Poet Peter Gizzi discusses film and the written word following Powell and Pressburger’s A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
On Wednesday, April 29 at 7:00pm, Amherst Cinema welcomes celebrated poet Peter Gizzi for A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, the 1946 cosmic romance from legendary filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Gizzi selected the film as part of Amherst Cinema's A Thousand Words series. Following the screening, he joins the stage for a discussion about how the film inspires him and where it intersects with his practice.
In A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, a British wartime aviator who cheats death (David Niven) must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American radio operator (Kim Hunter). Alternating between rich Technicolor scenes on earth and a starkly beautiful, modernist black-and-white afterlife, the film is a feast for the senses, masterfully written and directed by Powell and Pressburger amidst a string of other masterpieces, including I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! (1945), BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), and THE RED SHOES (1948). It ranks #78 on the British Film Institute Sight and Sound list of the 250 best films of all time. According to Gizzi, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH is “a truly magical cinematic experience—visionary, spellbinding, and unlike anything else ever put to film. Not to be missed on the big screen.”
Peter Gizzi is the author of several collections of poetry, most recently Fierce Elegy, Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award (2023); Now It's Dark (2020); and Archeophonics, a finalist for the National Book Award (2016); all from Wesleyan. In the UK, Carcanet published Sky Burial: New and Selected Poems (2020) and in 2024 Penguin UK published an expanded edition of Fierce Elegy (winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize). His honors include fellowships from The Rex Foundation, The Howard Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and The Guggenheim Foundation. He has twice been the recipient of The Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellowship in Poetry at the University of Cambridge. In 2024-25, he was a Senior Global Fellow in Poetry at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the series editor of The Collected Works of Jack Spicer, now in four volumes. He teaches Poetry and Poetics at the UMass Amherst.
Tickets for this screening are $11.75 for general admission, $10.75 for seniors and students, and $8.25 for Amherst Cinema Members. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Amherst Cinema box office, or online: https://amherstcinema.org/films-and-events/matter-life-and-death
A Thousand Words invites writers, poets, and novelists to Amherst Cinema, asking each guest to program a film accompanying a discussion around their use of the written word in relationship to the moving image. Past screenings include LEGEND (1985) with Holly Black, MIRROR (1974) with Polina Barskova, and ORLANDO (1992) with Andrea Lawlor.
About Amherst Cinema: Amherst Cinema is an independent, nonprofit arts and education center brimming with world-class programs. The comfortable, fully accessible theater offers state-of-the-art projection and sound and is a welcoming crossroads for all. Amherst Cinema presents over 250 programs a year on three screens in more than 35 languages. For more information, visit: https://amherstcinema.org
