How nice it is to wake up with another great episode of Cinefix Top 100, and with a Orson Welles classic non the less. Keep up with the good work guys.
What I loved was Scorsese"s homage to The Third Man in The Departed as he has Vera Farmiga walk right past Matt Damon just as Reed had Anna walk right past Joseph Cotten - gut punch! I can't be the only one who noticed that.
This movie is almost universally (and rightly) held up as an example of the Platonic form of a noir; but what I find so amazing and enjoyable about it is that it subverts so many noir tropes. For one, rather than spend time exploring the merits of competing moralities (which also happens), the film explores the cognitive dissonance of the world it builds. There’s no doubt that this movies takes sides on what’s good and bad, but the characters spend a lot of time dealing with the path to what’s right. This begins and ends with the zither and the way it so perfectly contrasts the genre, but elevates Lyme as character who is a friend, foe, baddie and a foreigner. Anna has to deal with the love she feels for a terrible person while she fends of the advances of a more sensitive and emotionally open man, who in many ways is the foil that compliments Lyme. The way these all play together with the photography and choices made in direction make this a lovely impressionist cinema noir for me, and I will forever love this movie for the way it still makes engage with the story. This movie rocks, man.
I waited to watch this episode, because I wanted to re-watch The Third man. Only a year behind. Hadn't seen it since we studied it in college. Was blown away by the lighting. And that transition through the bush. Also made me change my view on dutch angles. Im blaming Kenneth Brannagh and Thor for my previous dislike. Awesome video as always!
I saw The Third Man in VHS tape, probably forty years ago. At that time I love Graham Greene and I've read The Third Man, The End of the Affair, The Human Factor, and The Tenth Man. I love the excitement of the dutch angles, Carol Reed's fast-paced and overlapping dialogue, the zither music, and I hated the ending. I was young, and it's one of my earliest experience of "hero doesn't get the girl". I remember the book ending was hopeful, and in Wikipedia, both Greene and producer Selznick wanted the novella ending, but Reed stood his ground and that's why 70 years later we still remember the movie. For myself, that hated ending is the very reason I also couldn't forget the movie, and I kept rewatching it over four decades. But Holly isn't heroic actually, more like some reluctant schmo like you and I that had to have several people die (and a roomful of children go mental from bad penicillin) before he could make the right moral choice and shoot his friend. Or, well, if he wanted Lime to really suffer, maybe he shouldn't have shot his friend. That would have served Lime, that slime, right. From your movie analysis, I realized that Sgt. Paine was just like the Phil Coulson character in The Avengers, the nice person who had to die to motivate Holly to shoot Lime. At 56, I'm still rediscovering little tidbits in this cinematic gem. Note: It's pronounced "fruh·nel", not "fres·nel".
During WW2, Graham Greene & Kim Philby worked together for MI6. The name "Harry Lime" is an amalgamation of their names: "Harry" is Harold A. R. Philby while "Lime" is Greene. The real black market activity in post-WW2 Vienna was espionage.
54:12 *CLINT GAGE:* “…and just holding that little puppy that then later showed up at the doctor's office…” *ALEX STEDMAN:* “Was that just them confirming that they were in cahoots?” Not just in cahoots. “Baron” Kurtz and Dr Winkel are coded as a gay couple: you can see it in the scene at the first funeral (Kurtz and Winkel are always together in the shot for one thing), in Kurtz’s “flamboyant” dress (the polka dot bowtie and the coat with the extravagant fur collar), and in the scene where Kurtz and Winkel appear together on the balcony at Dr Winkel’s flat. The dog is part of their household.
It's why I love this channel/series, saw this video pop up. Had never actually seen or heard of this movie, so I always watch the movie before the video. Great way to discover some classics that hold up.
Clint doesn't live in California, so we'll be shooting in studio/office when he's around but will shoot remote as well. The Third Man took Vertigo's slot in our schedule and some things have shifted around as our plans for the show solidified. Vertigo will happen! Unfortunately it'll be a bit of a wait.
Chuckie doll in the back? LOL. My dad loved the song and movie. He recently passed and I like to think he's still with me as I watch this. He knew all the actors of this time.
I love how much of a bumbling American Holly is in this movie. He exudes so much confidence in his investigation and he's so in over his head. I also wonder if the Hays Code affected the end of this film; I feel like Harry could have gotten away with things in a world where bad guys in film weren't required to be punished.
Yes, Holly is bumbling. Yet it's Holly who immediately senses that something is fishy about the official story while the debonair, cynical, British supercop, Calloway, had been completely hoodwinked by Harry's staged death. A chastened Calloway himself recognizes that in the film's second half.
This movie was free to watch in TH-cam for a short while. Watched it again recently and I’d forgotten how GOOD this movie is. If you watch it again, you can probably tell Alida Valli didn’t really know German. She barely spoke it and she was mostly listening and translating into English.
After years of being intimidated by the hype - which gets in the way of me finally diving into a lot of classic and arthouse cinema ironically - i watched The Third Man for the first time recently and absolutely adored it!
The film was adapted from a novella by Graham Greene specifically to be made into a film. Greene states this in the preface of the novella, “The Third Man was never written to be read but only seen.” (Greene,1950, p. 7). It was written by Greene to be an entertaining story to serve as raw material for the film.
Definitely on my watch list. Funny thing is, in film school you hear all about citizen Kane (for good reason). I don't remember really talking too much about this one.
I find that American’s who don’t, and never, have to come to see the scars of WWII will miss a lot of these films. Most of Europe looked like that in the film. Black market economy had been going on all over Europe throughout the war during rationing. A man carrying on makes sense, but also, who’s children was are affected?? I think a lot of people saw that when the film came out.
No disrepect, your film making analysis is great, need to brush up on out geo-politics. Noticed it in a couple videos when I should at the screen, not your fault. You all too young
Much of Vienna seen in the film is unchanged, including the door and the apartment building. Go to Vienna in winter and take the '3 Mann tour' in the dark from Karlplatslz U-Bahn station to see the locations. Tge major sewer is a buried river. Also worth going to the Central cemetery where one can work out where the grave is.
Y’know, the whole nick cage placement segment has become more of a segment about rebooting, I prefer the weird time travel same movie but you shove cage in it because nick cage is a nebulous entity. Just my preferred vibe
You need to look at "Our Man in Havana," the 3rd collaborations of Carol Reed and Graham Greene. And like Third Man, the star turn is by the great Ernie Kovacs, the evil and deliciously slimy Captain Segura of the Cuban police, with Alec Guinness as the naive vacuum cleaner ship owner who finds himself in over his head in deadly games of international espionage. John Le Carre gave a shout out to Greene and Our Man in Havana for inspiring his novel The Tailor of Panama.
Graham Greene wrote the script with Holly and Harry as Englishmen and they never changed some lines. Here Americans aren't familiar with Old Man, which is similar to Old Boy. They even talk about 20,000 pounds not dollars. Don't know why it wasn't changed.
Greetings from Vienna! love this film, and find what you say highly interesting! just one question: why you seem unable to complete a sentence without inserting the word " like " at least three times (and all of them unnecessary .. )
In 1952, the first Indo-Chinese War had been ongoing for several years, with the French fighting the Communist Viet Minh. In 2 more years, the French would be defeated at Dien Bien Phu, resulting in a divided Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia. In a few more years, American military advisors would show up to bolster South Vietnam, with the eventual defeat in 1975. Again, glibness should not try to substitute for fact.
How in the world are we supposed to take seriously the opinions/rankings of somebody who (iirc) said in an earlier episode that only a couple of their choices weren't from the last thirty years?
Call me a savage but when I watched The Third Man because of all this channel’s praise, I was not that impressed. Trust me, I love Mr. Wells and I’d watch him read out of a phone book, but I didn’t get all the hype. Maybe I’ll develop a better appreciation after watching the rest of this video.
The gentleman on the right, constantly saying 'LIKE' makes me wonder if someone who is so unconsidered and frankly slovenly, sorry, in his own use of lamguage, can fully appreciate a film with such a literate, finely tuned script.
I appreciate the well thought out and written response here. Most of us are generally better writers than speakers, I’ll give you that. Hell, I used to have a pretty bad stutter because my brain would move so fast, my tongue would trip. But I assure you Cal is not only literate, he’s one of the smartest people I know. Please check out the Top 10 Practical Effects video he wrote and produced. It’s seriously one of the best videos we’ve ever put up on this channel. Forgive us our faults. We’re human after all. Thanks for watching and we hope you stick around as we all get better at this. - Producer Dan
How nice it is to wake up with another great episode of Cinefix Top 100, and with a Orson Welles classic non the less. Keep up with the good work guys.
What I loved was Scorsese"s homage to The Third Man in The Departed as he has Vera Farmiga walk right past Matt Damon just as Reed had Anna walk right past Joseph Cotten - gut punch! I can't be the only one who noticed that.
Good shout
Yes. I thought that the moment I saw it. It has to be one of the saddest scenes ever
This movie is almost universally (and rightly) held up as an example of the Platonic form of a noir; but what I find so amazing and enjoyable about it is that it subverts so many noir tropes. For one, rather than spend time exploring the merits of competing moralities (which also happens), the film explores the cognitive dissonance of the world it builds. There’s no doubt that this movies takes sides on what’s good and bad, but the characters spend a lot of time dealing with the path to what’s right. This begins and ends with the zither and the way it so perfectly contrasts the genre, but elevates Lyme as character who is a friend, foe, baddie and a foreigner. Anna has to deal with the love she feels for a terrible person while she fends of the advances of a more sensitive and emotionally open man, who in many ways is the foil that compliments Lyme. The way these all play together with the photography and choices made in direction make this a lovely impressionist cinema noir for me, and I will forever love this movie for the way it still makes engage with the story. This movie rocks, man.
Bravo!!!!!!
I waited to watch this episode, because I wanted to re-watch The Third man. Only a year behind. Hadn't seen it since we studied it in college. Was blown away by the lighting. And that transition through the bush. Also made me change my view on dutch angles. Im blaming Kenneth Brannagh and Thor for my previous dislike. Awesome video as always!
Finally! We are back! Record a few whilst you're back together! Love the show.
I so appreciate this list. I've been watching each movie as we go and this was an absolutely great watch that I don't think I'd have seen otherwise.
I saw The Third Man in VHS tape, probably forty years ago. At that time I love Graham Greene and I've read The Third Man, The End of the Affair, The Human Factor, and The Tenth Man.
I love the excitement of the dutch angles, Carol Reed's fast-paced and overlapping dialogue, the zither music, and I hated the ending. I was young, and it's one of my earliest experience of "hero doesn't get the girl". I remember the book ending was hopeful, and in Wikipedia, both Greene and producer Selznick wanted the novella ending, but Reed stood his ground and that's why 70 years later we still remember the movie. For myself, that hated ending is the very reason I also couldn't forget the movie, and I kept rewatching it over four decades.
But Holly isn't heroic actually, more like some reluctant schmo like you and I that had to have several people die (and a roomful of children go mental from bad penicillin) before he could make the right moral choice and shoot his friend. Or, well, if he wanted Lime to really suffer, maybe he shouldn't have shot his friend. That would have served Lime, that slime, right.
From your movie analysis, I realized that Sgt. Paine was just like the Phil Coulson character in The Avengers, the nice person who had to die to motivate Holly to shoot Lime. At 56, I'm still rediscovering little tidbits in this cinematic gem.
Note: It's pronounced "fruh·nel", not "fres·nel".
One of the best uses of Orson Welles and that's including when Orson directing himself.
seen it multiple times and will see it multiple more! One of my favs, especially for cinematography
During WW2, Graham Greene & Kim Philby worked together for MI6. The name "Harry Lime" is an amalgamation of their names: "Harry" is Harold A. R. Philby while "Lime" is Greene. The real black market activity in post-WW2 Vienna was espionage.
I just rewatched it about 2 days ago, ‘Twas great. I was mesmerized by Orson Welles, he entirely changes the film when he is onscreen. Captivating.
This movie is so iconic that it was actually mentioned in one episode of Law and Order!
It was the inclusion of this movie on so many lists that prompted me to finally watch it, and I'm very glad I did.
54:12 *CLINT GAGE:* “…and just holding that little puppy that then later showed up at the doctor's office…”
*ALEX STEDMAN:* “Was that just them confirming that they were in cahoots?”
Not just in cahoots. “Baron” Kurtz and Dr Winkel are coded as a gay couple: you can see it in the scene at the first funeral (Kurtz and Winkel are always together in the shot for one thing), in Kurtz’s “flamboyant” dress (the polka dot bowtie and the coat with the extravagant fur collar), and in the scene where Kurtz and Winkel appear together on the balcony at Dr Winkel’s flat. The dog is part of their household.
You post this on the same day that I rewatch The Third Man.
It's why I love this channel/series, saw this video pop up. Had never actually seen or heard of this movie, so I always watch the movie before the video. Great way to discover some classics that hold up.
Yup, definitely have to watch the movie first!
Very enjoyable conversation, cheers!
What happened to the round-table setup? The dynamic was great then. And what happened to the Vertigo-episode?
Clint doesn't live in California, so we'll be shooting in studio/office when he's around but will shoot remote as well. The Third Man took Vertigo's slot in our schedule and some things have shifted around as our plans for the show solidified. Vertigo will happen! Unfortunately it'll be a bit of a wait.
@@CineFix thanks for the clarification on Vertigo
Chuckie doll in the back? LOL. My dad loved the song and movie. He recently passed and I like to think he's still with me as I watch this. He knew all the actors of this time.
Great episode, but could you come back to the studio? hahaha
I love how much of a bumbling American Holly is in this movie. He exudes so much confidence in his investigation and he's so in over his head. I also wonder if the Hays Code affected the end of this film; I feel like Harry could have gotten away with things in a world where bad guys in film weren't required to be punished.
Yes, Holly is bumbling. Yet it's Holly who immediately senses that something is fishy about the official story while the debonair, cynical, British supercop, Calloway, had been completely hoodwinked by Harry's staged death. A chastened Calloway himself recognizes that in the film's second half.
This movie was free to watch in TH-cam for a short while. Watched it again recently and I’d forgotten how GOOD this movie is.
If you watch it again, you can probably tell Alida Valli didn’t really know German. She barely spoke it and she was mostly listening and translating into English.
i just watched this movie for the first time 2 days ago. right on time, thanks guys :)
After years of being intimidated by the hype - which gets in the way of me finally diving into a lot of classic and arthouse cinema ironically - i watched The Third Man for the first time recently and absolutely adored it!
Just got to do the Third Man Sewer tour, not changed much since 1949, you follower Harry Lime via the Hollywood entrance.
A masterpiece. The ending in the sewer is amazing
Well technically at the Cemetery and her walk.. "one can't just leave.."
The film was adapted from a novella by Graham Greene specifically to be made into a film. Greene states this in the preface of the novella, “The Third Man was never written to be read but only seen.” (Greene,1950, p. 7). It was written by Greene to be an entertaining story to serve as raw material for the film.
Definitely on my watch list. Funny thing is, in film school you hear all about citizen Kane (for good reason). I don't remember really talking too much about this one.
I find that American’s who don’t, and never, have to come to see the scars of WWII will miss a lot of these films. Most of Europe looked like that in the film. Black market economy had been going on all over Europe throughout the war during rationing. A man carrying on makes sense, but also, who’s children was are affected?? I think a lot of people saw that when the film came out.
No disrepect, your film making analysis is great, need to brush up on out geo-politics. Noticed it in a couple videos when I should at the screen, not your fault. You all too young
Love Orson Wells and Joseph Cotten. Incredible movie
Best ending ever.. "One can't just leave.."
'old man' in English at that time, and in upper circles know, can be contemporaries. It's a more public school thing
The ‘ol’ man’ bit is similar to the ‘ol’ sport’ phrase from Great Gatsby. It is said in the same vein here.
Definitely a worthy inclusion for the list! Thumbs up to CineFix!
Apart from her continental career, Alida Valli platys Mrs Paradine in Hitchcock's noirish The Paradine Case with Gregory Peck.
I really like Clint ...
Much of Vienna seen in the film is unchanged, including the door and the apartment building. Go to Vienna in winter and take the '3 Mann tour' in the dark from Karlplatslz U-Bahn station to see the locations. Tge major sewer is a buried river. Also worth going to the Central cemetery where one can work out where the grave is.
Y’know, the whole nick cage placement segment has become more of a segment about rebooting, I prefer the weird time travel same movie but you shove cage in it because nick cage is a nebulous entity. Just my preferred vibe
It was not "one year before Sputnik." Sputnik was in 1957. This movie was made in 1949.
You need to look at "Our Man in Havana," the 3rd collaborations of Carol Reed and Graham Greene. And like Third Man, the star turn is by the great Ernie Kovacs, the evil and deliciously slimy Captain Segura of the Cuban police, with Alec Guinness as the naive vacuum cleaner ship owner who finds himself in over his head in deadly games of international espionage. John Le Carre gave a shout out to Greene and Our Man in Havana for inspiring his novel The Tailor of Panama.
Torf is too exhausting. It should be true or false. Not let’s dissect every word to see if any small piece might be false
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this
Torf brings a great discussion to a halt, it seems fun for them, but I skip as soon as it comes on.
alex stedman is kinda low key hot. no bullshit
honestly alex is messing up the list regarding the expectations based on the last decade and last top 50 list, and I personally do not support that
Does this mean the Cinefix movie lists are dead?
Nope! We've actually used this time to produce a bunch of cool stuff! Keep a look out
Graham Greene wrote the script with Holly and Harry as Englishmen and they never changed some lines. Here Americans aren't familiar with Old Man, which is similar to Old Boy. They even talk about 20,000 pounds not dollars. Don't know why it wasn't changed.
BTW the cuckoo clock is German (Black Forest), not Swiss.
Robert Mitchum was not in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Cary Grant was.
Greetings from Vienna! love this film, and find what you say highly interesting! just one question: why you seem unable to complete a sentence without inserting the word " like " at least three times (and all of them unnecessary .. )
One year before Sputnik? It was 8 years before Sputnik, which was launched in 1957. Glibness is no substitute for actual facts.
There are many movies for which I would pay to have a pre-viewing brain wipe
In 1952, the first Indo-Chinese War had been ongoing for several years, with the French fighting the Communist Viet Minh. In 2 more years, the French would be defeated at Dien Bien Phu, resulting in a divided Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia. In a few more years, American military advisors would show up to bolster South Vietnam, with the eventual defeat in 1975. Again, glibness should not try to substitute for fact.
Do Cloverfield
Good show, but…anyone out there capable of counting up how many times the word ‘like’ is used? Man.
I guess that's the guy on the right if previous videos are anything to go by. It's as if he learnt English watching Clueless and nothing else.
Like after a few moments, like, I found it very distracting like. Argh. .
Unpopular opinion- Third Man is better than Citizen Kane.
How in the world are we supposed to take seriously the opinions/rankings of somebody who (iirc) said in an earlier episode that only a couple of their choices weren't from the last thirty years?
Acting. Blocking. Lighting. Directing. Ahh…movies verses blockbusters
Call me a savage but when I watched The Third Man because of all this channel’s praise, I was not that impressed. Trust me, I love Mr. Wells and I’d watch him read out of a phone book, but I didn’t get all the hype. Maybe I’ll develop a better appreciation after watching the rest of this video.
I’d give it another go I think it grows on you. Totally your taste though.
Love your voices gays ...your observations...you re all so fanny and cute and intelligente
The gentleman on the right, constantly saying 'LIKE' makes me wonder if someone who is so unconsidered and frankly slovenly, sorry, in his own use of lamguage, can fully appreciate a film with such a literate, finely tuned script.
I appreciate the well thought out and written response here. Most of us are generally better writers than speakers, I’ll give you that. Hell, I used to have a pretty bad stutter because my brain would move so fast, my tongue would trip. But I assure you Cal is not only literate, he’s one of the smartest people I know. Please check out the Top 10 Practical Effects video he wrote and produced. It’s seriously one of the best videos we’ve ever put up on this channel. Forgive us our faults. We’re human after all. Thanks for watching and we hope you stick around as we all get better at this. - Producer Dan