Its political outspokenness, visual audacity and mannered playing now make it one of the most fondly recalled of all British movies.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 17, 2024

Though British cinema was predominantly realist in nature, few films by the Archers are more intimately fantastical than A Matter of Life and Death.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 23, 2022

The decision to shoot all of the Earth-bound scenes in Technicolor and all of the Heavenly interludes in black-and-white is just one of the many unexpected touches in this pleasing fantasy yarn.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 7, 2021

A breezy film, especially considering the seriousness of its title...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 12, 2021

...simply extraordinary. A British fantasy-romance that is truly timeless.

| Oct 8, 2020

Though some of A Matter of Life and Death has not aged well, it still stands with It's a Wonderful Life as ambitious for the 1940s.

| Aug 10, 2020

Apart from being technically brilliant, Peter and June's story, and the exploration of fate and mortality within, continues to endure.

| Oct 1, 2019

Every shot of this thing is a marvel, achieving such a vibrant depth of color that it almost makes modern cinema seem drab in comparison.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 3, 2019

Roger Livesey is tremendous as Niven's formidable doctor - and heavenly advocate.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 5, 2018

Typically for this team, the script champions individual rights over nationalist prejudices that endure beyond the grave.

| Sep 27, 2018

... as gorgeous and rapturously romantic as movies come.

| Mar 2, 2018

Bursts with tantalizing ideas, surprising connections, suggestive flights of fancy.

| Dec 29, 2017

One of the most beloved British films ever is now even more lush, more gorgeous, more humanist in a glorious new restored edition.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2017

A Matter of Life and Death is the utterly unique, enduringly rich and strange romantic fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2017

It's basically an intellectual battle, held in an amphitheatre as large as a galaxy, about the right to life and the inherent tensions in US-UK political relations. In other words, essential viewing.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2017

An enduring classic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 7, 2017

In short, a brilliant experiment which will probably be enjoyed by many and appreciated only by a few.

| Feb 16, 2016

Beautifully directed, designed (especially the massive, working escalator that links Heaven and Earth), photographed and acted, it is a must-see for both classic and contemporary film buffs.

| Original Score: A- | May 3, 2014

Although it's undeniably a great-looking film, I just found A Matter of Life and Death to be too harebrained to take seriously as a piece of important cinema.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 8, 2010

Though the writer-directors and the actors may be the first names you notice, the cameraman also helped A Matter of Life and Death become one of the most moving movies ever made.

| Sep 19, 2010