SUBJECTS

Future life -- Drama, Heaven -- Drama, Intercountry marriage -- Great Britain -- Drama, Near-death experiences -- Drama, World War, 1939-1945 -- Great Britain -- Drama

A Matter of Life and Death

(Stairway to Heaven)

Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
United Kingdom, 1946

Archival Print

featuring

David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote,

The first of Powell and Pressburger’s three Jack Cardiff–shot masterpieces, this is postwar propaganda at its finest: a tribute to love between individuals and reconciliation between nations. An effortlessly charming David Niven plays Peter Carter, an English fighter pilot who falls in love with June (Kim Hunter), the American radio dispatcher he speaks to just before leaping from his plane without a parachute. When Peter miraculously survives, he tries to make up for lost time with his Yankee love—but it appears that heaven can’t wait. What follows is part love story and part medical drama, all mixed up with a wonderfully bizarre trial scene.

Jonathan L. Knapp
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • Michael Powell
Cinematographer
  • Jack Cardiff
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • 35mm
  • 104 mins
Permission
  • Sony Pictures
Additional Info
  • Preserved by the Academy Film Archive
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View A Matter of Life and Death documents  

Michael Powell's bookends (review), Los Angeles Times, Dennis Lim, 2008

Matters of life and death : the films of Michael Powell (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, James Quandt, 2002

A matter of life and death (program note), Film Society of Lincoln Center, 2002

Legendary filmmaker Michael Powell in person! (flyer), California State University, Sonoma, 1997

Stairway to heaven (A matter of life and death) (program note), Toronto International Film Festival, Sally Potter, 1997

Powell's 'Stairway' still leads somewhere (review), Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan, 1995

A production of the Archers: the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (program note), Film Forum (New York), 1995

A tribute to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (program note), San Francisco International Film Festival, David Thomson, 1995

A matter of life and death (review), Village Voice, Elliott Stein, 1995

A matter of life and death (program note), San Francisco International Film Festival, 1995

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