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Post by klep on Oct 12, 2015 6:45:00 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: A Matter of Life and Death You wouldn't normally expect a small film about a man battling for life after developing inflammation of the brain to be an effects extravaganza, but that's exactly what A Matter of Life and Death is. From the way the film smoothly moves between color and black&white to the stopped table tennis game to the magnificent staircase, this film bristles with creativity on the part of the production team and the two men behind the camera: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I just spent the weekend traveling for my sister's wedding so I'm still a little shell-shocked, but I know Glorbes has written up something on the film for us. OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK: The Thing (1982) After a weekend of travel I was pretty excited to see The Thing win the voting, because it means I don't have to cram in 8 hours of Twin Peaks this week.
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Post by glorbes on Oct 12, 2015 6:54:33 GMT -6
A Matter of Life and Death was born from a request to make a film that would fix frayed relationships between the United States and Britain after years of fighting the Axis powers together. England was the major base of operations for the Allies for the European side of the war, and there were hundreds of thousands of American personnel living, working, and training in Great Britain from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945. This state of affairs informed Powell and Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale as well, but now that the war was over, this too-close relationship meant that there was some animosity between the two nations, as America ascended as the major international power and Britain began losing its dominance over a globe-spanning empire. Only the Archers would take this subject and create such a delicate and personal love story as what the film ended up being. A Matter of Life and Death has always reminded me of The Wizard of Oz. It takes place in two distinct planes of existence, one in glorious colour and one in monochrome Technicolor (the grayscale portion of the film was actually filmed with the Technicolor equipment, but did not use the other color strips). There is a strong element of visual fantasy to the Afterlife sequences, but Marius Goring’s Conductor is almost a cartoon character in how colourful and accessorized he is in the “real life” sequences. David Niven’s Peter Carter slips between the two worlds, between consciousness and unconsciousness, real and fantastical. I always found it interesting that the dream-like afterlife was the “black and white” one, just as so many films are black and white and are expressions of pure illusion. It’s the Archers’ first time using Jack Cardiff as director of photography. Cardiff was an assistant on The Life and Death of Col. Blimp, and was a technician who worked for Technicolor before Powell and Pressburger gave him the promotion due to his skill and his artistic understanding of how to use colour, how to design for it, and how to develop novel and expressionistic ways to light for the process. This film, Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes were all lensed by Cardiff, and are three of The Archers best known films for their visual beauty.
A Matter of Life and Death is part fantasy film, part medical drama, part court room drama, and part philosophical examination of the impact empires have on diverse people. All of these elements are in the service of a central love story that is brilliantly and elegantly established in the first five minutes of the film, which is arguably the best opening sequence of any film ever. With a short sequence in which two actors do not share the screen, you become 100% invested in the fate of the two lovers that form a bond that will challenge the conventions of two dimensions and save a man’s life. I’d argue that all of these elements are handled with deft and careful style that is both magical and sincere. Powell and Pressburger’s film was chosen to premiere as a Royal Command Performance for the Royal family of Great Britain, and became a sizable hit in Britain. Critics were rarely kind to The Archers, feeling that their indulgences were against the grain of good British cinematic realism, but A Matter of Life and Death was relatively well received upon its release. There are few films that attempt and succeed at being as weird, open, and honest as this one. It’s a unique film, one that employs lavish effects sequences and large scale spectacle to tell a deeply personal, but also universal story.
I love it to pieces.
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Post by ludditerobot on Oct 12, 2015 10:29:12 GMT -6
There are so many things to focus on when talking about A Matter of Life and Death, but I think I'm most curious what folks make of the fact that the afterlife is in monochrome and the world in color ("One is so starved up there for Technicolor!"). Like Glorbes says, it's a reversal of The Wizard Of Oz in a way, where the fantastic, dream-like place is contrasted with the humdrum grays of Kansas. I'm also struck by the peculiar military and judicial aspect of the afterlife -- no one seems particularly surprised to find themselves in this other world, and their first instinct (like David Niven's on the beach when he assumes he's died) is to find out "where to report." The famous shot of all the files of everyone who's ever lived is essentially a bureaucratic records room, and the love story below hinges on the courtroom machinations above, with the central conflict being the determination of who will represent our protagonist. It's just a weird, askew vision and I've never seen anything like it.
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Post by klep on Oct 12, 2015 11:27:22 GMT -6
Well the core of the film is Peter Carter's struggle to stay in the living world. I imagine that we're being shown the living world in Technicolor because it's the world we should want to be in. The world Carter sees value in is the one June is in, and the color serves to make it seem brighter and more vibrant in accordance with his viewpoint.
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Post by ludditerobot on Oct 12, 2015 12:09:21 GMT -6
That's a really good read, and I agree. It just strikes me as a reversal of expectation -- imposing but drab military afterlife, vibrant earthly"real" world of love and possibility -- but it totally fits with the Archers' humanism. I guess I was also thinking of The Conductor, so pleased to be back in the Technicolor world, which taken on its face would imply that this would be the case even if it weren't for Peter Carter. Of course, maybe nothing would be the case if it weren't for Peter Carter on the operating table, and his viewpoint is not only the entry point for the whole movie but the basis for it.
And of course, to a certain degree, none of this matters, since it's not realism by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, it could care less about realism. But I find the distinction between the two worlds, and people's attitudes towards them and behavior within them, fascinating.
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