UW Film Creators Club

Robert Krasker recieved an oscar for his exceptional cinematography in the 1949 film, “The Third Man”. Directed by Carol Reed, this film starred Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton (both of “Citizen Kane” fame) in a disjointed post-war Vienna, topped with an unforgettable soundtrack by Anton Karas on the zither.

Richard Misek has written an insightful treatment focusing on Krasker and Reed’s cinematography. With examples of visual geometic linearities in setting and character structures, Misek offers a deeper perspective into one of the greatest films of the classic film noir period. Here are two excerpts from his writings:

“The film’s constantly shifting horizon is of course a product of its Dutch angles. In a close-up, the effect need not be especially disorientating, as close-ups tend to be spatially decontextualised, allowing a single object – for example, a face – to fill the frame. However, in exterior wide shots depicting complex spatial relations, the effect of Dutch angles can be intensely disorientating.“

“The Third Man’s wrong geometries also take place over time. Inevitably, in the fourth dimension, they take a metaphoric turn, manifesting themselves in the discrepancy between the straight lines of Holly’s excursions through Vienna’s innenstadt and Harry’s more fragmentary movements. Holly embodies linearity, he is the main thread running through the film, an almost continuous presence from scene to scene… Harry, by contrast, embodies non-linearity. He is an insider, a central figure in Vienna’s underground network of black marketeers… Narratively too, Harry follows a broken line of appearances and disappearances, playing a cameo role in his own story.“

Misek’s article is called “Wrong Geometries in The Third Man” and can be found here (with helpful frame captures and visual examples)

“The Third Man” in its entirety (shhh…) can be found here on youtube:

- Brian Yuan Zhang

A few weeks ago, the Criterion Collection blog published an article written by director Wim Wenders titled “An Attempted Description Of An Indescribable Film”. It is an interesting example of a director writing about his own creation.

While it is difficult for any artist or creator to describe their own works, Wenders’ realization of concept and form is as abstract as it is poetic. Here is an excerpt:

“THE SKY”?
The sky above it is the only
clear thing you can understand.
The clouds
drift across it, it rains and snows
and thunder-
and-lightnings, the moon sails through it
and sinks, the sun shines on the divided city,
today, as it did on the ruins in 1945
and the “Front City” of the fifties,
as it did before there was any city here,
and as it will when there is no longer
any city.

The rest of this treatment can be found here.

The trailer for Der Himmel uber Berlin – Wings of Desire (1987) dir. Wim Wenders:

- Brian Yuan Zhang

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada’s public film producer. Recently, its website upped the ante in the digital media universe and now allows anybody to view, online, some of the hundreds of film they produce. The NFB produces tons of documentaries, experimental films, animations and children’s shorts. Check it out here; something is sure to peak your interest.

One documentary which caught my eye was “Everybody’s Children”, a documentary about two refugees who come to Ontario to start a new life. Joyce, 17, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid being forced into prostitution by her family. Salieu, 16, witnessed the murder of his mother in Sierra Leone. Monika Delmos follows these two as they try to fit into this new country, face teenage pressures as well as go through the refugee application process.

Other videos you should check out include this trailer for a stop-motion animation called Madame Tutli-Putli, a woman who goes on an existential journey between real and imagined worlds as she takes a train ride. You can watch the whole film here.

- Tiffany