Let's be realistic.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

At the end of the Second World War, relations between the Americans and the British were a little strained as, in the run-up to D-Day, the yanks won local hearts while they were "overpaid, oversexed and over here" and a British Government department suggested the idea of a locally-made film to improve perceptions.Written, produced and directed by the quintessentially British Michael Powell and the Hungarian-born Emeric Pressburger, the work may not have fully met its contemporary brief: British critics of the time thought the film was too pro-American and the Americans renamed the work "Stairway To Heaven" because they thought the word 'death' would kill its prospects. But the movie played well with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and it was so visually inventive and verbally clever that it has become a classic.At the heart of the story is an inversion of the usual 'yank gets the girl' narrative, as RAF bomber pilot Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) wins the affection of American radio operator June (Kim Hunter) in record time and audacious circumstances as he is about to bale out without a parachute. That should be the end of the 'matter' but Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) of "the other world" (the word 'heaven'is never used) fails to find his man in the Channel fog.So this is a romance - and a comedy - but it is also very political with some satirical analysis of contemporary Britain and America. The tribunal in the other world, pitting American prosecuter (Raymond Massey) against the British defender (Roger Livesey), features critiques and characteriisations of both nations, not least in the choice of the members of the two juries.The set designs - by German-born Alfred Junge - are simple but striking, especially the staircase to the other world and the scenes of that world, while there are a whole range of clever visual techniques, starting with the representation of earth in colour and the heavenly world in black & white and including the 'freezing' of 'real life' when Conductor 71 makes his earthly appearances and an amzing shot from an eyeball point of view.Even the statutes on the stairway are carefully chosen (all of the 17 famous personages named in Pressburger's copy of the script were believed to be sufferers of epilepsy). Indeed the whole film is constructed so that the viewer can interpret the story either as a real life medical phenomenon or as an obviously spiritual experience.Most people will only have seen this film on television which is where I first encountered it. But, in December 2017, a digitally restored version was shown in British cinemas and I was fortunate enough to see it on the big screen as a Boxing Day treat.Seven decades on, the film still has resonance as a British Prince Harry wins the heart of the American actress Meghan Markle and the second jury - made up entirely of self-declared immigrants to the USA - reminds us that current US President Donald Trump does not represent the real America.

There are many things to like about this movie. To start with the most obvious : the sets and the visual and special effects, which are genuinely original and bear the stamp of an artist's imagination. There are many moments where the viewer can believe he is watching some kind of afterlife - perhaps not THE Afterlife, whatever that may or may not be, but certainly an alien realm outside Man's perception. (If you are a teacher with a class of teenagers, don't hesitate to use the movie as a starting point for a discussion about, say, life after death, mortality versus immortality or the possible shapes or forms of Heaven and Hell. The movie might also make a contribution or counterpoint to a discussion of Dante's Divine Comedy.) There are also two enormously likable protagonists, ably portrayed by Niven and Hunter. Hunter is especially moving and charming.Sadly, the movie is not without its flaws. I thought it started out with an enormously promising idea and then, gradually, ran out of steam. At the end it got mired in an interminable discussion of both the friendship and the rivalry between England and the USA. Yes, yes, that makes a lot of sense : the dead spend their time hashing and re-hashing international relations, it's not as if they've got any other metaphysical idea or experience to consider. And of course all beings, living or dead, from any era since Creation are absolutely tortured by one crucial question : where do people make the best cup of tea, in England or the USA ?Lastly I question the good sense, or good taste, of the makers of the movie. At the time the movie was shown, Allied countries were full of war widows and of women who did not yet know if they were war widows or not. The hospitals were also filled to the brink with young men who had been robbed of their youth and health - think, for instance, of RAF pilots who had suffered third degree burns, who had spent days fighting hunger and thirst on unsafe rafts or who bore the scars from hellish torture and interrogation. It's far, far from sure that watching the movie would have offered these people, or their nearest and dearest, any kind of hope or comfort or consolation. There are right occasions and there are wrong occasions : this, in my humble opinion, was definitely a wrong occasion for making a pleasantly polished and sophisticated comedy about life after death.

**Minor Spoiler- very minor**What unfolds before our eyes is nothing short of a miracle. Literally, and figuratively. This is one of the most complete movies on all levels I may have seen. Do I dare say near perfection, risking to much puff- Nah! This is a 70 year old movie that proves some movies are timeless. A Matter of Life and Death, a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven, provides us viewers with a superb film produced that deals specifically with the subject of what happens to us when we die(similar themes in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Topper, Ghost, Heaven Can Wait, Meet Joe Black, Defending Your Life, Dragonfly, Hereafter etc.) although I think ideas for the script may have been helped along by parts of King Vidor's 1929, "Hallelujah". Many other popular films to follow would give us similar takes on this Powell & Pressburger (written, directed, produced) opus by their British film production company, The Archers, which has given us a number of memorable offerings- The Black Narcissus, Hour of Glory, A Canterbury Tales, I Know Where I Am Going, The Tales of Hoffman etc. from the mid 40's- mid 50's. This may be the best partnership/team/actors/technical people ever put together, and certainly for quality few can compare, maybe The Mirisch Company, American film production company owned by Walter Mirisch and his brothers, Marvin and Harold Mirisch. and the Cohen Brothers another more modern(and sometimes offbeat) American film production group. Stairway to Heaven provides award winning cinematography and production design(Alfred Junge), excellent acting, superb script and soundtrack, A+ directing and editing even groundbreaking sfx. Niven and Hunter set the tone right from the opening scene- so much so you hope the rest of the story won't be a let down- it isn't. Another stand-out performance is given by Raymond Massey as the prosecutor- although you can tell it was produced by the English, they paint the American over the top superior, egotistical and angry. I think they mixed us up with the French. Anyway, bottom line, if you haven't seen it yet you are missing a top 100 movie fantasy that will stay with you.

This is one of my top two films without doubt. Curiously the other (The Devil and Daniel Webster) also features a jury of the dead: read into that what you will. It is brilliantly shot. The colour is vivid, lurid and generously used. The black and white in heaven is strikingly lit and shaded; the art deco feel of heaven is inspired. The shot of the heavenly receptionist framed by the shining clock is one of my favourite ever.Michael Powell is one of the greatest directors ever. Not a moment of celluloid is wasted, nor an opportunity missed. David Niven has his best role ever, Marius Goring as comic foil is wonderful, Roger Livesey is authoritarian... I could go on.The plot (without spoiling it) treads a very careful line between David Niven being a fugitive from the afterlife, and a man suffering hallucinations. So fine that on repeated watching, I still don't know which I think I am minded to favour. Finally, I am a big, ugly emotionless man, who has never shed a tear at a funeral in my life, but the first five minutes of this film when David Niven is still alive makes me cry without fail. Which has to be worth something.