A Matter of Life and Death: The Brain Revealed by the Mind of Michael Powell by Diane Broadbent Friedman

Diane Broadbent Friedman is a nurse practitioner with a focus on neurological disorders. She is currently in a course of study leading to a PhD in Neuroscience.

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A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known to some in the Americas as "Stairway to Heaven". The hero as jumped without a parachute from a burning bomber in the last days of WWII - and survived! Now he sees a heavenly "conductor" who says that he should have died and who wants to escort him from this life. Is it real? Or is it all in Peter's imagination? There is a lot more going on in this film than most people realise. The details of the medical case of Peter D. Carter was thoroughly researched by Powell & Pressburger and his symptoms and the diagnosis by Dr Reeves is correct in the tiniest detail. Diane Broadbent Friedman is a senior nurse practitioner specialising in neurology and sleep disorders and is very interested in treatment of trauma, epilepsy and other brain related problems. When she first saw the film she was struck by the number of references she recognised to precise clinical practise. She wondered why there was so much medical detail lightly concealed under the surface of this film. It's not thrust in your face as though to say "Look at us, we know all of this detail". But the detail is there for those that can recognise it. Diane wrote a paper in 1992 titled "A Matter of Fried Onions" (http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/46_AMOLAD/AMatterOfFriedOnio ns.html) and has been researching it in more detail since then. She's recently published "A Matter of Life and Death: The Brain revealed by the Mind of Michael Powell" which shows us in a detailed, yet very readable way, the incredible details that Powell & Pressburger included in this film even though it would have only been recognised by a handful of people in 1946 Highly recommended Steve Crook