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A Matter of Life and Death (1945)

Emetic Pressburger and Michael Powell were amongst our greatest filmmakers.  “COLONEL BLIMP” is a classic and so is “A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH“, which was on BBC2 yesterday.

The story is surreal. David Niven plays Squadron Leader George Carter, who bails out of his plane during World War Two. His last communication is over a walkie-talkie with June (Kim Hunter) on the ground. Niven/Carter says it’s rather ironic as the debonair airman had known many women, but his dying conversation is with someone he had never met. He falls to the ground and the film switches to heaven where there is confusion as he is marked down as an arrival.

Has he survived? You really don’t know. His surgeon (played by Roger Livesey who was Colonel Blimp in the film of that name) dies in a motor bike accident before he can operate for brain damage.  Another surgeon performs the operation and the action is frozen by a visitor from heaven dressed as 19th century French dandy (Marius Goring). Carter is then tried by a celestial court. Roger Livesey is the defending counsel and Raymond Massey the  prosecutor. It all ends happily with Niven/Carter taking June in his arms.

Dated?  In some ways, but in others daring and futuristic. Mention must be made of that superb cameraman Jack Cardiff. His list of credits including “THE AFRICAN QUEEN” is impressive and years ago I attended a lecture given by him. The modern British critic rarely mentions camerawork but that is how Stanley Kubrick started his career and now there is a tribute film to “BREATHLESS. Jean Luc Godard was also a master of camerawork. The filming – particularly the celestial trial and close ups of Raymond Massey – are stunning.

Pressburger and Powell were an unlikely combination. Pressburger was an emigre from central Europe whose  mother died in Auschwitz whilst Powell was very British and posh. However they were both brilliant story tellers and imaginative film makers.

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About Neil Rosen

Neil went to the City of London School and Manchester University graduating with a 1st in economics. After a brief stint in accountancy, Neil emigrated to a kibbutz In Israel. His articles on the burgeoning Israeli film industry earned comparisons to Truffaut and Godard in Cahiers du Cinema. Now one of the world's leading film critics and moderators at film Festivals Neil has written definitively in his book Kosher Nostra on Jewish post war actors. Neil lives with his family in North London. More Posts