A Matter of Life and Death - The Criterion Collection

After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plane, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) encounters the American radio operator (Kim Hunter) to whom he has just delivered his dying wishes, and, face-to-face on a tranquil English beach, the pair fall in love. When a messenger from the hereafter arrives to correct the bureaucratic error that spared his life, Peter must mount a fierce defense for his right to stay on earth—painted by production designer Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff as a rich Technicolor Eden—climbing a wide staircase to stand trial in a starkly beautiful, black-and-white modernist afterlife. Intended to smooth tensions between the wartime allies Britain and America, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s richly humanistic A Matter of Life and Death traverses time and space to make a case for the transcendent value of love.New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayInterview from 2008 with filmmaker Martin ScorseseAudio commentary from 2009 featuring film scholar Ian ChristieNew interview with editor Thelma Schoonmaker, director Michael Powell’s widowNew short documentary on the film’s special effects featuring film historian Craig Barron and visual-effects artist Harrison EllenshawThe Colour Merchant, a 1998 short film featuring cinematographer Jack CardiffThe South Bank Show: “Michael Powell,” a 1986 television program featuring PowellRestoration demonstrationPLUS: An essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek