POWELL AND PRESSBURGER

Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
1946 | 104 mins | UK
David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough

SHOWING TIMES:

• Thu 09 Nov: 2pm (No Intro)
• Thu 09 Nov: 8pm + Intro from Dr Linda Ruth Williams

Set in a gorgeously photographed Technicolor England and a monochrome heaven, A Matter of Life and Death took the imaginative daring of jointly credited writer-producer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to new heights. This screening will be introduced by Linda Ruth Williams, Professor of Film at University of Exeter.

After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plane, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) encounters the American radio operator (Kim Hunter) to whom he has just delivered his dying wishes, and, face-to-face on a tranquil English beach (shot locally at Saunton Sands), the pair fall in love. When a messenger from the hereafter arrives to correct the bureaucratic error that spared his life, Peter must mount a fierce defence for his right to stay on earth.

Intended to smooth tensions between the wartime allies Britain and America, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s richly humanistic A Matter of Life and Death traverses time and space to make a case for the transcendent value of love.

About Dr Linda Ruth Williams

Linda Ruth Williams is Professor of Film at Exeter University, and is the author of books, articles and edited collections on British and American film, representations of children and child actors, gender in culture, and sexuality and censorship in cinema. She was co-investigator on the AHRC project Calling the Shots: Women in contemporary UK film, 2000-2015, a forensic investigation of employment and experiences in the British film industry this century. She has served on festival juries in the UK, Europe, the USA and Canada, and has co-curated the Shetland Film Festival Screenplay since 2006. She is a lifelong fan of Powell and Pressburger, and A Matter of Life and Death is her favourite film.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN…

THE RED SHOES

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>