The Third Man

About this event

Newly Struck 35mm Print! Screening as part of Enzian's “Noir-vember” 35mm Cult Classics! Fall is coming, the shadows are getting longer, and Enzian is celebrating Noir–vember by bringing two stone-cold classics to celebrate the darker side of the silver screen. With 35mm Cult Classic screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing and Carol Reed’s iconic The Third Man, no one here gets out alive! So, chumps, grab your trenchcoat and get ready for two nights of shadowy streets, dangerous dames, hard-boiled detectives, stoolies, molls, and the stuff dreams are made of. The Third Man: “You were born to be murdered.” Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives in a bombed-out, post-war Vienna at the invitation of his childhood friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) only to find him dead. Martins develops the ultimate conspiracy theory after learning of a “third man” present at the time of Harry’s death, butting up against interference from British police officer Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), and falling head-over-heels for Harry’s grief-stricken lover Anna (Alida Valli). With its Dutch camera angles, iconic chiaroscuro lighting, reflective rain-soaked streets, and Anton Karas’s instantly recognizable zither score, The Third Man turned Vienna into a Film Noir playground. And then there’s Orson Welles. Although Harry Lime only appears for a fraction of the film, Welles’s entrance is one of the most storied moments in cinematic history, and his infamous Ferris wheel conversation remains a masterclass in wicked charm. One of the defining films of Noir tradition, The Third Man won the Grand Prix at Cannes and the Academy Award® for Best Cinematography while the screenplay by Graham Greene—who’s pulp pen had already made its mark with The Ministry of Fear (1943) and This Gun for Hire (1936)—imbues the film with a profound sense of moral ambiguity, that has shaken viewers for more than 75 years. 1949, 104 minutes, UK, directed by Carol Reed, Unrated, 35MM