Powell & Pressburger: A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)
October 9, 2024
Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Michael Powell’s favorite film makes reality fantastical, as a pilot (David Niven) bails out without a parachute, having fallen in love with radio operator Kim Hunter’s voice. He survives, they’re in love, but Heaven is short one soul, so Niven must go on trial in a vast celestial amphitheater in order to stay alive. Can the universe’s love manifest as a teardrop? With Roger Livesey.
Thelma Schoonmaker scheduled to attend.
On the Blog - Film Notes: A Matter of Life and Death
Individual Tickets: Select showtime to purchase.
Passes: $125 | $85 SIFF Members - includes full series access
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
The voice of an unseen cosmic entity gives us an awe-inspiring tour of our galaxy. Worlds floating in blue, stars flaming out and being born. As above, so below. In a wink Powell and Pressburger put us in a tight space on fire. A flaming British bomber cabin, it’s sole survivor getting ready to bail out—without a parachute. Peter Carter (David Niven) shares his last moments with an American radio operator named June (Kim Hunter). Peter only knows her voice, and that he loves her. He tells her so, then slips down into the black void of air. Miraculously, he survives, he’s alive on a beach, and here comes June on her bicycle! Their love is meant to be, like heaven’s golden plan. But wait—heaven is perturbed. Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) a French aristocrat killed in the Revolution, enters our Technicolor world from the bureaucratically pearl gray-and-black heaven, stops time, and tells Peter he should have died in the fall and he must now begin his celestial afterlife. Just as the irreverent Archers daringly reashaped the rules of cinematic storytelling, their Peter Carter is determined to stay alive on Earth with June. But heaven is short one soul, a cosmic imbalance must be corrected, and the ensuing conflict involves Peter’s friend Dr. Reeves (Roger Livesey), a vast moving Stairway to Heaven, and a climactic amphitheater trial there overseen by legions of British and American (Raymond Massey) historical figures. Powell and Pressburger’s genius prompts them to portray deeply serious things lightly: the universe’s strongest force manifests as a teardrop on a rose petal. Powell loved this film best, because it caught the “springtime” mood of World War II ending in Europe, life beginning anew. As the London Times said, “Reprieved from total ruin, men may begin to breath again and indulge in visions….” Technicolor.
—Greg Olson
- Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Principal Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Richard Attenboough, Raymond Massey
- Country: United Kingdom
- Year: 1946
- Running Time: 104 min.
- Producer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Screenplay: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Cinematographers: Jack Cardiff
- Editors: Reginald Mills
- Music: Allan Gray
- Filmography: Night Ambush (1957), Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956), The Tales of Hoffman (1951), The Fighting Pimpernel (1950), Gone to Earth (1950), Hour of Glory (1949), Black Narcissus (1947), I Know Where I’m Going (1945), A Canterbury Tale (1944), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942)
- International Sales: Universal Pictures