A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

(On Cable TV, February 2020) The more I discover the Powell/Pressburger filmography, the more I’m impressed by their sense of style, humour and capacity to create sustained narrative interest. A Matter of Life and Death is the fifth of their films that I’ve seen and liked, and as it explores the afterlife as an aviator unexplainably survives a fatal crash, it’s probably the most ambitious of them. Filled with fantastic imagination, it’s also a surprisingly funny film, as the aviator continues to live and gets embroiled in a celestial court case to decide his fate. The interplay between reality and fantasy is very well done, and David Niven is terrific in the lead role (Marius Goring is not too far behind as a Frenchman trying to help the protagonist through his afterlife). A Matter of Life and Death is quite an impressive piece of fantasy filmmaking both from a visual and a narrative standpoint, and it remains somewhat original even decades later. The special effects are rough, but the script definitely has its moments.