A Matter of Life and Death - videos, teasers and stills from filming

All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "A Matter of Life and Death"

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Timing: 1:44 (104 min)

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All about film

Video 1

Photo 25

Actors and characters

A Matter of Life and Death - official trailer - 4K restoration

English

1:22

What's left behind the scenes

The original title translates to “A Matter of Life and Death”.
It took 3 months and £3,000 to create the enormous escalator connecting our world to the fictional one. It had 106 steps, each 6 meters wide, and was powered by a 12 horsepower engine.
The first scene filmed was the one where David Niven's character (1910-1983) bathes on the shore. Initially, the idea was for the scene to emerge from an initially black background, but director Michael Powell (1905-1990) didn't like this concept. Then, cinematographer Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) asked him to look at the scene through the camera lens and deliberately exhaled on it, fogging it up for a moment, but the breath evaporated after a few seconds, and the lens cleared. Powell liked this very much, and this technique was used in the film.
Director Michael Powell saw then-unknown actress Kim Hunter (1922-2002) during a visit to Hollywood in 1945 and immediately decided to cast her as June, largely following the recommendations of Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), who had recently been auditioning actors for his upcoming film 'Notorious' (1946), and where she had participated in screen tests. The problem was that Hunter herself wasn't visible on screen during these tests; only her voice was heard, as she was simply prompting lines to the actors directly involved in the auditions. Hitchcock assured Powell that he would arrange a personal meeting with Hunter and her agent so that he could decide for himself if she was suitable for the role of David Niven's screen partner. After the very first meeting with Hunter, the director decided that she was indeed perfectly suited for the part.
The source of inspiration for the situation concerning Peter's health was the semi-autobiographical novel by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy (1887-1938) 'Round-Trip to Jerusalem' (1937). More detailed information was obtained through one of the directors and screenwriters, Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988), spending time at the British Library and consulting with Michael Powell's brother, who worked as a plastic surgeon in London.
The mechanisms of the giant escalator made such a racket that all sounds in the corresponding scenes had to be added during post-production.
The original title translates as "A Question of Life and Death".

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