A Matter of Life and Death (film) It was also made into a play by the Kneehigh Theatre for performances at the National Theatre in London, premiering in May 2007. Explanatory notes Citations Bibliography A Matter of Life and Death (film) A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and set in England during the Second World War. The film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in the United States under the title Stairway to Heaven, which derived from the film's most
A Matter of Life and Death (film) critics named "A Matter of Life and Death" the second greatest British film ever made, behind "Get Carter". It ranked 90th among critics, and 322nd among directors, in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls of the greatest films ever made. On 2 May 1945, Squadron leader Peter Carter is a Royal Air Force pilot trying to fly a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber back to his base in England after a mission over Germany. He has ordered his crew to bail out, without revealing that his own parachute has been shot up. He manages to contact June, an American