Error in the hereafter
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Error in the hereafter |
| Original title | A Matter of Life and Death |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English , French |
| Publishing year | 1946 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Michael Powell , Emeric Pressburger |
| script | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger |
| production | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger |
| music | Allan Gray |
| camera | Jack Cardiff |
| cut | Reginald Mills |
| occupation | |
| |
Errtum im Jenseits (A Matter of Life and Death, in the USA: Stairway to Heaven) is a fantasy film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger . The film, produced in 1946, was intended to strengthen the transatlantic friendship between Great Britain and the USA . The film, which mixes drama, romance and comedy with elements of fantasy, is about the love between the American air traffic controller June ( Kim Hunter ) and the British air traffic control officer Peter D. Carter ( David Niven ). Error in the hereafter is considered a classic film today. It opened in German cinemas on September 17, 1948.
action
Pilot Peter D. Carter's plane was shot down over England during one of the final air battles of World War II . Peter has already let his entire crew jump out of the burning plane, his co-pilot Bob was killed by a bomb fragment, but he himself no longer has a functioning parachute available. He awaits certain death in stoic calm. His last contact with the outside world is the voice of the American radio operator June, who encourages him and with whom he falls in love. Peter miraculously survives the jump without a parachute and is washed ashore. At first he cannot believe that he survived either. A little later he meets June and the two quickly become a couple.
In fact, Peter should have died in the crash. As it turns out, angel number 71 - an extravagant nobleman decapitated in the French Revolution - got lost in the British fog and was therefore unable to pick up Peter for heaven in time. In heaven one is by no means happy about the breakdown and angel number 71 is sent to earth to pick up Peter. But he refuses because he has found the love of his life in June. So it is decided in heaven that some kind of process should take place as to whether Peter can stay alive. Peter tells the astonished June about the upcoming trial and his "encounters" with angel number 71. The doctor friend Dr. Reeves interprets Peter's "visions" as the consequences of a brain trauma, which is why Peter should be operated on. Shortly before the operation, Dr. Reeves himself died in a motorcycle accident. So while Peter is being operated on on his brain in the hospital, Dr. Reeves goes to heaven and is allowed to appear there as Peter's lawyer.
Reeves argues before the grand court that Peter was given extra life on earth through a mistake made by Heaven. During this time he fell in love, which changed his situation on earth and binds him there. The accuser is the American Abraham Farlam, who was the first victim of the American War of Independence and who therefore feels a particular hatred of the British. Again and again he therefore includes the acts of the British in history to argue against Peter's continued existence. Farlam doesn't like that the American June fell in love with the British Peter. Dr. Reeves changes the line-up of the jury, as its members all come from countries that have at some point waged war against the British. The jury will be replaced by modern Americans of various origins from all countries. Eventually June and Peter are questioned by the court. June promises the court that she will die in Peter's place so that he can continue to live. This seals the truth of their love and both can go on living. The judge (played by Abraham Sofear, who also plays the brain surgeon during the operation) gives Peter a new lifetime.
In the end, Peter wakes up after the operation with the happy June at his side. It remains unclear whether the sky scenes only played out in Peter's head.
background
Mistake in the Hereafter was filmed in 1946 with the intention of getting the populations of Great Britain and the United States on friendly terms with each other after World War II. Therefore, the prejudiced Abraham Farlan is left behind in the end, while the transatlantic love affair between Peter and June wins. In addition, Powell and Pressburger also show the cultural differences between the USA and Great Britain in an ironic way. The voice of Winston Churchill can be heard on the British radio and jazz can be heard on the American radio . A Coke machine has been set up in heaven for the deceased American soldiers. The fact that the Captain of the Royal Air Force , Carter, dealt with history during his student days at Oxford gives rise to further pointed points of dialogue.
The cast of the film was also international in that the Americans Kim Hunter and Raymond Massey from Hollywood were hired to play the American roles in the film. The then relatively unknown Kim Hunter was recommended to director Powell by his friend Alfred Hitchcock . One of his first roles in this film is Richard Attenborough , who plays a soldier arriving in heaven: “It's Heaven, isn't it?” Is his only line of text. In addition, Lois Maxwell , who later became "Miss Moneypenney" from the James Bond film series, made her film debut in a small role.
The sky staircase, which took more than three months to build and which comprised a total of 106 steps, was particularly complex. The construction of the heavenly court, in which more than 5,000 extras took place during the filming, was similarly complex. The motif of the skies of the British film, which was extremely successful in the post-war period, was satirically spun on in the episode Heavenly Puss (1948–1949) of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Another peculiarity, which was used in The Wizard of Oz as early as 1939 , is the “two-tone” of error in the afterlife; while the earthly scenes were filmed in Technicolor colors, those in the hereafter are in black and white.
Reviews
“The gags chase each other. Above all, one must praise the screenplay and the direction by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: they did not skimp on ideas. (...) The audience had a sense for the brilliantly served, earthly-heavenly revue constructed with a sharp, enormously funny, but totally cold intellect. There was rightly a lot of applause. "
“With elegance, satirical wit, sensitivity and tact, the film maintains the balance between reality and phantasmagoria. Exquisitely played and wonderfully equipped, it has all the attributes of a sophisticated entertainment, the optical charms of which are always film-specific. "
“ Stairway to Heaven is one of the boldest films ever made - in its grandiose vision, and the cozy English way in which that vision is expressed. (...) British critics complained at the time that the film was too much on the American side. What today's viewers will find exciting, however, is the sheer energy of his ingenuity. Today's films are riddled with special effects, but often they only focus on things that we can easily imagine: collisions, explosions, battles in space. The special effects in Stairway to Heaven show a universe that never existed until this film was made, and this vision is breathtaking in its originality (rating: 4/4 stars). "
Harry Potter author Joanne K. Rowling named Mistake in the Afterlife as her all-time favorite film and read about it in a chapter of the seventh volume Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , in which Harry wakes up naked in a kind of intermediate world between life and death Inspire film.
Awards
In 1948 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger won the Danish Bodilprisen for best European film. In 1999, A Matter of Life and Death was voted 20th Century Best British Films by the British Film Institute .
See also
Films with a similar topic are those about Joe Pendleton ( Heaven should wait / Vacation from Heaven / Heaven and Back ) and various film adaptations by Kaspar from Brandner .
Web links
- A Matter of Life and Death in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Error in the hereafter. In: prisma.de. prisma-Verlag , accessed on September 13, 2017 .
- Error in the afterlife with Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ IMDb Trivia
- ↑ Film review in "Die Zeit"
- ↑ Error in the hereafter. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Film review by Roger Ebert
- ^ One Anglophile's Take on A Matter of Life and Death. In: Anglotopia.net. Retrieved April 3, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Video: Daniel Radcliffe & JK Rowling discuss Harry Potter's nudity in Deathly Hallows - SnitchSeeker.com. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .