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Select media
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Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way.
Film details
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Featuring
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Directors
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Country
United Kingdom
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Year
1946
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Genres
Fantasy War
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Stairway to Heaven Alternative
Introduction
“A Matter of Life and Death gave the filmmakers more opportunities than ever for magic... A truly cinematic story that could not be told in any other medium.”
Kevin Macdonald, Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter, 1994
Set in a gorgeously photographed Technicolor England and a monochrome heaven, A Matter of Life and Death took the imaginative daring of jointly credited writer-producer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to new heights.
David Niven plays a British airman who survives a plane crash and falls in love with an American radio operator (Kim Hunter), only to be summoned to the afterlife by a heavenly ‘Conductor’ (Marius Goring). But is heaven just a hallucination brought on by brain injury?
Powell and Pressburger layer breathtaking visual tricks on top of this whimsical premise, such as a celebrated point-of-view shot in which our hero’s eyelid closes over the camera lens. The film also works as a sly satire on Anglo-American relations at the end of WWII.
This was the first feature photographed by the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, previously camera operator on Powell and Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Peter David Carter
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Dr Frank Reeves
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Abraham Farlan
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June
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Conductor 71
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the judge/the surgeon
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Bob Trubshaw
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chief recorder
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an officer angel
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an American pilot
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an English pilot
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the vicar
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Dr Gaertler
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Dr McEwen
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Mrs Tucker
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[GI]
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[ARP warden]
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[James Monahan, Irishman]
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[Patrick Aloyusius Mahoney, policeman]
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[nurse]
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[girl]
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[man on celestial stairway]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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Directed by
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Assistant Director
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[Assistant Director (2nd)]
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[Assistant Director (3rd)]
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[Assistant Director (3rd)]
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[Continuity]
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[Assistant Continuity]
Production:
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A Production of the Archers
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[Production Company]
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J. Arthur Rank Presents
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Produced by
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Produced by
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Assistant Producer
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Unit Manager
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Made at
Writing:
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Written by
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Written by
Photography:
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Photographed by
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Colour Control
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Associate [Colour Control]
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Camera Operator
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Motor Bike Shots
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[Camera Operator (2nd)]
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[Focus Puller]
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[Clapper Loader]
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Chief Electrician
Stills:
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[Stills]
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[Special Portraits]
Special Effects:
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Special Effects
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Special Effects
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Special Effects
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Additional Effects
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[Additional Effects]
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[Additional Effects]
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[Back Projection]
Editing:
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Editor
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Liaison Editor
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[Assistant Editor]
Design:
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Production Designed by
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Assistant Art Director
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[Draughtsman]
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[Draughtsman]
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[Draughtsman]
Costumes:
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Costumes
Make-up:
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Make-up
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Hair Styles
Music:
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Music Composed by
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[Music] Conducted by
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Assistant Music Conductor
Sound:
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Sound Recorder
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[Sound Camera Operator]
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[Sound Maintenance]
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[Dubbing Sound Camera]
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Sound System
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[Boom Operator]
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[Boom Assistant]
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[Boom Assistant]
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[Dubbing Crew]
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[Dubbing Crew]
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[Pre-dubbing]
Consultant:
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[Table Tennis Trainer/Adviser]
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[Operating Theatre Technical Advisser]
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Ranked 90th in the critics’ poll