Konterr Brilliant and touching

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

rogerdarlington At the end of the Second World War, relations between the Americans and the British were a little strained as, in the run-up to D-Day, the yanks won local hearts while they were "overpaid, oversexed and over here" and a British Government department suggested the idea of a locally-made film to improve perceptions.Written, produced and directed by the quintessentially British Michael Powell and the Hungarian-born Emeric Pressburger, the work may not have fully met its contemporary brief: British critics of the time thought the film was too pro-American and the Americans renamed the work "Stairway To Heaven" because they thought the word 'death' would kill its prospects. But the movie played well with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and it was so visually inventive and verbally clever that it has become a classic.At the heart of the story is an inversion of the usual 'yank gets the girl' narrative, as RAF bomber pilot Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) wins the affection of American radio operator June (Kim Hunter) in record time and audacious circumstances as he is about to bale out without a parachute. That should be the end of the 'matter' but Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) of "the other world" (the word 'heaven'is never used) fails to find his man in the Channel fog.So this is a romance - and a comedy - but it is also very political with some satirical analysis of contemporary Britain and America. The tribunal in the other world, pitting American prosecuter (Raymond Massey) against the British defender (Roger Livesey), features critiques and characteriisations of both nations, not least in the choice of the members of the two juries.The set designs - by German-born Alfred Junge - are simple but striking, especially the staircase to the other world and the scenes of that world, while there are a whole range of clever visual techniques, starting with the representation of earth in colour and the heavenly world in black & white and including the 'freezing' of 'real life' when Conductor 71 makes his earthly appearances and an amzing shot from an eyeball point of view.Even the statutes on the stairway are carefully chosen (all of the 17 famous personages named in Pressburger's copy of the script were believed to be sufferers of epilepsy). Indeed the whole film is constructed so that the viewer can interpret the story either as a real life medical phenomenon or as an obviously spiritual experience.Most people will only have seen this film on television which is where I first encountered it. But, in December 2017, a digitally restored version was shown in British cinemas and I was fortunate enough to see it on the big screen as a Boxing Day treat.Seven decades on, the film still has resonance as a British Prince Harry wins the heart of the American actress Meghan Markle and the second jury - made up entirely of self-declared immigrants to the USA - reminds us that current US President Donald Trump does not represent the real America.

charlesem Fantasy, especially in British hands, can easily go twee, and though Powell and Pressburger had surer hands than most, A Matter of Life and Death (released in the United States as Stairway to Heaven, long before Led Zeppelin) still manages occasionally to tip over toward whimsy. There is, for example, the naked boy playing a flute while herding goats, the doctor's rooftop camera obscura from which he spies on the villagers, and the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream being rehearsed by recovering British airmen, all of which are freighted with symbolism. And there's Marius Goring's simpering Frenchman, carrying on as no French aristocrat, even one guillotined during the Reign of Terror, ever did. Many find this hodgepodge delicious, and A Matter of Life and Death is still one of the most beloved of British movies, at least in Britain. I happen to be among those who find it a bit too much, but I can readily appreciate many things about it, including Jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography. On the whole, it seems to me too heavily freighted with message -- Love Conquers Even Death -- to be successful, but it must have been a soothing message to a world recovering from a war. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)

Cristi_Ciopron Being intended as over the top, it's boosted blandness; meantime, Goring rehearses for the Pimpernel, does a Pimpernel rehearsal, and his performance here, if delightful, is a masque. So, there is an afterlife plot, and a medical plot, and an extravaganza, but no romance, and it's precisely the absent romance that should of driven the whole thing, as we had to see Livesey being clever and playing tennis, and riding a bike, and Niven bringing alcohol in a tin bottle to a picnic, and being ill, and quoting the ancients, as an accomplished scholar and poet that he is, and the departed quarreling. And if the nonsense could of been charming, it is only when handled by Goring or by Massey, who understood the nature of the extravaganza; Niven has to look helpless and menaced, and the physician looks like a crook (but the medical plot as written couldn't of been funny and charming, anyway). P. and P. made an over the top movie that can't overcome the blandness of its script and the inefficiency of some of the actors, the idea ought have been to make the audience care about the pilot in love, about the pilot as lover, and instead we get table tennis and a summary of the hostility between the Yankees and the British (with … jazz as the equivalent of mumbled English), and so the inherent blandness of a cheap story is boosted; it quickly becomes a movie about illness, nursing and the debate between Yankees and the British (also a chance for the hypocritical moment of Britain judged by the world, as if, in '45, the British felt despised by the whole world, and accused by everybody, a very British hypocrisy). Livesey and Niven were outrageously miscast. The pilot is supposed to be a scholar and a great poet, and also a consummate man of the world, and Niven acts as if he was playing a shopkeeper, and the idea of the alcohol at the picnic came across as in bad taste; the saintly, righteous physician shows up as a judge of poetry and as a biker, and Livesey gives a phony performance, heartless and emotionless. Attenborough, young, is recognizable. I welcomed Goring, as the celestial go-between, and I enjoyed Massey's role. Kim Hunter is the operator. But in a movie where expressing love, showing it, was essential, Niven hasn't much to offer (and most of the storyline is about him being nursed), it's an emotionless movie, derived from the silliness of having a survivor declaring that, a day after meeting a woman, he has found his love (and the pilot is a tough chap, who boasts an enviable experience with the other sex). It may be so, but why? Niven looks like a hypocrite runaway scoundrel pretending to be a bland office worker, instead of the tough, experienced and worldly pilot; he should of gone with Goring's joviality and humor, and for most of a storyline meant to assure, to convince a celestial court of the truth of his love, he looks ill and upset. I cared neither for their love, nor for his survival. Goring and Massey are very good and give the right impression of what this extravaganza's style needed. The unlikable Livesey proved extremely annoying, at 1st as the patronizing, fatherly, wise physician, then as the defense counselor; his plea has been intended as uplifting. His role was silly as well, with the slapdash plea about love and law. The part was phony, and the acting was phony. Apparently, much was made of the table tennis; I don't know why. Do you? (But when … 'Get Carter' and 'A Matter …' are the best British movies ever in a critics' poll, this shows the dire state of the trade ….) The physician's death becomes a trifle, not to mention a happy occurrence since his patient gains such a powerful defense on the afterlife, the force of the RAF pilot's newfound love is taken for granted, since not much in the script or acting tries to prove it; the script rings hollow. Another script on the afterlife by guys who don't think much of the afterlife: the perspective of the enlightened Western post-Christian guys.

GeoPierpont Since I thought Kim Hunter was not up to snuff for "A Streetcar Named Desire" I was thoroughly impressed with her beauty in this crazy number. Exterior shots were not her friend tho but decent acting nonetheless.I did laugh through most of this nutjob ride especially when the new arrivals were picking out their wings vs props. Yet I never saw anyone wear them in the entire film. They probably got tired of gluing them on and knocking them off at Craft Services.The most interesting aspect of this film was trying to figure out who in history I would most like to represent me to keep me from such a lovely existence in Heaven. I first thought of Alexander the Great because he would have liked the French cutie who came to earth with that adorable outfit and would try to impress him. Miracles happen all the time, why does the survival of a pilot have to be such a conundrum? Oh, so we can put the Americans on trial, gotcha! Ol' Bug Eye Massey comes to the rescue to really highlight the age old rivalry between the two countries and picks an all male jury which of course gets replaced instantly with current military men, natch.I will say I was on the edge of my seat waiting for some dancing to bust out on those steps ala Fred n Ginger but alas the famous statues had to suffice, crap.Not sure I can recommend this for any particular reason because there is so much better tripe about Heaven around. However, you do get to hear a wee lecture on the layout of the Universe. Only thousands, not BILLIONS of stars?? Carl Sagan turning in his grave.