The Third Man - A tale of love.

The Third Man after its release created a boom across the world because of its extraordinary presentation of love. More importantly, this love is portrayed by Anna Schmidt, the girlfriend of Harry Lime. The moment I see Anna's character in the film I am reminded of one of Shakespearean's love sonnets, which I would like to share with you all

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

The Third Man (1949) - An incredible film

The impeccable direction of Carol Reed; breath-taking zither scores of Anoton Karas; the surpassing performances of Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; and Graham Greene's sharp dialogues, made The Third Man to be one of the best of the best British films of all-time.

An American pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins (Jospeh Cotten) comes to the post-war Vienna which is divided into four separate zones, each governed by one of the victorious Allies, and a jointly-administered international zone to meet his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who promises him with a job. After coming to Vienna he discovers that Lime is recently hit by a lorry that ran over him.

Martins goes to the cemetry to attend his friend's funeral and meets two British Army Royal Military Policemen: Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), a fan of Martins's books, and his superior, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard). After the services, Martins accepts an invitation to speak to the members of a local book club, delaying his departure to do so. He is contacted by a friend of Lime's, Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch), who wants to talk about Lime's death. Kurtz relates that he and Popescu (Siegfried Breuer), another friend of Lime's, had picked Lime up after the accident and brought him over to the side of the street before dying.

Martins later meets Anna (Valli), Lime's girlfriend in a theatre. In one of the succeeding scenes, Martins meets Anna in Lime's apartment. The porter of Lime's apartment tells Martins that Lime was brought to the side of the street not just by two people, but by indeed, three. Martins pressures the porter to give some more information about the third man. But the porter puts himself up as if he does not remember the third man and in turn, refuses to give information.

The a tinge of doubt about Lime's death, Martins meets Lime's personal physician, Dr. Winkel to know more about the third man whereas, Winkel reassures that there were only two people at the accident spot. Unconvinced Martins, leaves the place.

In one of the later scenes, Martins discerns a man watching from a dark doorway across the darkened square. A lighted window briefly illuminates the man's face, revealing him to be Harry Lime. Probing into the suscpicious death of Lime, Calloway orders for a exhume. In the cemetry, Martins is surprised to see the corpse of Joseph Harbin, an orderly in a military hospital, buried in his place.

Martins suspects Lime's social conduct and would come to know that Harry was a crook and a creep, who sold watered down penicillan in the Black Market.

Later, Martins agrees to help Calloway to ensnare Lime, negotiating Anna's save conduct to Vienna. In an amazing chasing scene in the central sewer system, Lime is shot dead by Martins. The film ends after the burial of Lime takes place. In the aftermath, Martins attends Lime's second funeral. He waits by the roadside to speak with Anna, but she walks past without looking at him.

With all the credible features, the film still gains ground even after several years of its release.
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Click here to watch the whole film

Roundhay Garden Scene - History and a critique

Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, heavily influenced by the work of Eadweard Muybridge who was the first person to experiment with the motion picture in the United States in 1878, made Louis Le Prince to move his thoughts for the creation of the first ever surviving motion picture – Roundhay Garden Scene. The historic film is so famous even now, indisputably owing to the genius of Le Prince whose strikingly different element of his films is the clarity of pictures.

Besides, the historical importance the film has got, it is also a beautiful documentary created on the middle-class British family. Incredible are the credits drawn on the significance of the film.

Fostered technological development
The two-second long film of Le Prince, indeed, fostered the early technological developments in the motion picture. The transition of static photography to the motion pictures with an astonishing clarity raised the brows and gained the momentary stability. Not just the element of moving images, but the setting, tone, the sense of colours, the static background coalesced well. This roaring success of the film, in turn begot, the perhaps second motion picture – Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge.

Three unities
Way back in 335 BC, Aristotle talked about the rules of drama. The rules are called Classical Unities or Three Unities or Aristotelian Unities. They are:

1. The Unity of Action: A play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots.
2. The Unity of Place: A play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.
3. The Unity of Time: The action in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours.
   

Films having been derived the roots from dramas and plays, did at one point of time followed these rules. Some of the films that have followed the restrictions of the classical unities are 12 Angry Men, Alien, Reservoir Dogs, Ladri di biciclette, and High Noon.

According to me, this Le Prince’s creation should also be added onto the above list. The action of this film is simple and direct wherein the four characters are found promenading in the garden. Moreover, the significance of the young is one of the main points of the script. This is exemplified by the older characters fading out of the shot. It also satisfies the second rule. Its backdrop is set in a garden; Oakwood Grange signifies the historic location. Of course, the third rule is fulfilled by running for about 2.11 seconds.

Setting accompanied the subject
Roundhay Garden Scene laid foundations to the importance of setting that accompanies the central subject of the film. Here too, the film itself is named after the setting. In the second production of Le Prince – Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge the interconnectivity between the subject and background in the film frame is more explicit, as Leeds Bridge is used both as a setting and a character in itself.

Dissertates the importance of genre or performance
The genre of Le Prince’s film turned the subjects into self-conscious actors. Both Roundhay Garden Scene and Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge belong to the genre of live action. This resulted in the recreation and the representation of the reality.

Let me conclude my critique by saying, though the cinematic contribution of Le Prince is minute, he left footprints for the evolution of the motion picture which the 21st century bags the credit of its technological success.

Roundhay Garden Scene - The first surviving motion picture!

The cinema of the United Kingdom is one of the productive industries of the world that contributed a lot to the modern cinema. Despite facing negatives, booms, and recessions, the film industry of the United Kingdom developed on par to compete with the booming American film industry. Initially, the British films had the influence from the French Lumière brothers in 1895, and their show first came to London in 1896. Moreover, the ongoing debates raise doubts on the cultural and economic influences of both American and European films on the British films. Nevertheless, the British film industry produced the greatest actors, directors of the world including Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, Sir David Lean, Sir Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn et cetera.

We could speak anything on the richness of the British cinema. Recently, I guess two days back, suddenly a thought flashed in my mind. It is – 'How would it be if I start collecting and blogging about the British films starting from pre 1900s?'. At the spur of the moment, I surfed through Internet and collected some information regarding the development of British cinema and also about the films. I thought of starting with the roots of British cinema. The result is the post about the first ever surviving motion film of the United Kingdom.

Interestingly, the earliest surviving motion picture is 'Roundhay Garden Scene' released, presumably, on October 14 1888 directed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince. The short film features some of the members of the family of Louis Le Prince. Harriet Hartley, Adolphe Le Prince, Joseph Whitley, and Sarah Whitley featured in the film.

Amazingly, the film is shot by using single lens camera. The whole scene is supposedly filmed at Oakwood Grande, Roundhay, Leeds. The running time of the film is two seconds in which the characters are seen laughing and walking around the garden. Moreover, the whole film was shot at 12 frames

I am indeed surprised to watch a film that lasts for just two seconds. Nevertheless, I am pleased to watch the first British motion film that is extant.

You all can have the pleasure of watching the film on YouTube

I am glad that I shared this first-silent-motion film of the United Kingdom. Stay tuned with the blog.
I am sure you would be interested to blog with me about the Brit films. Hope you enjoyed!!!