二战时期,英国皇家空军Peter(大卫·尼文 David Niven 饰)驾驶的飞机即将坠毁,他的战友Bob已经死亡。他联系上了美国波士顿的军事电台,向电台的女兵June(金·亨特 Kim Hunter 饰)交代了他的遗言。随后Peter在没有降落伞的情况下跳了机,落在了一个海上,意外活了下来。更在醒来的海滩上遇到了June,两人坠入爱河。而死去的Bob则去了天国,一直等不到Peter。天国派出了71号管理员来人间找回Peter,而Peter则不想死去。为了活下来,他必须在天国打赢一场官司,他可以挑选一名律师,这些律师都是那些死去的人,例如柏拉图、林肯等人,Peter能否赢得这场官司从而留在人间和June长相厮守呢?
二战期间一架战机中弹即将坠毁。在行将死去之际,这架战机上的英国空军员Peter联系上了美国的军事电台女兵June并交代了他的遗言。两人只通过无线电波的声音就对彼此产生了好感(奇怪的逻辑但也许老片就这样)。
随后彼得在没有降落伞的情况下跳了机。他落在了海滩上,因为天堂运行故障暂时无法收人而意外活了下来,而且醒来后在海滩上遇到了June,两人一相见立刻坠入爱河托付终生(again,老片不要在意逻辑...)。
这时Peter死去的战友Bob没见到Peter,于是去问天国官方。天国接到消息后就派人来接Peter,但Peter在恋爱不想走,于是他去天国打了场官司。
在打官司时,法庭上大家漫天谈心,从爱情聊到民主再聊到殖民主义再聊到人权再聊到英美不同再聊到政体再聊到英美同盟,最终他们肯定了美国价值观、美国政体、以及英美同盟的重要性,并在对一系列价值观的认可下认同了Peter的申诉。于是Peter活了下来,有情人终成眷属。电影结束。
其实故事本身不怎么样,镜头调度之类的也没什么。这电影主要意义还是在于它的特效。正如罗杰.伊伯特所说:"Today's movies are infatuated with special effects, but often they're used to create the sight of things we can easily imagine: crashes, explosions, battles in space. The special effects in "Stairway to Heaven" show a universe that never existed until this movie was made, and the vision is breathtaking in its originality."也就是说,一般的特效只不过是创造一些我们可以想象得到却无法做到的,比如爆炸、车祸、老虎之类的,但是《平步青云》却是创造了那个时代的人们无法想象的、脑洞极大的东西。不管是天梯还是天堂其他的各种非常风格化非常有趣的建筑,都在那个时代极具原创性且让人赞叹。
A fantastic cock-and-bull story to salve the morale at the end of WWII, UK filmmaker-duo Powell and Pressburger’s A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH whimsically goes off the beaten path to juxtapose two worlds side by side, the one on earth and the one in the afterlife (rigorously separated by its Technicolor/monochrome divide), only, in the center it is a hokey and far-fetched case of love-at-the-first-word, between a RAF pilot Peter Carter (Niven) and an American radio operator June (Hunter), their instant love after then becomes the rub of a celestial case, regarding Peter’s miraculous escape from death by jumping out of his burning bomber with a parachute (answerable by the thick fog over the England channel, lol!).
Since his survival is no fault of his own, purely a blip in the Almighty’s plan, Peter appeals against going to “the other world” as he has now fallen in love with June during the 20-odd borrowed hours, which gives him an obligation on earth (but it sounds feeble considering it is insensible to assume all those departed are taken without such earthly attachments), and he has to choose a counsel in the other world to defend his case.
With umpteen candidates to choose from (literally any dead beings who have once set their foot in this world), what Peter needs is a fresh one, British Dr. Reeves (Livesey), who, when he is alive, is fascinated by Peter’s brain injury and his claimed fantasy of meeting a time-stopping heavenly messenger known as Conductor 17 (Goring), must draw his last breath in a horrendous road accident to serve that singular purpose, and not one single tear is shed for him, alas!
During the celestial court (a wheeze to parallel it with a brain surgery on earth), Dr. Reeves is facing the prosecution team led by a grievance-driven American Abraham Farlan (Massey, out-of-sorts and grotesque), the first casualty in the hand of British army during American Revolutionary War, whose racist braggadocio might get under certain viewers’skin, the gist is that a British man is unworthy of an all-American gal. But eventually, the Anglo-American relations are channeled through an amicable solution when the gal willingly takes the place for the man she loves, why don’t they ask her first? Case closed.
For sure, the story doesn’t age quite well albeit the killer set-up, yet what puts AMoLaD’s name on the map is not its simplified message but a stunning, cutting-edge production design, from the opening astral projection, the modernist setting of the other world, to the “stairway to heaven” (which is used as its title in the North America), continuously rotating between earth and the afterlife (“heaven” is largely bypassed as a definition in the movie), and its immaculate chromatic transition between the two worlds.
The cast is serviceable, Niven has the chutzpah to claim that he is only 26 (in reality he is one decade senior), but Hunter squeezes enough gumption in a character that is devoid of any motivation on her own terms; Livesey is a stand-up dude, but it is Goring, playing a guillotined French aristocrat, ebulliently counterpoises the British gravitas with the much-needed levity and mannerism, a real hoot and a half, an epithet one can almost apply to the movie itself.
referential entries: Powell and Pressburger’s THE RED SHOES (1948. 7.9/10); BLACK NARCISSUS (1947, 8.3/10).
最近看的最好的喜剧片 最重要的是有一种带有电影的幽默 这种幽默并非其他媒介所能代替的 当死去法国人因公要出现在人间 他开了特艺色彩技术的玩笑 在他出现的第二次 女主角和医生在打乒乓球 但鲍威尔用了定帧 让这个极有运动感的画面定住了 刚沉浸于剧情的观众以为电影的放映会出了问题 其实也是结合剧情很有幽默的一个点 当失去的法国人出现 电影进入另一个时空 幽默极高
The Archers' underrated masterpiece, abounds with bold visual choices, surging national pride, sincere odes to life, and some wildest imaginations the film industry has ever witnessed.
来自丹尼尔和罗琳的最爱。英国的骄傲自满铺面而来。佩服这种仿佛所有问题都可以在法庭上见分晓的做法;佩服这样所有故事都可以在一部戏剧里面讲完的手法。坦白的说,女主除了花瓶没有作用,是我是男主肯定要和医生在一起。收集眼泪我以为要用个试管,结果用了朵粉蔷薇真是不能再棒!
#第二部普雷斯伯格# 英国人脑洞无比大,尤擅长自黑。法庭辩论那段太有想象力了,这都能扯到历史和政治上去。科幻场景在今天看来比较粗糙,很五毛特效。爱情戏本身也比较呆板拙劣
想象力实在丰富,镜头表现力及转场都挺赞,过多的政治元素还是有点多余
惊了,也太超前了这个片,各种视觉的表现方式。虽然还是有些尬,好多斗嘴的段落让现在的观众估计Get不到点。但这片能在二战结束后一年就拍出来,也太牛了。
开始以为是爱情喜剧,后来以为是奇幻,最后才发现是普法教育片!黑白与彩色转换非常可爱,看来对于创作者来说还是世间比较美好。有趣的设计:时间的停止,法庭的呈现,阶梯,伟人,英国的敌人遍布全球,所有国籍、种族、肤色的士兵共聚一堂。现在看来不稀奇了,但在当时应该是有趣的尝试吧。
整个构思不错,但是法庭辩论和结尾充斥媚俗和关于国际民族优越感的YY。使格调大大降低。
脑洞颇大的爱情片,可惜最后的天国法庭,辩来辩去只是无聊的英法恩怨和爱情至上
看之前愣是没想到是个科幻片(译名太骗人了还以为是什么升职片呢……),充满着英国人的自嘲和幽默,同时也把美国损了一把,法国天使虽然浮夸但真的好笑,故事内核虽然主要是爱情,但也有一些政治思辨。实搭的天梯和天堂人间的黑白彩色表达在那个年代也是很先进了,另外David Niven真的很可爱,尤其是有可爱的鼻子~
1946年出品啊!若十九世纪唯美派在世,必将终生与P&P为友。
宇宙就是一个会场 并且电影中设计了各种时空交错 ,甚至有了种伍迪艾伦师祖的味道
这想象力!服了。该去天国报道的人没死成,临死还爱上了地上的姑娘,场景天上地下跳来跳去…… 最后的天国法庭戏太逗乐了,英国人的(自)嘲讽技能简直满格,不过美国观众瞎乐呵啥呢,这说的不就是战后的你们……
有点意思,被里面的一些未来(死后)场景吸引了……可是里面人物讲台词年代感实在太强了,穿插了各种人类文明的群星班底,我就想现实世界都在排练莎翁的仲夏夜之梦了,为何不直接把老莎拉来做辩护,他绝对可以为爱情代言了
3.5。不愛僵化的性別意識、愛情觀,但花了這麼多篇幅、甚至弄一場法庭戲來為開場那個只聽聲音就愛上的不合理安排辯護(也不忘對英美關係奚落一番),如此自覺的浪漫真是可愛,影像也很出色,"One is starved for Technicolor up there!"。
非常好!Michael Powell果然是奇才,奇幻瑰丽的视觉效果和充满机锋的完美剧本并存,故事很简单,但电影的内容却很丰盈,是名副其实的电影中的精品,而非像很多其他老片一样过多依赖the power of the theatre,像红菱艳一样,文学和视觉在这部电影里是balanced的。法庭上英国与美国的辩论很有趣,希望如今的世界也有几分像当年的彼岸。最耐人寻味的还是开放式结局,从医生到天堂后的淡定,和女主的“We won”的双重含义,及动手术的必行性,很难令人不怀疑这一切究竟是电影中的宇宙里真实发生过的,还是高度诗意/理性的男主缔造出的想象。
三星半。天梯和天堂的特效让人耳目一新,前半段展开时创意很勾人!但是医生一角很闷,女主角也不好看···最后的法庭戏尤其没劲,这种“虽然我们腐国xxx不好但/我们尊重人权/这是真爱!”的情结真是够了。新奇的设定和惊艳的特效最终无奈淹没在真善美的大团圆结局里。
脱缰野马般的想象力。不算绝妙,但足够狂乱,相当英国。被认为该死未死的人,可以在天堂上诉;控辩双方首先就陪审团的人选问题开始一轮交锋;法庭辩论先从美国独立战争说起,承接英美双方的互黑;但这个案件的实质又关乎爱情;而归根结底,电影真正要表达的却是在二战的浩劫之后对于一个未来世界的美好期许:“Nothing is stronger than the law in the universe, but on earth nothing is stronger than love.”
《平步青云》没有像好莱坞同时期的同类,用华丽的特效与爱情故事逃避二战,相反,这个看似战争只能作为背景的大后方奇幻故事却指向了二战本身,在这里,我们看不见随时可见的防空警报,却能发现代表科学主义的角色突然意识到了其自身的狭隘边界而被迫自我毁灭,而“英国价值”在全球化(美国、法国)语境下突然回归,重建,面对废墟的欧洲与美国的霸权。开场,这场战争被放到了更为宏大的视角进行检视——从宇宙到地球,黑白—彩色的渐变,作为两个世界的过渡,就像从顶部投下的阴影,一种威胁性的他者存在悬而未决。“天堂”成为了未来主义的Art Deco风格,也可以被理解为战后现代主义的预言。Hello,我们赢了,结尾两句简短的对白,英格兰的集体叙事,告别战后PTSD
两星半。真没意思,只能从转场和运镜里找到来自七十年前的惊喜,那种对真善美的天真执着犹如恋爱脑一样短暂而且不可信。
几个充满想象力和创造力的场景(天梯、天堂法庭)真棒!