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Concept
A Matter of Life and Death (film)
Summary
A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film set in England during World War II.
Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in the United States under the title Stairway to Heaven, which derived from the film's most prominent special effect: a broad escalator linking Earth to the afterlife.
In 1999, A Matter of Life and Death placed 20th on the British Film Institute's list of Best 100 British films. It ranked 90th in The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 poll, regarded by some as the most authoritative in the world, and 78th in 2022.
On 2 May 1945, Squadron Leader Peter Carter, an RAF pilot, is flying a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber over the English Channel, after a mission over Germany. Carter is expecting to die, after ordering his crew to bail out, without revealing to them that his own parachute has been destroyed. The only radio operator receiving him is June, at a USAAF base on the coast of England. For a few minutes Carter converses with June, before jumping from the Lancaster without a parachute.
Peter should have died at that point, but Conductor 71, the guide sent to escort him to the Other World, misses him in the thick fog over the English Channel. The airman wakes up on a beach near June's base. At first, he assumes he is in the afterlife but, when a de Havilland Mosquito flies low overhead, discovers to his bewilderment that he is still alive.
Peter meets June cycling back to her quarters after her night shift, and they fall in love. Conductor 71 (a French aristocrat guillotined in the Revolution) stops time to explain the situation, urging Peter to accept his death and accompany him to the Other World, but Peter demands an appeal. While Conductor 71 consults his superiors, Peter continues to live. Conductor 71 returns and informs him that he has been granted his appeal and has three days to prepare his case.
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