Daniel Radcliffe names cinema’s greatest work of imagination: “It’s a brilliant story”
Believe it or not, Daniel Radcliffe may have reached the point where he is no longer best known for being Harry Potter.
It can be challenging for an actor to live down a famous role, especially if they are the face of a franchise, and when it comes to massive roles that are inseparable from their performers, Radcliffe’s titular role in the Harry Potter franchise is unlike anything else. James Bond may be just as big, but there are many actors who have played 007; similarly, the Star Wars franchise may rival the popularity of Harry Potter, but the galaxy far, far away is filled with many characters, and it isn’t named after any single one of them.
It would have been easy for the lexically dexterous star to spend the rest of his career coasting off the success of Harry Potter, but he has surprisingly decided to take a swing in a completely different direction. By turning to the stage, he has proven himself to be a talented singer, dancer, and theatre star, with his performance in Merrily We Roll Along receiving a significant degree of acclaim. He’s also found his way back onto network television with his current role in the sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins garnering much positive appreciation.
Even if Radcliffe has moved on from Harry Potter, he hasn’t entirely lost sight of cinema, and even claimed that his work on the unusual fantasy comedy Swiss Army Man was the most exciting experience of his career, showing that he has certainly not grown cynical about filmmaking as an art form, proven moreso by his proclaimed admiration for the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
“I think A Matter of Life and Death is one of the great works of imagination in cinema,” Radcliffe said, “It’s a brilliant story. David Niven could not be more charming in it if he tried. He starts off, you know, as a World War II pilot about to crash his plane while quoting Andrew Marvell down the phone to the mayday operator, who he then falls in love with.”
Radcliffe noted that the influence of A Matter of Life and Death was so significant that it impacted a major scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, directed by the late Mike Newell.
“There is one shot in it, actually, of the heavenly court before it goes into session, which we absolutely, and I haven’t actually spoken to Mike Newell about this, but we lifted almost identically for the start of the Triwizard Tournament in Potter, in the fourth film,” the actor admitted, elaborating, “There is one shot, because I think I watched A Matter of Life and Death shortly after we finished that film, which I watched and went, ‘oh my god, we’ve just stolen that!’”
Powell and Pressburger have retroactively been remembered as some of the greatest filmmakers in history, and A Matter of Life and Death is among their most uplifting and life-affirming stories, especially when compared to darker films like The Red Shoes.
While it wasn’t necessarily their biggest hit upon its initial release in 1946, the film has been well-remembered by pundits and filmmakers who cited it as a source of inspiration, and Radcliffe’s love for the film is not only sincere but may aid in it being seen by a younger generation of cinephiles.
