Budapest Classic Film Marathon: A Matter of Life and Death

Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Screenplay by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Director of photography: Jack Cardiff
Music by Allan Gray
Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote

In the footsteps of a filmmaking dynasty: from Pressburger to Macdonald / Emeric Pressburger, the experimenter genius

After the screening, roundtable discussion with producer Andrew Macdonald and director Kevin Macdonald on the works of Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell.

Seated next to his dead fellow officer, bomber pilot Peter Carter radios in from his stricken, burning plane and tells the attractive June, who is on duty in the radio tower, what message she should relay to his mother, what he thinks about the world and about life and, since he doesn’t have a parachute, about death. Peter does not actually die; instead, he demands the heavenly jury hold a trial concerning his specific case. The film’s American release title might come to mind: Stairway to Heaven, also the Led Zeppelin song, with June ascending a stairway into the sky so that finally the uplifting verdict can be spoken: “nothing is stronger than the Law in the universe, there is nothing stronger than love on earth”. The film is a fixed entry on the list of best films of all time compiled by Sight and Sound magazine.

More information about the Budapest Classic Film Marathon's program in Uránia >>