A Matter of Life and Death
Show Date: November 5, 2026 7:00 pm
****A special Shere Village Cinema Screening & Guest Speaker****
80th anniversary of A Matter of Life and Death
7pm start
Made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and released in November 1946, A Matter of Life and Death begins with one of cinema’s most memorable premises.
Peter Carter, a young RAF pilot played by David Niven, is returning from a wartime bombing mission in a badly damaged aircraft. With no parachute and little hope of survival, he makes radio
contact with an American operator, June, played by Kim Hunter. Expecting to die, he jumps from the aircraft – but somehow survives.
It seems that Heaven has made an administrative error, and Peter is given the opportunity to argue that, having unexpectedly been allowed to go on living – and having fallen in love – he should be
allowed to stay.
What follows is funny, romantic, visually extraordinary and surprisingly thoughtful: a film about love and death, but also about what makes a human life worth living.
This is a SVC Special event – to mark the 80th Anniversary of A Matter of Life and Death – one of the great British films.
There is a particularly good reason for the SVC showing it, as Shere itself appears in the film. One scene features a camera obscura looking out over Middle Street, giving us a wonderfully clear glimpse of the village as it was in the 1940s.
Look carefully and you can recognise buildings that are still familiar today, including the former fire station – now our public toilets – and the building which is now The Dabbling Duck. For those of us who know the village well, there is something rather magical about seeing an everyday Shere street preserved in one of the classics of British cinema.
We are especially delighted that our anniversary screening will be introduced by the distinguished film historian and critic Ian Christie, one of the leading authorities on Powell and Pressburger. He will help us put the film, its making and its remarkable afterlife into context – and perhaps help us look at those familiar Shere locations with slightly different eyes.
105 tickets available
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x £6.00
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x £4.00
- (16 or under)
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x £2.50
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