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Having inexplicably got hold of two free copies of A Matter of Life and Death in the Daily Hate Mail war movie DVD giveaway, I failed to get the other two Powell and Pressburgers. The boxset at a tenner put that right and more - and has all four films from the Top 100 Project.
XLVI: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Lancaster pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) is trying to get his damaged plane back to base, knowing that his undercarriage is damaged and he hasn't got a parachute to bail out in. He makes radio contact with June (Kim Hunter), and decides he will jump - preferring to freeze than burn. However, he survives the fall and meets up with June, an attractive American. Of course, he has cheated death and Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) has to try to persaude him to stay dead. Carter appeals, and is put on trial for his life.
A beautiful parable, alternating between Technicolor for the mortal realm and black and white for a distinctly don't-ask-don't-tell heaven (food for Wenders's Wings of Desire?) about the ability of love to triumph, which for much of its length is a Todorovian fantasy (Carter has brain damage or thinks he is dead). Goring is curiously camp, and gets to make a neat joke about Technicolor - David Niven seems a red-blooded male in contrast. But it is the sets of the after life that stick in the mind: a vast viewing platform, the court room, an endless staircase. Remarkable.
XLVII: Michael Powell, They're a Weird Mob (1966)
After the critical disaster that was Peeping Tom (1960) - a film absent from the list but one which demands to be seen - Powell could not work in England and went off to Australia. I had assumed Age of Consent (1969 - James Mason finds Helen Mirren as a muse) was it, but there's a scattering of late films, including a faithful adaptation of Nino Culotta's best-seller.
Culotta (Walter Chiari) is the Italian in Sydney - I imagine Kings Bloody Cross os seedioer than it had been in the 1950s, and it feels like Soho from Peeping Tom for a second - who works as a brickie, but here he has been invited across by a cousin who has started a magazine. The love interest is Kay (Clare Dunne - who did nothing else in film), the daughter of the owner of a company to whom the cousin owes money. Aside from this, it feels an adaptation of Huston-like faithfulness.
I don't think flat-out humour is a Powell specialism, and the film feels very much like a mid-1960s comedy without ever quite being Carry-In, but worth a look.
Totals: 47 [Cinema: 16; DVD: 29; TV: 2]
XLVI: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Lancaster pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) is trying to get his damaged plane back to base, knowing that his undercarriage is damaged and he hasn't got a parachute to bail out in. He makes radio contact with June (Kim Hunter), and decides he will jump - preferring to freeze than burn. However, he survives the fall and meets up with June, an attractive American. Of course, he has cheated death and Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) has to try to persaude him to stay dead. Carter appeals, and is put on trial for his life.
A beautiful parable, alternating between Technicolor for the mortal realm and black and white for a distinctly don't-ask-don't-tell heaven (food for Wenders's Wings of Desire?) about the ability of love to triumph, which for much of its length is a Todorovian fantasy (Carter has brain damage or thinks he is dead). Goring is curiously camp, and gets to make a neat joke about Technicolor - David Niven seems a red-blooded male in contrast. But it is the sets of the after life that stick in the mind: a vast viewing platform, the court room, an endless staircase. Remarkable.
XLVII: Michael Powell, They're a Weird Mob (1966)
After the critical disaster that was Peeping Tom (1960) - a film absent from the list but one which demands to be seen - Powell could not work in England and went off to Australia. I had assumed Age of Consent (1969 - James Mason finds Helen Mirren as a muse) was it, but there's a scattering of late films, including a faithful adaptation of Nino Culotta's best-seller.
Culotta (Walter Chiari) is the Italian in Sydney - I imagine Kings Bloody Cross os seedioer than it had been in the 1950s, and it feels like Soho from Peeping Tom for a second - who works as a brickie, but here he has been invited across by a cousin who has started a magazine. The love interest is Kay (Clare Dunne - who did nothing else in film), the daughter of the owner of a company to whom the cousin owes money. Aside from this, it feels an adaptation of Huston-like faithfulness.
I don't think flat-out humour is a Powell specialism, and the film feels very much like a mid-1960s comedy without ever quite being Carry-In, but worth a look.
Totals: 47 [Cinema: 16; DVD: 29; TV: 2]
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