Life's worth living after all, kiddies. How could it not be when Elvis Mitchell is extolling the virtues of Carol Reed's The Third Man, the 1999 Rialto restoration of which unspools at Film Forum beginning April 9? The cinetrix caught it then, and I can't wait to see it again. Even the trailer sings.
Calling this one of the finest movies ever made may be one of the most obvious statements ever made, akin to saying the sky is blue, a presidential campaign is bound to turn dirty, or Donald Trump has a comb-over. But the joy this film provides is so magnified when it's projected in a movie theater that seeing it on the big screen is like watching it for the first time.
Be sure to hit A Girl and a Gun for George's excellent [and well-timed] essay on Carol Reed before you go. The Film Forum site also has a grab bag of production notes, restoration information, and other goodies for the completists.
Oh, OK. Just a little more Elvis in case anyone's still on the fence.
What you'll find at Film Forum is that few movies hold up as startlingly well as this mixture of perversity, anxiety, guilt and adventure. Greene set the picture in post-World War II Vienna and treated the city like an open wound, detailing its putrescence.
Cue the cuckoo clock.
