Martin Scorsese, admirador de los trabajos de Powell, declaró que este filme, junto con 8½ de Fellini, contiene todo lo que se puede decir sobre la dirección de cine:

“Siempre he creído que Peeping Tom y 8½ dicen todo lo que puede ser dicho sobre el arte de hacer películas, sobre el proceso de llevarlas a cabo, la objetividad y la subjetividad y la confusión entre las dos. 8½ captura el lujo y el disfrute de hacer cine, mientras que Peeping Tom muestra la agresión que hay en ello, cómo la cámara infringe una violación… Viéndolas puedes descubrir todo sobre las personas que hacen cine, o al menos, cómo esas personas se expresan a si mismas a través de las películas”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054167/

http://www.enfocarte.com/1.12/cine.html: interesantísimo análisis del film por José Tirado.

Peeping Tom es una película británica de 1960, del género drama, thriller, terror; dirigida por Michael Powell. El título deriva de una expresión en argot del idioma inglés, ‘peeping Tom’, que significa “mirón”.

Brilliant. Time to talk about our Ten lists once more, so settle in for the long haul and try and keep up. Much discussion ensues as Sam tries to extol the virtues of Ingmar Bergman, praise the magical realism of Billy Liar and attempt to make sense of All About Lily Chou-Chou. John continues the theme, causing slight, though understandable, consternation with his uncensored views on Raging Bull and confessions of multiple tears during Schindler’s List. Tom rounds the night off in business-like fashion with praise for The 400 Blows, controversial dislike for the second half of Stalker and man-crushed love for Le Samourai.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 40.5

Remember to email us, sugarplums!

Moira Shearer in "The Red Shoes"

NYC’s Film Forum is currently showing two dance films – one new and one old.  Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 film “The Red Shoes”, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of shoes that dance the wearer to death, has been newly restored thanks to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.  Scorsese recently talked about his lifelong fascination with the film, and this past Sunday, Maureen Dowd wrote about it in her NY Times Op-Ed column.  Screenings are daily through November 19^th.

Also at Film Forum is Frederick Wiseman’s newest and already highly praised documentary, “La Danse”, which takes a close look at the Paris Opera Ballet as the dancers rehearse and perform seven different works.  Pina Bausch, Angelin Preljocaj, and Rudolph Nureyev are among the choreographers whose ballets are featured.  Screenings are daily through November 17^th.  Film Forum is located at 209 West Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue and Varick.

This Thursday at The Paley Center for Media, Words on Dance presents an intimate screening of Maria Tallchief, a former New York City Ballet principal, in conversation with former San Francisco Ballet principal Evelyn Cisneros.  The 1998 film also includes clips of Tallchief dancing in some of her most well-known roles, including Firebird, which George Balanchine created for her.  This event is at 1 PM on November 12^th, and is free and open to the public.  The Paley Center is located at 25 West 52^nd Street, at Fifth Avenue.  For more information, call The Paley Center at 212.621.6886.

Brilliant. Time to talk about our Ten lists once more, so settle in for the long haul and try and keep up. Much discussion ensues as Sam tries to extol the virtues of Ingmar Bergman, praise the magical realism of Billy Liar and attempt to make sense of All About Lily Chou-Chou. John continues the theme, causing slight, though understandable, consternation with his uncensored views on Raging Bull and confessions of multiple tears during Schindler’s List. Tom rounds the night off in business-like fashion with praise for The 400 Blows, controversial dislike for the second half of Stalker and man-crushed love for Le Samourai.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 40.5

Remember to email us, sugarplums!

I only saw 10 films this month.  Blame Josh for making me rewatch The Wire.  Black Narcissus is far and away the best of what I saw.

Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1947)

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

A Good Day to Me (Alan Del Rio & Aaron Brown) Watch Here

Humpday (Lynn Shelton, 2009)

Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009)

UK, 101 min

While British Prime Minister Tony Blair is under criminal suspicion in the “honours-for-cash” scandal that has rocked his Labour government, we have been told that there is an even more explosive scandal that Blair, up to now, has managed to hide behind the draconian British policy of issuing “D-Notices,” government orders that prohibit the British media from reporting on certain “national security” cases.

In 1999, an international investigation of child pornographers and paedophiles run by Britain’s National Criminal Intelligence Service, code named Operation Ore, resulted in 7,250 suspects being identified in the United Kingdom alone. Some 1850 people were criminally charged in the case and there were 1451 convictions. Almost 500 people were interviewed “under caution” by police, meaning they were suspects. Some 900 individuals remain under investigation. In early 2003, British police began to close in on some top suspects in the Operation Ore investigation, including senior members of Blair’s government.

Tony Blair: stifling investigations of paedophiles in his Labour government.

In the United States, Operation Ore’s counterpart was Operation Avalanche. However, U.S. authorities only charged 100 people out of 35,000 investigated. The international paedophile investigation began when Dallas police and the US Postal Inspection Service raided the offices of Landslide Productions of Fort Worth, Texas and confiscated records on thousands of people around the world who were child pornography customers of the firm. Landslide’s halcyon days as a Fort Worth-based international online marketplace of kiddie porn was during the term of Texas Governor George W. Bush.

WMR has learned that the Bush administration, like that of Blair, is rife with paedophiles in top positions. The paedophile network also extends to the U.S. defense industry, particularly some of the companies that have been involved in the sexual abuse of minors at overt and covert U.S. prisons in Abu Ghraib, Iraq; Guantanamo, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Thailand, and now, at three prisons in Ethiopia.

 
Source: Wayne Madsen

‘commons clerk on trial after IT find thousands of images of children performing sexual acts’

Tony Blair’s closest confidante’s is a practising paedophile, are even suggesting that this particular scandal, and not Blair’s repeated lies and fabricated reports in regard to Iraq, may well prove the downfall of a government mired in sleaze and corruption.

The Sunday Times is reported to have obtained an FBI list of Labour MPs who have used credit cards to pay for internet child pornography, and Blair has responded by imposing a massive news blackout, failing however to stop the arrest of one of his most important aides, Phillip Lyon.

Lyon used his computer “to pursue his interest and perhaps curiosity in this type of material. He searched for it on the internet and, when found, downloaded it for his delectation later”, said Ms Karmy-Jones.

Lyon, 38, from Stanford le Hope in Essex, denies 12 specimen charges of making an indecent image of a child between October 2001 and April 2002. “It is like a drug, you try one and you want to try something harder, and it has a snowball effect,” he is alleged to have told officers when arrested.

Lyon worked in the Upper Table Office, where he met MPs, the Speaker, and Deputy Speaker while checking parliamentary questions and administering early day motions. “He needed skills in computing and the internet,” said Ms Karmy-Jones. “He is an intelligent individual, and knew full well what he was doing.” When first interviewed, he allegedly told police he did not distribute material – “I just look at pictures.”

Ms Karmy-Jones told jurors: “This case is about child pornography – what others might call photos of child abuse. When I say child abuse, it may sound harsh, but it is the nature of these images which is central to the case. They are unpleasant and disturbing.”

She said the issue might be whether it was Lyon who downloaded the images. “We say it is clear he was that man.”

Under Blair’s government paedophiles get off with a slap on the wrist ‘Proof’

There is a lot more here that is being exposed. We already know about  Lord

George Robertson’s (ex UK Defence Secretary 1997/98 and Sec Gen of Nato) links with Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane), procurer of young boys and a massive British  establishment [Masonic] cover up.

Blair government insider Lord Robertson has threatened to sue Scotland’s leading independent newspaper over internet allegations that he not only used his influence as a Freemason to procure a gun licence for child killer Thomas Hamilton, but was also a member of a clandestine paedophile ring reportedly set up by Hamilton for the British elite. On 13 March 1996, Hamilton, armed with four hand-guns, opened fire on a junior school class, killing 16 children and one teacher before turning the gun on himself, shattering forever the idyllic 13th century Scottish town of Dunblane. Lord Robertson was the referee on Thomas Hamilton’s shotgun licence. [FACT]

Blair government, which has already issued a D-Notice to gag the press from revealing the names of known paedophiles within the British executive, including at least two senior ministers; and the case highlights the government’s NATO boss and Blair government insider Lord Robertson has threatened to sue Scotland’s leading independent newspaper over internet allegations that he not only used his influence as a Freemason to procure a gun licence for child killer Thomas Hamilton, but was also a member of a clandestine paedophile ring reportedly set up by Hamilton for the British elite.

Tony Blair’s closest confidante’s is a practising paedophile, are even suggesting that this particular scandal, and not Blair’s repeated lies and fabricated reports in regard to Iraq, may well prove the downfall of a government mired in sleaze and corruption. The Sunday Times is reported to have obtained an FBI list of Labour MPs who have used credit cards to pay for internet child pornography, and Blair has responded by imposing a massive news blackout, failing however to stop the arrest of one of his most important aides, Phillip Lyon.

The latest allegations came to light following a campaign to lift the secrecy on the Dunblane massacre. Large sections of the police report were banned from the public domain under a 100-year secrecy order. Lord Cullen, an establishment insider, also omitted and censored references to the documents in his final report. Parents and teachers were advised to concentrate their efforts on a campaign to outlaw handguns instead of focusing on how the mentally unstable Freemason, already known by the police to be a paedophile, had obtained a firearms licence for six handguns. Hamilton allegedly enjoyed good relations with both local Labour luminary George Robertson and Michael Forsyth, the then Scottish Secretary of State and MP for Stirling. Forsyth congratulated and encouraged Hamilton for running a boy’s club. Hamilton was also found to have exchanged letters with the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth.

Now where in this is there a national security risk so great, that documents part of the public enquiry are now state secrets to be held for 100 years? Funny kind of public enquiry. Why, when Thomas Hamilton’s application for a gun licence was turned down, due to him being regarded as a man of unsound character [and] him being the object of several paedophilia investigations, did his MP, our friend George Robertson (now Lord Robertson, Secretary-General of NATO), write him a glowing character reference, and personally see to it that his application was successful, when he knew the grounds for the original refusal were because he was suspected of procuring boys for sexual services?”

Dunblane may have been just over 11 years ago, but the questions still loom, that have to be answered.

1.No proper Autopsy and no inquest on Hamilton?

2. Reasons unknown – Shoots Kids? – was he a scape goat to get rid of evidence of a paedophile ring of MP’s and Mason’s in Scotland? – there seems to be mounting evidence to prove this theory.

3. Receives Shotgun Licence even though he was turned down by normal channels – Why was Lord Robertson not prosecuted for refereeing his application?

4. Why did he shoot himself with a different gun from the one he shot the kid’s with, even though the first gun still hand rounds in it? – strange to say the least.

These and many more questions, still remain unanswered.

‘Assorted Party Political Perverts for your attention’

 

.  Tory Party General election candidate, Michael Powell – Convicted and jailed for 3 years for downloading hardcore child porn.

.  Tory Party Councillor (Wickbar/Bristol) Roger Talboys – Convicted and jailed for 6 years for multiple sex attacks on childre

.  Tory Party MP (Billericay) Harvey Proctor – Stood trial for sex offences of a sado-masochistic nature against teenage boys, and    was forced to resign.

.  Tory Party Councillor ( Stratford-upon-Avon ) Christopher Pilkington – Convicted of downloading hardcore child porn on his PC. Placed on sex offenders register and forced to resign.

.  Tory Party councillor ( Coventry ), Peter Stidworthy – Charged with indecent assault of a 15-year old boy.

.  Tory Party Mayor ( North Tyneside ), Chris Morgan – Forced to resign after being arrested twice in 2 weeks, for indecent assault on a 15-year old girl, and for suspicion of downloading child porn.

.  Tory Party Liaison Manager on the London Assembly, Douglas Campbell, who’s job includes running the Tory GLA website – Arrested for allegedly downloading child porn. He is currently suspended while the Police investigation continues.

.  Tory Party Councillor (Folkestone – in Leader, Michael Howard’s constituency), Robert Richdale – 41 year history of crime, involving 30 convictions and 5 prison sentences. Richdales enormous criminal record, which covers 10 pages of A4 paper, includes convictions for assault, theft, causing death by dangerous driving, forgery, drugs offences, possession of an offensive weapon, and sex attacks against underage schoolgirls. The Tory Party election campaign literature described Richdale as “a family man” who had a “compassionate personality”

.  Labour Councillor (Newton Aycliffe) Martin Locklyn – Convicted and jailed for 15 years for sexually abusing 3 14-year-old boys.

.  Labour Councillor (North Lincolnshire) David Spooner – Convicted and jailed for 1 year for masturbating in front of 2 young boys.

.  Labour Mayor (Westhoughton/Lancashire) Nicholas Green – Convicted and jailed for 10 years for 3 rapes and 13 counts of indecent assault against little girls between the age of 6 and 10. He raped one woman on her wedding day.

.  Prominent Labour Party activist Mark Tann (who has met Tony & Cherie at Party functions) recently got a 15-year sentence for raping a 4-year old girl on 2 separate occasions.

.  Entire Labour Party conspired to conceal the activities of Labour Party activist and serial child-molester Mark Trotter, who died from AIDS before he could be convicted.

.  Labour Councillor (Manchester), George Harding – Charged with indecent assault on a girl of 12.

.  According to media reports, the names of 2 former Labour Cabinet Ministers said to be `Household names` appear on the `Operation Ore ` list of subscribers to hard-core child pornography. The same FBI investigation, which led to the arrest of rock star Pete Townshend. So who are they Mr Blair?

 

.  William Straw – Son of Labour Foreign Secretary, and former Home Secretary – Jack Straw, was cautioned by Police for drug dealing, amid a frantic Government attempt to cover up the matter and gag the media as to his identity. Jack Straw also has a brother who was convicted of a sex attack on a schoolgirl. Lovely family!

.  Homosexual mass murderer; Dennis Nielsen, who strangled and dismembered 16 young men in the 1980`s, was also a highly active member of Labour fringe groups such as the Anti-Nazi League, and the SWP. That’s when he wasn’t busy boiling peoples heads in a pot, or masturbating over the corpses of his victims.

.  Lib-Dem Council candidate (Tower Hamlets), Justin Sillman – Convicted and jailed for 2 years for sexual abuse of young boys.

.  Lib-Dem Councillor and Mayoral Candidate ( Sheffield ), Francis Butler- Prosecuted for indecent assault of a young boy.

.  Lib-Dem Councillor ( Stockport ) Neil Derbyshire – Sexually assaulted a 16-year old boy in a public toilet. He was caught with a plastic bag containing lubricant, plastic surgical gloves, a condom, and underpants.

 http://www.tpuc.org/node/34

.  Lib-Dem Councillor ( Preston ), Bill Chadwick – Charged with: Making an indecent photograph of a child, Incitement to rape, Incitement to murder, Incitement to kidnap, and Incitement to torture. Chadwick’s gay lover – Alan Valentine, is also a Lib-Dem councillor.

This we are afraid is only the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s get a little texty

‘After Hours’ was released in 1985, written by Joseph Minion and directed by Martin Scorsese. I remember seeing it maybe 10 years ago, and it featured Harvey Keitel back then, now it features Griffin Dunne!  Seems I had ‘Mean streets’ mixed up with ‘After Hours’…

So, poor old Paul Hackett has a shitty job and thinks it’s temporary, lives alone and seems to be as lonely as can be. One night, he goes out to a cafe and reads a Henry Miller book, he meets a nice but obviously crazy woman named Marcy Franklin that’s perfectly played by Rosanna Arquette, end up getting her phone number and phones her asap…. Then his night turns into a nightmare, which is something you knew as soon as she came into the picture, the rhythm of the film speeds up: The bar tender is the first clue, he does strange dance moves, then when he goes to meet her afterwards, the taxi driver drives like a nut, and of course when he arrives she’s not there and it’s her sculptor friend that welcomes him with less than a smile, it smells like lofty coky arty Soho….You can feel the trap, you feel the poor regular man starting to lose it. She and him can’t communicate, he’s a nice guy in a regular life and she’s a mystery and will/wishes to remain so. He escapes the scene but his troubles are just starting, many insignificant but consequent things happen to him, like the metro fare has gone up overnight and he doesn’t have enough money to go home, the only guy who would help him can’t open his bar’s cash register to give him change and of course it’s raining like hell! From then it’s a series of situations where Paul goes deeper and deeper into the shitter, most of those situations would be banal if not funny, but they become surreal yet down to earth when you know what happened and start expecting what is about to. . . .

Even though you are sorry for the poor lad you can help but laugh, it’s going so far into the opposite of what he’s after, and when the end comes, you feel like screaming ‘I knew it’ and realise the genius of the writer and director! Then you go on the internet to check a couple of things and discover that the idea for the end was from the late Michael Powell who ‘was around quite a lot while the film was being made’, and how many times must we tell you that he was a great film maker, 1? 2? 3?

Enjoy !

Before going on to the top 100 of IMDb’s Top 250, I’m jumping back down on The List to pick up a few titles that snuck on to the bottom after I’d passed it.

Data
Title: The Red Shoes
Year: 1948
Length: 133 minutes
Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Writer: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, with Keith Winter, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Starring: Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer
Music: Brian Easdale
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Score (dramatic or comedy) and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (color); formerly on the IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a young dancer and a young composer get their break together with a touring ballet company
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Good. A movie about the ballet, with the fairy tale tone of a ballet.  The sort of straight-forward, romantic melodrama I expect from a movie inspired by (“based on” seems too strong) Hans Christian Andersen.
Story: Good.
Characters: Good. They’re simple and one-dimensional, but in a way that works perfectly for what the movie’s doing.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Good. It probably doesn’t need to be so long; the real plot doesn’t get going until an hour and a half into the movie. But I was never bored.  And you’ve got to give them some credit for having the balls to put an entire performance of a ballet smack in the middle of a long movie. Risky move, but it works. Strangely, it reminds me of Rififi.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Good. They put all of their efforts with the visuals into a handful of key scenes, which are amazingly good. But other scenes are just okay. For instance, at one point a cloud of dry ice is supposed to represent a train passing by.
Acting: Great. I’m stretching this category to “performances” with this movie.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). I didn’t love it, but I have to wonder what’s wrong with the world that I’d never even heard of it until a few days ago.
Objective Rating: 9/10 (Very good).

Eh, I was going to do a second post on Paranormal Activity discussing our ghost, but I’m not really up for writing a long post about that right now, especially because people will most likely just think I am completely insane. So, on to Day 3’s first film, Peeping Tom (1960). You get video clips today, hooray! My mother was in the mood for a horror movie, so I pulled out this dvd knowing that she would probably like it. And she did. Good one, Anne!

Peeping Tom is regarded as one of the best horror films ever made, as well as one of the best British films ever made, and one of my personal favorites – in fact, it may be in my Top 10 Favorite Films list, although that list tends to change a lot. I have never seen a Michael Powell film that was anything less than stunning (granted, I’ve only seen The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, Tales of Hoffmann, and Peeping Tom).

"Hello, Mark, I am Helen the librarian from downstairs. I hope you don't mind if I hang out in your apartment when you are not there and mess with all of your stuff."

There is a summary of the film over here, although if you are too lazy or have already seen it, the basic gist of the film is that Mark Lewis is a seriously odd dude with an unexplained German accent who was experimented on by his father as a child and therefore has grown up to be a serial killer who murders people with a knife built into his camera, and he makes his victims watch their deaths in a mirror. There is also an incredibly naive and sweet 21-year-old librarian who lives downstairs with her blind mother, who is wise to the fact the Mark has some major issues.

I learned some important things about British people in the 1960s from this film:

1. Almost all women have red hair.

2. No one has any sense of respect for privacy – if your door is unlocked, people have no problem letting themselves in and fucking with your stuff, even if you are a creepy German guy who is clearly a murderer of some kind.

3. They pronounce things weirdly, like “MEE-mo” for “memo.”

4. Despite not having any respect for privacy, everyone is so polite that no one bothers to ask why Mark grew up in England but has a strong German accent.

Two of my favorite horror scenes are in this movie, although I usually don’t count the first one on lists (I make a lot of lists, can you tell?) because the things I like about it have nothing to do with the murder, but rather about the awesome dance Moira Shearer does. Shearer plays a stand-in on a movie set who is going to film something with Mark, who told her that she needs to act out being scared to death of someone. Given that, it is natural that she “warms up” for this task by doing some modern dance:

If you liked her dancing, you should definitely watch The Red Shoes. The second is this scene in which Helen’s blind mother confronts Mark about being a weirdo, and he almost kills her:

The relevant clips starts about halfway through. Sorry I couldn’t trim it for you, but as I mentioned before, video editing is impossible on this computer.

Hopefully that makes you want to see the movie. You should.

Mark Lewis is a wonderful character, because even though he brutally murders people, you really can’t hate him. If your father tortured you as a child by scaring the shit out of you every night and filming it, you would probably end up being a serial killer with an inexplicable German accent too. It’s just science.

Cultural and historical significance: 9/10

Creepiness of main character: 8/10

Moira Shearer dance number: 10/10

Anne rating: 9/10

]]> http://klausming.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/black-narcissus-1947/ Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:38:06 +0000 klausming http://klausming.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/black-narcissus-1947/

UK, 100m Colour
Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger; Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, Jean Simmons, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Kathleen Byron

Black Narcissus is a beautifully-filmed but strange and complicated psychological drama. The story is based upon the formation of a convent set high in a Himalayan valley within the walls of a former palace which has an unexpected “humanizing” effect on it’s new inhabitants – a group of nuns who attempt to “civilize” the local population by opening a school for girls and nursing facility. Despite their best efforts the nuns are faced with worldly issues which eventually threaten their mission and their very lives (Klaus Ming September 2009).

UK 104m, Colour & B&W
Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger; Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Marius Goring

A Matter of Life and Death is a strangely fascinating romantic fantasy film about a WWII pilot who should have died after jumping without a parachute from his burning plane. The film’s use of colour photography to portray scenes on earth, and black and white for scenes of the “other world” after death, provide a reverse Wizard of Oz effect. The set design and camera work in the black and white sequences are reminiscent of early expressionist film and offer an oddly bleak picture of life-after-death. Conversely, the color sequences, along with the plot, portray our lives on earth as the most important and enjoyable part of our existence (Klaus Ming September 2009).

“I’ll believe that when I see a halo around my head.”

Chose peu commune dans le domaine de la mise en scène, souvent une question d’égo, que ce duo Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger. La rencontre se fait à Londres à la fin des années 30. La première collaboration, elle, se fait à l’occasion du film L’espion noir (1939). Powell est anglais et a travaillé dans son jeune temps avec Hitchcock en tant qu’assistant. Pressburger en revanche connait une vie plus chaotique. Originaire de Hongrie, juif, la montée en puissance des totalitarismes le poussera à s’exiler à Paris, puis à Londres. On connait la suite. Les Productions Archers montées avec son camarade Powell et une fructueuse amitié qui aboutissent à une filmographie souvent épatante, originale, s’étalant sur plus de vingt ans.

Une question de vie ou de mort est l’histoire d’un pilote britannique, Peter D. Carter (David Niven, bel acteur), dont l’avion est sur le point de s’abîmer en mer. Il converse avec une femme de l’armée par radio. La voix de la jeune femme (Kim Hunter) le séduit, le courage de l’aviateur la bouleverse. Ils tombent amoureux sans sans apercevoir vraiment, par voix interposées. Il saute dans le vide sans parachute allant à l’encontre d’une mort certaine. Or, il se retrouve, vivant, sur une plage. Comment expliquer cet étonnant phénomène ? Le brouillard épais (le fameux fog anglais) semble avoir empêché la mort de trouver sa victime. En marchant, il croise June, la femme avec laquelle il a parlé juste avant de se jeter dans le vide. Le coup de foudre se confirme. Seulement la mort revient chercher son dû. Peter refuse arguant qu’il est tombé amoureux pendant ce laps de temps supplémentaire. Le Paradis, par l’intermédiaire de l’agent 71, un français guillotiné pendant le Terreur, accepte d’octroyer un délais aux amants ainsi qu’au Dr. Reeves (Roger Livesey), un ami de June, afin qu’ils puissent préparer leur défense: l’erreur divine a-t-elle permis ce coup de foudre ? Sont-ils vraiment amoureux ? N’est-ce pas là un moyen d’éviter de monter au Ciel ?

Commande du gouvernement britannique pour resserrer les liens quelque peu distendus entre Royaume-Uni et États-Unis à la fin de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, ce film est véritablement enthousiasmant. Tourné en noir, blanc et couleur, A Matter of Life and Death est l’œuvre de deux artisans poètes. Magnifique technicolor utilisé pour la vie terrestre, noir et blanc au poil pour l’au-delà, bref, un film visuellement maîtrisé de main(s) de maître(s). Et comment résister, au cours du procès, à cette violente diatribe anti-anglaise prononcée par un Raymond Massey (vu dans Arsenic et vieilles dentelles et A l’est d’Eden entre autres) dont on sent bien qu’il jubile dans la peau du procureur américain. Cette chronique est l’occasion pour moi de manifester mon attachement aux Archers (en général, et à Powell en particulier), injustement ignorés, honteusement minorés. Il est grand temps pour le cinéphile de revenir à ces joyaux du cinéma anglais.