Click here to buy posters! Like other Powell-Pressburger pictures, the highest art of filmmaking is apparent from beginning to end. Clever use of photography, of directing, of making this a magical experience...it is the type of film that is poetic and you just don't want to end. The first ten minutes set us up for the splendour that is to follow. This is real cinema, the way all cinema should be then, now and in the future. Story is set in this world (graced with glorious Technicolor that brings the most beautiful hue to all things it touches), and the Other World (relegated to dye monochrome which makes the contrast to the colour of This World all the more striking) as it exists in the mind of an airman whose imagination has been affected by concussion. Returning from a bomber expedition, Squadron-Leader David Niven is shot up. Last of the crew, minus a parachute, and believing the end is inevitable, before bailing out talks poetry and love over the radio to Kim Hunter, American WAC on nearby air station. Miraculously Niven falls into the sea, is washed ashore apparently unhurt, and by strange coincidence meets Kim. They fall desperately in love. Meanwhile in the Other World there's much bother. Owing to delinquency of Heavenly Conductor Marius Goring, Niven has failed to check in, and Goring is despatched to this world to persuade Niven to take his rightful place and balance the heavenly books. Obviously experimental in many respects, this film looks as fresh today as it did 60 years ago. The tricks are never out of place, they are there to push the story along. All the actors give performances beyond reproach. But to single one out then the pick of the best would be the marvellous Roger Livesey, a wonderful actor with one of the best voices I have ever heard. Now almost forgotten, he was a favourite of Powell-Pressburger's and he is a treasure that you should treat yourself to. In 2004, it was voted the 2nd best UK picture of all time by UK voters. Michael Caine's Get Carter was 1st. Daily Mail Promo Dvd Available Here (Matter of Life & Death/Heroes of Telemark) 5 STARS OUT OF 5 - UNMISSABLE a matter of life and death dvds | videos al pacino | michelle pfeiffer yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider the godfather | the godfather part ii marlon brando | james caan | diane keaton | al pacino laurence olivier | clark gable | vivien leigh | leslie howard | alfred hitchcock | robert montgomery | grace kelly olivia de havilland | humphrey bogart | howard hawks | frank capra | charlie chaplin | lauren bacall | fritz lang jean harlow | greta garbo | ava gardner | audrey hepburn | edward g. robinson | john garfield erich von stroheim | wim wenders | madeleine carroll | marlene dietrich | rita hayworth powell & pressburger dvds powell & pressburger videos a matter of life and death dvds | videos al pacino | michelle pfeiffer yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider the godfather | the godfather part ii marlon brando | james caan | diane keaton | al pacino laurence olivier | clark gable | vivien leigh | leslie howard | alfred hitchcock | robert montgomery | grace kelly olivia de havilland | humphrey bogart | howard hawks | frank capra | charlie chaplin | lauren bacall | fritz lang jean harlow | greta garbo | ava gardner | audrey hepburn | edward g. robinson | john garfield erich von stroheim | wim wenders | madeleine carroll | marlene dietrich | rita hayworth Page created by: lenin@netcomuk.co.uk Changes last made: 2004