Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11549 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-10-14
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.com
Briefed by the Ministry of Information to make a film that would foster Anglo-American relations in the post-war period, innovative filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger came up with A Matter of Life and Death, an extravagant and extraordinary fantasy in which David Niven stars as a downed pilot who must justify his continuing existence to a heavenly panel because he has made the mistake of falling in love with an American girl (Kim Hunter) when he really should have been dead. National stereotypes are lampooned as the angelic judges squabble over his fate. In a neat reversal of expectations, the Heaven sequences are black and white, while Earth is seen in Technicolor. Daring cinematography mixes monochrome and color, incorporates time-lapse images, and even toys with background "time freezes" 50 years before The Matrix. Roger Livesey and Raymond Massey lead the fine supporting cast. This is one of the undoubted jewels of British cinema. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

Brilliant, intelligent fantasy
I know this movie under its original UK title, A Matter of Life and Death, and it's one of the finest, wittiest meditations ever on the relationship between earth and heaven, law and justice, England and America.

Bomber pilot Niven finds himself in a rapidly disintegrating aircraft, shortly to come down over the sea. His last radio message is to an American WAC, Kim Hunter, who falls in love with him during their brief conversation. Then they lose contact, the plane comes down and Niven is washed up on a beach - but much to his surprise, he's not dead. He meets Hunter and they connect.

However, up in heaven, things are not well. Niven should have died, and a heavenly messenger (Marius Goring as a deeply camp French aristocrat) is sent to earth to persuade Niven that he's in the wrong place. Meanwhile, Niven is suffering appalling headaches. His doctor (lovably blurry-voiced Roger Livesey) diagnoses a brain injury. On earth, Niven must have a difficult operation. In heaven, he must go on trial for his right to stay alive.

Powell and Pressburger made the movie as part of a wartime propaganda effort to defuse tension between American servicemen stationed in Britain and the British people, who occasionally resented the Americans' higher pay, better uniforms and general chutzpah. But the film-makers exceeded their brief by several degrees. This is a lovely bit of movie-making; one of the wittier conceits is that life on earth is depicted on sumptuous technicolour, while heaven is in silvery black-and-white (the normal practice would have been to have it the other way round). Niven is a live wire, Livesey is as gruff and cuddly as ever, Goring is bright and cheeky (when he first arrives on earth and the rose in his buttonhole turns from grey to crimson, he sniffs it and sighs "Ah! Technicolor!"), Raymond Massey is cragginess incarnate, plus there's the gorgeous ice-queen Kathleen Byron as an angelic receptionist...ahhh. They don't make films as mad and as intelligent as this any more. (Well, maybe Trainspotting.) Great stuff.

Little Known Masterpiece Should be Released on DVD
I was a film student when I came upon this movie, on television, completely by chance. I'd never even heard of it; director Powell's "Peeping Tom" and "The Red Shoes," yes, but not his "Stairway to Heaven." The opening sequence had me in tears; it's a lovely mini-movie on its own. The rest of the picture held me spellbound with its delicate blending of earthy humanity and star-dust spirituality. Later, I discovered I'd not really seen the real "Stairway to Heaven." TV prints were all black & white, while the theatrical version was color with black & white fantasy sequences. Now I long to own it and share it...AND I WANT IT ON DVD! Hear my plea, Columbia Pictures! I've recommended this movie to many people and some have even tracked down one of the few remaining copies on VHS and bought it. Put it out on DVD and I will sing it's praises 'til "Stairway to Heaven reaches the top 1000 on Amazon's Sales list.

One of those movies...
You often hear the phrase 'They don't make movies like this anymore'. Well, for me, this is the movie that first made me feel that way about a movie. Trust me, when this movie finally comes out on DVD, pick it up: you won't be disappointed. I'm not waiting for a US release - For Christmas I'm getting myself a region-free DVD player that converts PAL to NTSC and I'm going to get the British version that's available right now. I'm tired of waiting years for US studios to get their act together regarding classic movies that are already available on DVD in other countries.