Episode 271: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946)

Sweet, heartwarming, funny, and deeply weird, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH plays to its creator duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s strengths: swift writing, a flair for the dramatic, and deeply affecting images.

David Niven stars as the should-be-late British RAF Squadron Leader Peter Carter, who falls in love with American soldier June (Kim Hunter) over the radio on his way to the hereafter. But in the throes of World War II, Carter’s demise slides under the radar of the reaper sent to collect his soul (Marius Goring as the foppish Parisian Conductor 71), leaving the lovestruck Lancaster pilot in the lurch, legally speaking: Does his passion for a woman he met minutes before his intended death warrant a stay of execution? Or should he be sentenced to serve out the term of his miscarried doom?

Going two for two on the Trylon’s Spring 2024 highlight of Powell and Pressburger’s production company The Archers, we discuss A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH from several angles on this episode: As postwar comfort cinema; as a visual piece astonishingly ahead of its time; as a consideration of the value of human emotion in the face of celestial stakes; and as a singular mixture of the comic, the tragic, and the existential.

Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care
“Make It So: A Journey in Overthinking ‘A Matter of Life and Death’” by Lucas Hardwick for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/01/make-it-so-a-journey-in-overthinking-a-matter-of-life-and-death/
“War, love and weirdness: A Matter of Life and Death – 70 years on” by Brian Dillon for The Guardian: https://theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/04/war-love-and-wierdness-a-matter-of-life-and-death-70-years-on
Get tickets to the 43rd Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 11-15): https://mspfilm.org/mspiff/

#TwoByTheArchers #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Opening Sequence" composed by Allan Gray and performed by the Queen Hall Light Orchestra from the A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 271: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946)

4:09 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

6:30 - Did they EVER make ‘em like this?

16:23 - Fearlessness, experimentation, and creativity

24:37 - The controlled scattershot of ideas and how it wins you over again and again

31:38 - What works and doesn’t in the courtroom third act

54:16 - Our favorite shots

1:01:03 - The Junk Drawer

1:05:39 - Cody’s Noteys: A Platter of Life and Death (poisoned food dish movies trivia)