A Matter of Life and Death

Yeah.

Obviously, when I've told people we were doing this marathon and back when we did Powell and Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death comes up constantly.

I'm often being asked why we didn't cover A Matter of Life and Death when we did Powell and Pressburger.

Because it wasn't streaming.

Yep.

Yeah.

And, uh, like, had this end bit where it was like the stairway to heaven bit of, from, uh, Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death.

And-

Yeah

Imagine it's called Up the Stairs, Down the Stairs.

Heaven, Hell? David Niven, Should He Die, Should He Live? Oh! Escalator, Matter of Life and Death.

Matter of Life and Death.

We've got there in the end.

Roger Livesey plays...

That's what gets me.

It's like Matter of Life and Death, David Niven.

I always tear up in the opening scene of that.

Anyone who says to me, Pertwee's not a great actor, just

Like, I think we did the 1947 Oscars, and I felt like I did not go on enough of a rant about how much I love this movie, and I want everybody to see it.

It's called A Matter of Life and Death.

Sure, yeah.

It's a Powell Pressburger film.

It really is.

I agree.

So a matter of life and death.

And then...

But it was a very sound stagey-based movie, and also, uh, I mean, uh, very, very cine-literate as well, that, uh, uh, in the film, I, I...

Spoiler light, but I sus- suspect you know, Bill and Ted go to heaven, they go to hell, and as Pete Hewitt said, heaven was modeled after the celestial stairway in Michael Powell's amazing film, A Matter of Life and Death.

If you look at Pixar's Soul, it's paying tribute to that same stairway as well.

And, uh, uh, I mean, Pete Hewitt's a huge fan of Michael Powell.

He says there's a statue of Powell and David Niven, the star of A Matter of Life and Death, do see that film if you've not seen it, amongst the others when Bill and Ted go through the pearly gates and they see statues there.

There's one of Elvis.

There's Laurel and Hardy in there as well.