Stairway to Heaven (film, 1946)

The film takes place in the real world, displayed in color, and in a fictional, symbolizing a staircase to the sky , the scenes of which are shot on black and white film.

Real world. May 2, 1945, after completing a combat mission, an aircraft of the British Air Force Avro Lancaster was shot down. Part of the crew was able to leave the side. The dead officer Trabshaw ^{[K 1]} (Kut) and pilot Peter Carter (Niven), whose parachute is hopelessly damaged, remained in the planning burning car. Peter is trying to establish a connection with the earth. The dispatcher hears it, American June (Hunter). Peter emotionally asks to say goodbye to his mother, sisters. He and June morally support each other. Just before the crash, Peter jumps out of the plane. Having woken up in the morning, he wanders along the surf and almost immediately meets June, who has changed from shift. Young people intuitively recognize each other, love is born between them.

Stairway to Heaven. Officer Trabshaw persuades the Registrar Angel (Byron) to allow him to wait for his comrade Peter Carter, who, in his opinion, died after him. Time passes, but that is still not there. Summing up the day, the senior angel demands a report from conductor No. 71 (Goring), in the past - a nobleman who died on the guillotine during the French Revolution - about the reason for the absence of the second pilot. He explains everything with thick fog at the crash site. Trashhow confirms his words. The senior angel gives the conductor the task to correct the error as soon as possible.

Real world. The conductor finds Peter in the arms of sleeping June. He explains the situation to the pilot and demands to immediately follow himself. He categorically refuses, citing the reciprocity of the mistake made. Explorer disappears for advice. Peter tells June about what happened. She blames it on the injury in the fall and turns to her friend Dr. Reeves (Livesey) with a request to sort out Carter's condition. The doctor invites the pilot to stay with him in anticipation of the next visit of the "messenger". However, his appearance is once again accompanied by a stop of time and Reeves cannot see him. The conductor tells Peter that a decision has been made to appoint a heavenly trial in the case of his death. The pilot has the right to choose any of the deceased as his lawyer. Dr. Reeves dies in a car accident. Peter Carter chooses him as his defender.

Stairway to Heaven. The heavenly courtroom is crowded with dead soldiers of many times and peoples. Abraham Farlan, Prosecutor (Massey) - the first victim to fall from a British bullet in the US War of Independence , hates them fiercely. The dialogue with the British lawyer comes down to a lengthy dive over a two-century relationship. Conductor No. 71 returns them to the topic of lovers, proposing to arrange an investigative experiment. The girl without hesitation is ready to give her life to save her lover. The court decides in favor of Peter and June. A pilot comes to his senses in the real world in a hospital ward after a successful brain operation.

• David Niven - Peter Carter
• Kim Hunter - June
• Roger Livesey - Dr. Reeves
• Marius Goring - guide No. 71
• Kathleen Byron - Registrar Angel
• Robert Kut - Bob Trabshaw, Pilot Officer
• Raymond Massey - Abraham Farlan, Prosecutor
• Abraham Soufer - Judge
• Richard Attenborough - English pilot
• Robert Atkins - Vicar

A feature of the film is the simultaneous use of color and black and white film for the conditional separation of the two worlds of the protagonist. This technique was used by the duet of directors earlier in the film “ Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ” (1943). The British film institute gives the primacy in such experiments to the film “ The Wizard of Oz ” (1939). But if there is only a successful combination of color and monochrome shooting in it, then at Powell and Pressburger this idea is refracted into the leading concept. Moreover, the material is presented in such a way that the dividing line passes not along the border of the real and conditional worlds, but along the border of love and vitality against the musty sterility and everyday life. The prosaic reality even in color looks monochrome, and the black-and-white fantasy world in romantic scenes is painted in pearly shades ^[3] .

• 1946 - Community of Film Critics of New York , best film (3 place), best directing (3 place);
• 1948 - Danish film award Bodil , the best European film;
• In 1986, he was selected for the out-of-competition program of the Cannes Film Festival ^[4] .
• As of 1999, the tape takes 20 place in the list of 100 best British films for 100 years according to BFI ^[5] .
• According to a survey conducted in 2004 by the specialized magazine Total Film among 25 critics, the picture took second place in the ranking of the greatest films of all time the existence of British cinema, losing only to “ Remove Carter ” by Mike Hodges ^[6] .

The New York Times reviewer is a witness of the American premiere of the film in 1946, speaks of it in the most enthusiastic colors: the work of the creative duet Powell and Pressburger, the play of actors, the wit and ingenuity of the heavenly court scene, costumes and sets ^[7] . Another, already modern observer of the same publication, considers the film the progenitor of all surreal cinema, taking the viewer from the everyday reality of everyday life to the sharpened reality of the imagination ^[1] . Roger Ebert also speaks highly of the film, and some scenes (fictional universes, heavenly “hole” with an endless staircase) are among the most spectacular in the history of cinema. Although British critics called the tape pro-American in the year of the premiere, Ebert considers it rather ironic with the Yankees : a cola- selling apparatus in Purgatory , typically American plastic bags for dry cleaning, in which newly arrived angels receive wings and so on ^[2] .

The restored copy of the film was prepared for hire by Telma Schunmaker - editor, long-term employee of the creative team Martin Scorsese . The long work on the study of archival documents and the meticulous restoration of color from Technicolor made it possible to most accurately convey the intention of the authors of the picture, according to Martin Scorsese. After watching the work of directors as a child, in the 1990s he bought copyrights for their rental ^[1] .

• " Stairway to Heaven ” on the Internet Movie Database  
• Stairway to Heaven (English) on allmovie
• Stairway to Heaven on the Rotten Tomatoes website