The Third Man

Viewing a «certified classic» is an intimidating experience, the equivalent of listening to The Beatles's Revolver, and what if you won't like it, does it mean that it sucks, or that you suck, but in general all these ideas vanish after the first half an hour of viewing, classics are classics because they are more then good.

«The Third Man» happens in Vienna, not the peaceful Vienna with it's architecture and music and cafés, but the post war one, which is divided to four parts, by the number of the winners of world war two, times are though and everybody is surviving as they can, life goes on.
Holly Lime (Joseph Cotten) arrives one morning to join his friend Harry Lime only to find him murdered, since Holy is a pulp Western writer he smells something fishy in this whole thing, Harry was murdered by his own car with his friends attending at the door of the building he lives so unlucky Holy attends his friend's funeral hours after he arrives.

Holy starts investigating and questioning Ha's friends, which leads him to Anna (Alida Valli) Hal's beautiful love interest whom he already seen in the funeral, and Sergent Paine (Bernard Lee) and major Calloway (Trevor Howard) British officers in charge of the investigation, Holy's diggining brings him some unwanted attention, and in a post war city everything can happen, soon enough he finds about a huge ploy including some dirty money, and where what he believed in is shattred like an ancient mirror, when he learns about truths which were better concealed.

What a great Noir indeed in post war atmosphere, words are not enough to describe the minimalist brilliance of this movie, first it was a script developed by Graham Greene from a novella he wrote for this movie, and then there is the beautiful sitar music by Anton Karas, no big horn sections in here, no haunting violins, most of the time it's the silence and the mood, and the gorgeous black and white cinematography by Robert Krasker, and Vienna itself.

The acting is the true force of the movie, you have Joseph Cotten as Holy who is the best Noir detective i've seen so far with all respect to Humphrey Bogart, Alida Valli as the femme fatale is a radical departure since she has dignity, she is not manipulative, and far from being a vamp, she is just stuck in this part of the world doing what she can to survive, but the acting crown goes to Orson Welles in an improbable vilain part, I mean I never thought I would say this, but he is probably the best Vilain i've ever seen on a movie screen, and during the movie famous Ferris wheel scene, with a dialogue every bit as good as the famous dialogue in «on the waterfront»

This movie has been named the best British movie ever, and also won the grand prix at Cannes this year, it's had to find a movie that top it, as Noir and Mystery movies go, and that's why we love cinema no matter how many atrocities Micheal Bay, and McG make us endure.