A Matter of Life and Death - plus special guest intro

We launch our Cinema Unbound season of Powell and Pressburger films and events with this classic masterpiece, known in the US as Stairway to Heaven and known for its innovative and inspired use of technicolour and set-design.

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 defence for his right to stay on earth - painted by production designer Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff as a rich Technicolour 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.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the iconic British filmmaking duo have been a significant influence on contemporary directors today. The Archers (as they were collaboratively known) have influenced the likes of Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Damien Chazelle and Baz Luhrmann and many more and put their mark on film history with colourful classics, queer worlds and representing girls and women on screen.

Sunday morning screenings include a free cuppa and biscuits with your ticket.

About Pamela Hutchinson

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance critic, curator and film historian based in West Sussex. She is the author of BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes and Pandora's Box. Her curation projects include seasons on Marlene Dietrich and Asta Nielsen for BFI Southbank. She is a columnist for Sight and Sound and edits the Weekly Film Bulletin.

Filmmaking workshop

You might also be interested in taking part in a Filmmaking in Technicolour film workshop about A Matter of Life and Death, taking place at Hastings Contemporary on Saturday 4 November, and hosted by filmmaker Rebecca E Marshall.

About Cinema Unbound: Powell and Pressburger season

The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger is a major UK-wide celebration of one the greatest and most enduring filmmaking partnerships: Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988). Bold, subversive and iconoclastic, challenging and changing the visual language of film, their passionate collaborative artistic vision, spanning 24 films together between 1939 and 1972, is a vital part of the fabric of British cinema history.

In our series this Autumn, see original Powell and Pressburger classics, learn about their craft in filmmaking workshops, and enjoy a selection of modern films which bear the hallmark of their impact on filmmaking beyond the pair's generation.

Screening as part of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.
bfi.org.uk/powell-and-pressburger

The Electric Palace cinema is proud to be part of this UK wide celebration programming a mix of screenings, events and workshops this autumn, bringing their work to new audiences to their work.

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• Book a ticket to a screening.
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• Play our piano before a screening and see the film for free!
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Thank you.