Hindsight

Hindsight: Movie Ramblings and Other Good Things

I've talked a bit about great Hollywood dance scenes, and do want to come back to that, but today and perhaps the next few entries, I am in the mood for a change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Wcty7FFJo


I was thinking perhaps we could chat about great screen introductions. You know the moments when we meet characters and you know the movie has now picked up speed? a great one to start with is from the film "The Third Man"( 1949) There is so much going on here. First, we have Harry Lime's Friend, Holly, played by Joseph Cotton. Holly has come back to Vienna for the funeral of an old friend, Harry Lime. One night, Holly senses someone is following him. Since his arrival, Holly has felt something was awry, but he can't quite figure it out. Simply put, Holly is really a child, a naive man in the midst of Post-war Vienna, where sabatoge, the black-market, and fooling the police are daily survival ploys for those that live there. Holly is a child-like fish-out-of water. In this scene, Holly even speaks like a little boy, shouting out as s if he were playing a game. "Cat got your tongue" Come out, come out where ever you are" The shots are angled and disjointed contributing to a mood of uncertainty, and in combination with the disjointed Zither instrument, there is a total effect of confusion. Then with a flash of light, from a nearby opened window, the camera remains still and we get a peak at a man's face. Holly says to himself "Harry" and we know now Harry is alive. Lime, played by the so so good Orson Welles, just stands there and stares at his friend, his smirk is marvelous. Then the light goes away, and Harry is gone. It is a playful yet shocking moment. Of course the whole film, which you MUST see, is about perception, what is the truth, who sees what? Who can know the truth? Who is to be trusted? So, this little moment is part of that whole theme. Directed by Carol Reed, who I must do a week on, "The Third Man" is a masterpiece of cinematography (Robert Krasker), musical score (Anton Karas), writing, postwar location and casting-lovely.