191. A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

Directed By Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Synopsis

A bomber pilot is supposed to die after an accident, he falls in love with the radio operator while on the plane just before he is supposed to die. He doesn't because Conductor 71, a heaven sent kind of Grim Reaper can't find him through the British pea-soup fog. Now the massive burocracy of the other world has a problem, an invoice without a death... They want to get him back, but he is in love and doesn't want to go back, so he appeals and goes to court. Is it all in his head?

Review

This is Powell and Pressburger at their best, well Colonel Blimp might have been slightly better but the films are both perfect 10's. I don't even know where to start here, well lets start with the superficial content of the film. The acting highlights here are the chap of chaps in David Niven and Roger Livesey, who must be some kind of P&P fetish because in three films by them that we've seen he's been there, always superb. Then there is the set design, which is fantastic in all senses of the word, it is beautiful, innovative, modernist art.

Then there is the spectacular use of colour in the film, I won't say Technicolor, because the most interesting thing is the contrast between black and white and Technicolor scenes, the other world is in black and white and earth is in colour, you can't get much more life affirming than that. And when colour is used it is astonishing.

Now there are the underlying ideas of the film which are pretty interesting and pretty new to this list, firstly what could seem like a patriotic film for the UK manages to sting the Imperial pride, particularly in the trial scene where it is stated that there is no country where you could find a fair jury for Britain because they all have grievances. It is particularly interesting to notice the Indian member of the jury as one of the examples of people who would condemn a British man, remember this is at least a year before Indian Independence. A pretty sensitive topic, and there is an Irish guy next to the Indian...

Then there is the whole theme of was it in his head or not? It isn't a cop out because you end up with no answer and a plausible explanation for why it would have happened in his head, but if you are of a religious persuasion nothing disproves the reality of the other world. It is the ultimate agnostic film, hey the supposed "heaven" is completely multi-denominational, you see Sikhs, Hindus, Puritans, Chinese etc.. there is no committal on what is on the other side.

Another great film by Powell and Pressburger, unmissable.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

There is no explicit reference to "the other world" as Heaven. The word is only used twice, in one conversation, where it may be taken as an adjective. Powell and Pressburger objected to the American distributor's renaming it as Stairway to Heaven, but had to put up with it. The distributor believed that American audiences wouldn't want to see a film with the word "Death" in the title, especially just after World War II.

The architecture of the other world is noticeably modernist; vast and open plan, with huge circular observation holes beneath which the clouds of Earth can be seen. This vision was later the inspiration for the design of a bus station in Walsall, England, by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, and the film's amphitheatre court scene was rendered by BT in an TV advertisement in about 2002 as a metaphor for communication technology, especially the Internet.

Big Train Spoof: