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Third Man

The Third Man

Carol Reed


  • Country: UK
  • Year: 1949
  • Language: English
  •  
  • Runtime: 104 min.

With its extreme angles and jagged shadows rendering postwar Vienna a nightmarish cityscape, Carol Reed's classic thriller set the template for film noir as much as any of its American contemporaries, while its distinctively British bitter wit (courtesy of screenwriter Graham Greene) and location shooting give it an inimitably continental flavour.

Cinematheque

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With its extreme angles and jagged shadows rendering postwar Vienna a nightmarish cityscape, Carol Reed's classic thriller set the template for film noir as much as any of its American contemporaries, while its distinctively British bitter wit (courtesy of screenwriter Graham Greene) and location shooting give it an inimitably continental flavour. Arriving in the divided city at the invitation of his old school friend Harry Lime, American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) is informed that Lime has seemingly been killed in a traffic accident. His suspicions aroused by the perpetually inconsistent accounts of his friend’s death, Martins becomes determined to discover the truth of what happened, a quest that leads him into the dangerous world of the black market and Cold War espionage. Artfully infusing grim postwar cynicism with the virtues of a light-fingered entertainment (a delicate balance marvelously encapsulated by Anton Karas' famous zither score), and replete with some of the most iconic moments in film history—Orson Welles' sudden appearance in a shadowy doorway, a philosophical confrontation on a Ferris wheel, and the climactic pursuit through the sewers—The Third Man is one of the enduring classics of world cinema.

Thanks to Laurence Berbon, Tamasa Distribution.

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