Blogcritics Comments on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:06:15 EDT

Exactly. It's amazing. ]]>

Comment by Aaron Fleming on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:37:32 EDT

It still amazes me that Welles can steal the film so completely with such little screen time. His scenes are almost-unanimously the hightlight, and what a credit to him. Shows that he was not only a brilliant director and writer, but that his acting is up there with the best of Hollywood. ]]>

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:55:29 EDT

IMDB has a good collection of notes and trivia on Welles. It also touches on the comment I was making: "Considered black and white to be "the actor's best friend", feeling that it focused more on the actor's expressions and feelings than on hair, eye or wardrobe color." ]]>

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:50:29 EDT

Take 2... Here's a good primer on Graham Greene. ]]>

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:31:38 EDT

Here's a decent ]]>

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:29:27 EDT

Welles point was that with color movies you will be distracted more by the colors and what the actors are wearing and other details as opposed to the actual acting. When I get a chance I'll backtrack to figure out the exact comment and reviewer's name. ]]>

Comment by Cameron Graham on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:10:27 EDT

Scott - Glad you liked the movie. Myself, I haven't read any Graham Greene (although I really should), and perhaps that factored into my not enjoying the movie as much as others. If I ever read some Graham Greene, perhaps I'll go back and watch this again. El Bicho - I think that what Orson Welles meant was that B&W highlights the actors, whereas color can sometimes overshadow the performances because it distracts the viewers. It's almost competing with the actors. ]]>

Comment by El Bicho on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:48:30 EDT

To be fair, I Shot Andy Warhol had some black and white, so I'll replace it with Nicole Kidman in To Die For. Now that I think about it, when did Welles make this statement? I'll go back to Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. ]]>

Comment by El Bicho on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:54:30 EDT

"Welles challenged people to mention a great acting performance in a color movie and the reviewer couldn't think of one." Just one? DeNiro in Taxi Driver, Lili Tyler in I Shot Andy Warhol for starters. What an idiot reviewer. Was it Joel Siegel by any chance? Hmmm, if he liked everything, he might be here at BC. ]]>

Comment by Scott Butki on Film Noir Thursday #4: The Third Man

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:44:14 EDT

I liked the movie a lot more than you did. I found the first hour intriguing, wondering what was going on. Since I'm somewhat familiar with Graham Greene I was expecting some double and triple crossing and things to not be as they first appear and was not disappointed. The protagonist is not as innocent as he first appears. The lighting is excellent. I raided the film section at Borders today and read the reviews by Ebert, NY Times, etc. on Third Man and Out of the Past. They pointed out two things of note. One was that viewers thought Welles had more time on screen than he really did because he was talked about so much ahead of time. It was quite an impressive acting job and it's helped by Welles writing his own speech (the "cuckoo clock" one). The other is the use of shadowns and black and white. Welles challenged people to mention a great acting performance in a color movie and the reviewer couldn't think of one. ]]>