American popular fiction writer Holly Martin came to Vienna to make a living at the invitation of his best friend Harry Lime. But when I got off the plane, I found that my friend had died in a car accident. From different people's descriptions of the accident scene, he became suspicious and decided to find the truth.
As a suspense film, the film has a surprise in the plot design-a lot of novels and movies have borrowed this idea since then, and maybe it doesn't seem too surprising now. The film isn't too Hitchcocky yet, which means it's not particularly good at creating a terrifying and tense atmosphere—or maybe it's because I was mentally prepared to know where the story was going. Perhaps because the film covers far more than a suspense, it involves morality, justice, friendship, love and so on. The story takes place in Vienna after World War II, and reflects the impact of war on people from one side. It is not the director's main intention to stimulate the audience's senses, but more importantly, to leave a little space for the audience to think about the phenomena they see while searching for the truth with the protagonist.
The director said that one of the reasons he made the film in black and white was that he didn't want some color elements, such as the handsome guy's blue eyes and blond hair, to distract the audience. Looking back after watching it, if this film was in color, the effect would indeed be much worse. The black and white accentuates the post-war bleakness even more. The filming was excellent. Especially the streets of Vienna at night, the bright or dark light on the houses on the stone walls, and the traces in the last sewer. There is a shot where the flowers are taken from the window sill and pulled all the way to the street outside the window, which is very classic.
This film is famous and has a star effect, that is, it used Citizen Kane's director, screenwriter and starring Orson Welles. He also tried the knife and wrote this line: In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love , 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
The other castings of the film are also excellent, and the imagery and character are well matched. The protagonists are handsome and beautiful, the police are very hawks, and they are simple and bloated gatekeepers... But the performances of people other than the male protagonist, including Orson Welles himself, I think are somewhat blunt. It also makes the whole film look less refined.
The flaws do not hide the truth, at least the emotional changes of the characters are still well conveyed. And the screenwriters themselves grasp the emotional changes of the characters very accurately. The changes in Holly's feelings towards Anna, his attitude towards Harry, as well as Anna's attitude towards Holly and his feelings towards Harry are all portrayed very delicately and intriguingly.
The film adopts a circular method in the layout, starting with a funeral and ending with another funeral. There are many scenes of the two funerals that seem to be familiar, but they are already different.
The film doesn't put much effort into the music. Speaking of Vienna, people will think of Strauss' waltz, but in such a film that reflects the darkness and helplessness of post-war reality, the waltz is obviously not suitable. The director chose a piece by the Viennese composer Anton Karas, which echoes the dark streets of Vienna, the post-war depression and the unease in people's hearts. After watching the movie, it still lingers in my ears, accompanied by a kind of helplessness that cannot be dissipated for a long time.
The characters' names are also interesting. There are also several wrong names in the film, for different reasons, including cultural and linguistic differences and psychological hints. In short, there are many small details, think about it and discover the director's intentions.
This film is a treasure trove, it is worth watching again and again, scrutinizing it carefully, and slowly reminiscing.
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