A Matter of Life & Death (1946)

Probably one of the most uplifting films ever made, this surrealist fantasy film from Powell & Pressburger (makers of countless awesome films) is a love story set during World War 2 about a downed RAF pilot who falls in love with his radio operator at what are supposed to be the last moments of his life, but there's an administrative problem in heaven and he's left down below where he meets June and they fall in love.  He is visited by a conductor, a creepy French girly man in make up who carries a candy cane.  The conductor tries to convince him to go to heaven where he's supposed to be, but he wants to stay with the woman he loves so he makes an appeal and has to go through a judicial process to claim his life back, in which he includes an eccentric psychologist, his crewman Bob and June.  They have a battle of wits against some American judge guy from 170 years previously.  I love the sets in the film, they make today's CGI vistas look positively dull and crap.  Constrictions motivate invention, and the painted backdrops and camera techniques make heaven and Earth look awesome.  Heaven is depicted as a roof with holes on it that looks down on Earth, and it's a bureaucratic nightmare of red tape, forms and office blocks.  Truly wonderful, why would he want to stay on Earth?  Also the airmen who have just died don't seem to feel much awe at the possibility of an afterlife, nor remorse over the pain their loved ones are going to go through, and instead are enthused at the prospect of unlimited free coca-cola.  Because they're American.  It's just a fun film though and nothing to be taken seriously, one of my favourite classic films.