The Third Man (1949)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
During the Allied partition of Vienna after the war an American writer arrives on the offer of a job from an old friend, who turns out to be recently deceased and a black marketeer of the worst order. He stays to establish the man's innocence and extend a protective arm over his girl; both endeavours prove as vain as they are clumsy.
Review:
As much a record as an evocation of war-torn Vienna and one of those films whose peculiar atmosphere has an indelible and alchemical effect on the viewer. It's partly to do with the blend of fact and fiction, actors and extras, partly the brisk editing helped along by Karas's impish zither music. Then there's the expressionistic use of lighting and camera angles together with the fascinating glimpses of 'bombed about' Vienna. The overall mood is one of fatalism and moral disorientation after an exhausting World War: the charismatic Lime is a child murderer; the straight-up, naïve Martins a Judas. The British army come over as weary but level-headed, an islet of common sense and decency, but even Calloway has his callous moments. The hounded, bereft Miss Schmidt wants nothing more than to die and be put out of her misery. And yet there are moments of startling humour and bathos - the parrot, the balloon seller - amid scenes of poetic detachment - the ferris wheel, the climactic sewer hunt, shot as a symphony of sounds and shadows. It is quite simply the richest of films and one of those wonderful accidents where some incredible talents get to work together rather than against one another.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
During the Allied partition of Vienna after the war an American writer arrives on the offer of a job from an old friend, who turns out to be recently deceased and a black marketeer of the worst order. He stays to establish the man's innocence and extend a protective arm over his girl; both endeavours prove as vain as they are clumsy.
Review:
As much a record as an evocation of war-torn Vienna and one of those films whose peculiar atmosphere has an indelible and alchemical effect on the viewer. It's partly to do with the blend of fact and fiction, actors and extras, partly the brisk editing helped along by Karas's impish zither music. Then there's the expressionistic use of lighting and camera angles together with the fascinating glimpses of 'bombed about' Vienna. The overall mood is one of fatalism and moral disorientation after an exhausting World War: the charismatic Lime is a child murderer; the straight-up, naïve Martins a Judas. The British army come over as weary but level-headed, an islet of common sense and decency, but even Calloway has his callous moments. The hounded, bereft Miss Schmidt wants nothing more than to die and be put out of her misery. And yet there are moments of startling humour and bathos - the parrot, the balloon seller - amid scenes of poetic detachment - the ferris wheel, the climactic sewer hunt, shot as a symphony of sounds and shadows. It is quite simply the richest of films and one of those wonderful accidents where some incredible talents get to work together rather than against one another.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
During the Allied partition of Vienna after the war an American writer arrives on the offer of a job from an old friend, who turns out to be recently deceased and a black marketeer of the worst order. He stays to establish the man's innocence and extend a protective arm over his girl; both endeavours prove as vain as they are clumsy.
Review:
As much a record as an evocation of war-torn Vienna and one of those films whose peculiar atmosphere has an indelible and alchemical effect on the viewer. It's partly to do with the blend of fact and fiction, actors and extras, partly the brisk editing helped along by Karas's impish zither music. Then there's the expressionistic use of lighting and camera angles together with the fascinating glimpses of 'bombed about' Vienna. The overall mood is one of fatalism and moral disorientation after an exhausting World War: the charismatic Lime is a child murderer; the straight-up, naïve Martins a Judas. The British army come over as weary but level-headed, an islet of common sense and decency, but even Calloway has his callous moments. The hounded, bereft Miss Schmidt wants nothing more than to die and be put out of her misery. And yet there are moments of startling humour and bathos - the parrot, the balloon seller - amid scenes of poetic detachment - the ferris wheel, the climactic sewer hunt, shot as a symphony of sounds and shadows. It is quite simply the richest of films and one of those wonderful accidents where some incredible talents get to work together rather than against one another.