A Matter of Life and Death

Set during the Second World War, this romantic drama with elements of fantasy follows a British pilot (David Niven) who survives jumping from a plane without a parachute because of an administrative error in the afterlife. After falling in love with June (Kim Hunter), the American radio operator to whom he addressed his final words before the fall, he must defend his right to life and love before a celestial tribunal. One of Powell and Pressburger’s most celebrated films, A Matter of Life and Death closes this cycle on life, death and what cinema imagines between them, combining profound humanism with striking formal invention.