You will want to see some of their other collaberations after this offering.I can recommend "Gone To Earth" and "The Red Shoes" both from this era.I rated it 8/10.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Among the finest films that I have seen., 5 June 2002 Author: AJ Averett (ajaverett@hotmail.com) from Potsdam, New York, U.S.A.
A Matter of Life and Death is one of my all-time favorite films. In conception and execution, from story to casting, from photography to the musical score by Allan Gray and the phenomenal art direction and special effects, Powell and Pressburger have created a seemless confluence of wit and fantasy, drama and humor. This is a film that I enjoy seeing throughout the year and sharing with friends who have not yet discovered this gem, as well as those who are ready for another viewing.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- My Favorite Kim Hunter Movie!, 4 April 2002 Author: tzer0 from The World Of Tomorrow
A Matter of Life And Death (aka Stairway To Heaven) is my favorite Kim Hunter movie. Some might argue that A Streetcar Named Desire is more renowned, or that Planet of the Apes is more popular, but AMOLAD will have you running the gamut of your emotional range. It will pluck at your heart strings and play them like a harp. And if it doesn't touch your heart, then it must be made of stone. Sure, The Wizard of Oz had mixed B & W and Technicolor before. But Hollywood has never made a film like this. No one has. There are no other film like this.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- It was made in heaven., 18 March 2002 Author: dbdumonteil
How wonderful!This is one of most beautiful movies ever done.It even surpasses,in Mickael Powell filmography the thriller "peeping tom"(1960) Words lack to describe such a witty and clever plot -which encompasses metaphysical meditation and schoolboys jokes-,such an inventive cinematography -which uses blazing color for the earth and black and white for the beyond-.This unique masterpiece recalls sometimes the second parts of Hathaway's "Peter Ibbetson"(1935)and Fritz Lang's "der müde Tod"(1921),and it literally dwarves such works as"les visiteurs du soir" (1942)" les jeux sont faits "(1947) "the sixth sense" (1999) Jacob's ladder (1990) wings of desire (1988) and its inferior remake "city of angels" (1998).I do not exaggerate:emotionally and technically "a matter of death" wins hands down.A fighter pilot (Niven) has to make a jump without a parachute.Before,he leaves a radio message to a woman at the air base(Hunter)Their conversation will make you cry if you listen with your heart.He should have died,but,because of the British fog,he 's caught between our earth and the other world.Then begins an extraordinary story,original to a fault,which would make blush a lot of scenarists of today.A French messenger from the beyond comes to take him where he should be but the pilot meets again the woman and they fall in love.Powell films now our brave old earth,now the beyond with a peerless virtuosity.His innovations are so powerful they will leave you on the edge of your seat:for instance ,our world often seems out of touch with reality:the desert beach,with this plane ,suddenly disturbing the strange quietness of the place(doesn't it remind you of an Hitchcock famous scene?);the beautiful -and almost magical - garden where the messenger meets his "customer" ;the doctor's observatory,where he watches his compatriots as if he were a deity himself;the "a midsummer's night dream" rehearsals which would seem completely irrelevant in another context:no connection with the plot at all,and however,it adds to the dreamlike atmosphere.The beyond,far from the grand guignol of today with its monsters and ridiculous paraphernalia ,is masterfully dreamed up:borrowing from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis",it features a huge stair with imposing statues ,and gigantic rooms with a cast of thousands.But in the prologue,Powell did show us the whole universe,and he ironically pointed out:"this is our earth;it's part of it all;reassuring isn't it?"Even the human beyond is a dust in the infinite space .What can the English/American rivalities mean when even the whole history will disappear someday.One should bear in mind that "A matter of death" was made first as a work of propaganda on request of the British government to sweeten the American /British relationship that were paradoxically tense at the time.Love ,like in "Peter Ibbetson" ,triumphs over human pettiness,and what can Boston Tea Party memories do against the girl's tears,collected on a rose?A movie to cherish,a movie to treasure,one of the very few which will still improve with time.See it at any cost.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- My Favorite Movie of All Time, 15 August 2000 Author: oh madeline from New London, New Hampshire
Powell/Pressburger was a remarkable directorial duo -- and five of their films are among my top 10, but my all-time favorite movie is A Matter of Life And Death -- known in the US as Stairway to Heaven. This is the most romantic, wittiest, most clever, and altogether the most enjoyable movie I have ever seen. David Niven is at his most drop-dead dashing, and Roger Livesey is the doctor and friend all of us would love to have. This movie makes me laugh, cry, and most of all swoon. I just love it.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Intoxicating - one of the five greatest films ever made., 20 June 2000 Author: isidore-lucien ducasse (hitch1899_@hotmail.com) from montevideo, uruguay
In an almost stereotypically English way, this heartstopping extravaganza - this sweeping melange of wild fantastic romance, colour, dementia, terror, satire, folly, geometry, comedy and hallucination - is more acclaimed for what it is not (and it is not a 'typical' English film, it is not full of stiff-upper-lippery and crippled restraint, it is not a documentary-like war film) than for what it most joyously is, one of the strangest, most troubling, yet life-affirming things in the whole world ever. If I incline to hyperbole - and how can one speak of the Archers without hyperbole? -than I make no apologies: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH is one of my desert island films, and I could hug it until it chokes.In a film where every scene is a hymn to excess, Romanticism, daring, yet imbued with irony and a very English eccentricity, where bursting composition, overripe colour, playful music (now swelling and romantic, now mockingly cheerful, now chilling and foreboding) and drunken editing cohere to create not formal perfection, but rapturous rupture - and this IS a film that posits love as either a demented hallucination or a bond stronger than heaven itself - how can one choose a favourite?Is it the opening credits, with its splashes of blue paint, always with a light tugging at the top, until the black clouds over our writers'-producers'-directors' names? Is it the incredible opening narration, with the reassuringly BBC voiceover which can explain even the universe, before we're hurled into war, that bloody mockery of celestial harmony, and begetter of the subsequent narrative's ambiguity - is what follows the febrile imaginings of a shell-shocked airman, or can we truly believe in chilly heaven, dapper French conductors, stairways, roses, tears?Is it that narrative's opening sequence, beginning where most films would end, with unutterably brave, slightly silly, tear-choking English fatalism, a scene bursting with death and love, the twin motors of a film about a romance engendered without either lover ever setting eyes on one another: this vies with Scottie and Judy's kiss in VERTIGO as the greatest, most nerve-wracking, sweat-inducing, pulse-quickening, dread-creeping scene in all cinema?Is it that awesome vision of heaven, a geometric conception of insane order, a dream-like METROPOLIS which I find quite appealing - it's not enough to suggest that monochrome heaven competes with Technicolour Earth - the crazed logic of heaven becomes increasingly apparent, culminating in the extraordinary courtroom sequence which has all the pedantic logic of an insane asylum, while Earth, full of good sense - and who would give up love for death? - has a crucial monochrome sequence, where Frank meets his friend MacEwan organising Peter's operation, the two realms meeting to prepare the arena for combat. The heaven sequences are often considered satirical of Labour bureaucracy, and the grey, mechanistic sameness seems to mirror Tory fears, but the hopeful smile on Attenborough's face, never having seen such happiness, is not to be discounted, and the chilling Flanders-like assembly-line of wings signalling a reality has nothing to do with socialism (British style, anyway), while we must remember tha Powell was once a banker.What about Peter awakening from his death, the transformation of dull, isolated, war-pulverised England into a plausible heaven, with its naked pipe-playing boy-shepherds and oneiric dogs - Powell's sense of the magic of nature has never been more in evidence than here, as a mere beach feels like another world, and the wind rustles the reeds, charged with more than air. Or my own favourite scene, when the splendid Conductor interrupts Peter and June's idyll: its brazen infusion of romance, suspended time, fantasy and realism, its threat of sundered happiness, is almost too much, an Archers' signature scene? Or the simply dazzling pingpong sequence, a sleeping Peter barred from the game of Frank and June, passive masculinity being talked about by others, his fate in their non-militaristic hands.I could go on. Or I could just go back and watch it again. I'd love to be able to disengage myself, and watch it 'intellectually' - talk about the link between godlike viewpoints, seeing (constantly distorted throughout) and the cinema (Frank's disturbing camera obscura, where the doctor-god-director observes his minions, making diagnoses, mirrored in the light looking down on Peter as he is being operated on, closing his eyes; or relate the film's surprisingly cutting satire, about how war truly affected its agents, how the perfect Englishman is a mentally fragile timebomb waiting to explode, how nationality is discussed in the Courtromm sequence with astonishing, critical directness (literally a lot of air spouted by dead men) - this celebration of Englishness is also its keenest critique; I could talk about how the film carefully modulates between the possibilities of madness, Expressionism or 'plausibility'. But I can't. This is one for the heart, when you close your eyes, and see what's inside.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- An Audacious and Moving Film, 28 May 2000 Author: etherealtb from Los Angeles, CA
From the opening moments of "A Matter of Life and Death" when the narrator says, "This is the Universe!! Big, isn't it?" The audience knows they are going to go on a journey in film like no other.What continues to amaze me, is that after over 55 years, there STILL has never been a film as fearless and audacious as this one. So many risks are taken by Powell and Pressburger; it's a wonder that the film holds together as brilliantly as it does.If you have never seen a P&P film, this is a good place to start. In "A Matter of Life and Death" they go way out on a limb with subject matter & characterization, dancing dangerously close to "going over the top." But while P&P succeeded in examining the meaning of life, love and our place in the universe as human beings; they still managed to make this film irreverently funny!
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Unique, distinctively English movie, 27 August 1999 Author: allyjack from toronto
Every time I see this film, I have the same initial reluctance to yield to a fantasy that's so stubbornly English (my favourite moment in this respect would be Trubshawe's message from behind the grave: "What ho!"), but then you remember that that's largely the point - to assert the timelessness of a distinctive (and as presented here, quite coherent) quality of Englishness - however quaint and eccentric. Even in 46, Powell had the foresight to use a cricket broadcast as the prosecution's evidence of British failings. But then Livesey shoots back with a US blues radio station, meant to demonstrate the failings of America (with a song the lyrics of which both sides smugly concede to not understanding). There's a more than faint snobbery there, and I think it's that the blues is too "messy" to be accommodated within the film's orderliness - it's no surprise that Powell's view of heaven (and perhaps of people) would be as methodical as the army. It's a grand vision though - the trial space is a vast semi-classical arena; and there are countless beautiful shots, culminating in the trial participants descending into the operating room on the huge celestial staircase. The opening sequence, with Niven going down in his plane on one end of the radio and Hunter in the control booth on the other, is a beautifully poised exchange of a bond forged amid a crisis; yet even there, Niven's debonair stoicism is almost too much even for a melodrama/fantasy: the lasting ambiguity about Powell is how much he knows this; how much he pushes his clipped view of Englishness to the hilt, in pursuit of the idiosyncratic surrealism he conjures so brilliantly.
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