Anyone else here like it? I think it is a fantastic film. The visual effects hold up after the more than 60 years. I don’t own it on DVD but it has been on television a number of times in recent years and I’ve watched it every time I’ve known it was on. Are there any other films of a similar vintage in the same style?
Some of the touches I really liked included:
Heaven was in black and white while life was in colour.
The American servicemen grabbing a Coke when they get to heaven.
The doctor’s contraption for spying on the village.
Powell & Pressburger could do no wrong during this period, and the fact that this is my 5th favorite film of theirs from the 40s (after Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Col. Blimp and I Know Where I’m Going!) is only a testimony how amazingly strong and prolific their talent was at the time.
Absolutely. My ranking is similar; *AMoLaD *suffers a tiny bit from sentiment and unsubtlety, but P&P were in a class of their own. Black Narcissus and Col. Blimp live on my “staff recommendations” shelf.
(Unfortunate note: this is one of the only P&P titles that remains unavailable in the US. Presumably Criterion will get to it eventually, but eventually is really starting to drag.)
Powell & Pressburger are my favourite filmakers and I do utterly love A Matter Of Life And Death. (Although The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp is my favourite of their movies with Black Narcissus in second place).
As some of the most memorable bits of AMOLAD have already been suggested, I’ll mention that I always get a bit of a chill from that atonal piano music that David Niven hears, most noticeably in the scene with the rehearsals for the play. It’s a subtle indication of the ‘Heaven World’ trying to intrude on his walking reality and it’s very unsettling. Makes me wish that that Powell & Pressburger had turned their hand to making a scary, supernatural movie. I think they would have brought something really fresh.