A Matter of Life and Death

Please note the purpose of this blog is to discuss established classics that I've never seen. As such, the following is laden with spoilers.

Why So Long?
This one is inexcusable isn't it? Much like my earlier posting on The Exorcist or my planned post on La Dolce Vita. It's not like I'm ignorant of the Powell and Pressburger canon, just somehow never got around to watching this or indeed many of their other films. When I think of their place in film history that I'm only getting around to this is fairly shameful. Still, here now ain't I? Going to crack to Black Narcissus and Peeping Tom very soon too.


And?

Well there's obviously a reason that this one frequents the recommended viewing lists of Film Schools and Film magazines the world over. This is principally on account of its style; it was one of the earliest films to move between Technicolor and black and white to create the sense of different worlds or different environments. But it would be a mistake to claim this as all style and no substance. If we think of it in terms of when it was made and released, the resonance and importance of the film cannot be underestimated. Filmed shortly after the Allies had declared victory in Europe and Asia, the film faced an audience worn down by six years of unimaginable conflict and destruction. Thoughts were principally concerned with those who we had lost, what we had lost them for and what we had lost them to.

"Yes June I'm bailing out, but there's a catch, I've got no parachute"

Just consider the rather more cold reception the film's of the Italian Neo-Realist movement were released to. The likes of Germania Anno Zero are, correctly, revered now but understandably the cinema-going audience between 1945 and 1950 weren't exactly in a mood for morbid reflections when it came to entertainment. Imagine hearing of the Atom Bomb, the destruction of Dresden and the Holocaust and then popping into a theatre for ninety-minutes on the life of young  boy struggling to survive in a decimated Berlin. Here, Powell and Pressburger get the mood spot on. One thing I feel that has got lost in the decades since this film was released is just how funny it is, and crammed with great one-liners.

The film tells the story of Peter Carter (David Niven), a pilot who upon returning from a bombing run over Europe is forced to accept that he will need to jump without a parachute. Embracing his death as an inevitability he spends his last moments talking to and falling in love with June (Kim Hunter), the radio operator guiding the pilots home. Awaking the next morning, Peter is shocked to find himself still very much alive, he finds June and the two begin a love affair. Well, there's always a hitch in these things and this instance its kind of obvious, Peter wasn't supposed to survive the fall. The man charged with ushering him and all other pilots into the afterlife that evening missed him in the fog. The conductor appears and demands that he now cross over. Citing circumstances beyond his control, Peter appeals the decision asking that they make an exception now that he has fallen for June.

The main question that has arisen over the years, is whether or not Peter's visions are real. The introduction at the beginning would seem to confirm that they are fake, referring to the tale as one that takes place "in this world and a world in the mind of a young pilot…". It's also an idea Powell and Pressburger were keen to reinforce; the symptoms Peter experiences matches what was known about mental illness at the time and the Judge from Peter's appeal also plays a brain surgeon. Yet, it is hard to ignore the idea that the other world is very much a real place. After all, many scenes take place in this other world without Peter's presence and there is the subplot concerning a book on the chess grand masters. Like Christopher Nolan's Inception, I feel the film is purposefully ambiguous. Not only does it have the short-term benefit of creating more conversations about the film but it also allows the film to have different meanings to different viewers. It will resonate as much with the Atheist as with the Christian; in fact it will appeal to any of the religious persuasion as the other world is never named, nor is God/Allah/Buddha/Yahweh/Krishna.

Although not famous for his range, David Niven does exactly what is asked of him and as usual knocks it out of the park. The film will, rightly, be the one he is most remembered for; a credit as much to Niven as to Powell and Pressburger that this performance was not outstripped by his turn in Murder by Death. Kim Hunter on the other hand will always be Stella from A Streetcar Named Desire, what could possibly outstrip that? However A Matter of Life and Death comes a close second and on page it’s hard to think that June would have been anything more than a mere damsel, there to look lovely next to David Niven. Ms Hunter manages to infuse June with a life and a personality beyond that which the writers gave her. 


Will You Be Watching It Again?
Oh yes, many times.


Has Any Light Been Shone on Some Heretofore Unknown Bit of Pop Culture?
Where does one even begin? The film's iconography is buried into our pop culture but in a such a way that everyone seems to have forgotten that this is where that iconography originated, like those nods to Citizen Kane in The Simpsons.