Film: The Third Man

Director: Carol Reed
Genre: Film Noir
Source: UK (1949)
Rating: Approved (Probably PG)
Location/Format: Turner Classic Movies
Grade: A-

Possible book idea: A historical piece on the working relationship, influences, and personal lives of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. Part biography, part film analysis. Seriously, I love these guys together.

A classic (maybe one of the classic?) film noirs, The Third Man has a lot about it that's easy to like, and Joseph Cotten is right at the top of that list. His opening voice-over is genuinely funny, and he plays the genre's "ordinary man" with both a sense of humor and a sense of simmering emotion--is it outrage? lust for the woman? confusion? I'm not always clear, but there is a complexity to the role and his reading of it that I love. He is increasingly becoming one of my favorite classic film stars, which is nice since he turns up in so many movies (with or without Orson Welles). As far as the rest of the movie, the film's twists and turns are effective as well, as are the unusually jaunty score and the supporting characters.

But let's be honest here. This film lives on above all because of two (related) things: its depiction of post-war Vienna and its masterfully shadowed cinematography. 

Vienna here is all brick piles and shadowed corridors, and cinematographer Robert Krasker rarely finds a scene he can't ratchet up the tension on by throwing in a dutch angle or two. It's hugely effective, because as Cotten's character Holly Martins loses his grip on what's true, what's real, and what's right, so do we. We are constantly thrown off balance, just as he is, and the cinematography serves as a metaphor for the fluctuating moral orientation of Martins and his associates. It's stunningly effective, and I think I could easily use this (or clips of this at the very least) in my Film Studies class. Similarly, the shadows that creep around Vienna--sometimes attached to foreboding figures, sometimes lurking in doorways, sometimes covering up our protagonists all together--work beautifully too. I'd love to get my hands on a great blu-ray version of this, because I think the bonus crispness would only add to the effectiveness with which Krasker and Reed are painting with light and shadow here. It's really hard to look away--and why would you want to?

This is another one I feel I could watch again and again and draw something new each time--and that's a good thing, since my wife missed it and only caught the wry final shot, after which she immediately asked if we could watch it together sometime.

Man, sometimes the classics are classic for a reason.

Alternate Film Title: "The Ugly American" (not because Cotten is ugly, just because there are so many culturally crossed wires throughout the film...