Peter Carter
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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.
Dec 15, 2021 · Audaciously creative as well as infinitely romantic, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's film tells the story of World War Two British Air Force pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) falling in...
- Gregory Wakeman
British Air Force pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) is on his way home to England from a World War II bombing mission in a badly damaged aircraft. Before he bails out of the plane into the ocean, he...
- (39)
- Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- PG
- Fantasy, Drama
- Its cinematic inventiveness. This is a film that dares to imagine on the largest possible scale, whether it is the tour of the universe with which it opens or the irresistible reversal of Wizard of Oz logic that depicts heaven in monochrome and Earth in ‘glorious Technicolor’ – for life, the audience will learn, is too wonderful to leave any sooner than is absolutely necessary.
- Its seriousness. Genial in tone, charming and accessible, the film told a simple love story that was designed to appeal to anyone who had a heart. Yet, refusing to retreat into escapism, it addressed the important challenge of its time.
- Its realism. Such is the fantasy dimension of the film that it is easy to overlook the extraordinary documentary eye with which it is constructed. In telling the story of a brain-damaged airman who has hallucinations of another world, Powell and Pressburger pay a scrupulous respect to the neurological reality of how these visions might have taken place.
- Those performances. Should I ever find myself in a burning aircraft I like to think that I shall be able to muster the same sang-froid with which David Niven, as Flight Lieutenant Peter Carter, recites his favourite poetry before bailing out without a parachute.
"This is the universe," our narrator declares over a darkly twinkling cosmos. "Big isn’t it?" And with that perfect line, so begins one of the most unforgettable experiences in British film, with David Niven’s Second World War pilot Peter Carter falling to earth only to be found by June (Kim Hunter), a young American radio operator.
Mar 15, 2022 · A British WWII aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court. This visually arresting Powell and Pressburger film stars David Niven.
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Jan 9, 2018 · This unusual premise resulted in the now-classic A Matter of Life and Death, a film as much about Englishmen and Americans as it is about our world and another, reality and fantasy. This dichotomous centre does not result in a sense of conflict, but instead a perfect balance between elements otherwise at odds – as confirmed by its daring opening.
