The Anna Schmidt we see before us now is one in transition; the dolled-up blonde fluttering her false eyelashes at the camera is all but gone. Her relatively seamless blonde wig is left as a crumpled rodent-like mass on her vanity and in seconds a closer shot will show Anna removing her large eyelashes, the last vestige of the character she has been performing. But this is of course not only…

In the spirit of the Walker’s new Death Metal Logo T-shirt, we’d like to introduce you to your new rock ‘n’ roll wardrobe: Hungarian filmmaking legend, Béla Tarr is known for his extremely long takes and slow-moving camera, but Black Flag made short fast songs. This punk legend made a huge impact, and was even covered by indie-rock wunderkinds Dirty Projectors for an entire album. Tarr has a long…

Today’s still has captured Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), former lover of Harry Lime, at her most bewitching: meeting Holly Martins in her dressing room after a show at the Josefstadt Theater, Anna is both skeptical and intrigued, guarded yet increasingly frank. In other words, she’s somewhere between the role that she plays in the German-language comedy that Holly has just walked out of—we only see…

This moment, one of our first sights of Anna Schmidt, shows her dolled up in a bizarre German comedy. The camera swings left following the frenzied German dialogue which has the audience (except for Holly) in stitches. Holly still feels a stranger in a strange land, looking around uncomfortably at the cackling audience. Like a non-German movie theater audience, Holly can see little of the humor in…

What else is there to say about Baron Kurtz? Our self-appointed 62-second timeline has us, once again, face-to-face with the character’s gargoyle-ish visage and his ever-present dog. He has just explained to Holly the circumstances surrounding Harry Lime’s death, but something is amiss: Kurtz’s evasive, overly tidy version of events seems misleading, if not outright deceitful. His account of Harry…

Filmmaker Georges Méliès has had quite the year, what with being the centerpiece of this year’s most Oscar-nominated film (Scorsese’s Hugo), featured in our exhibition Midnight Party (obviously the biggest deal), and now the raison d’être of AIR’s new album, a soundtrack written on occasion and for the color restoration of Le Voyage Dans La Lune(A Trip To The Moon).  It’s a somewhat serendipitous…

Holly has been guided through a suspicious explanation of Harry’s demise, and self styled detective/cowboy that he is, he doesn’t quite buy it. The scene, as Kurtz paints it, follows this causal line*: 2. A friend of Harry’s (Mr. Popescu) waves at him from across the street and as Harry steps into the street and is hit by a truck. 3. Popescu and Kurtz carry mortally wounded Harry across the street to…

Once again, we are face to face with Baron Kurtz, one of Harry Lime’s shady former confidantes (“conspirator” might be a more appropriate word, though Holly doesn’t know this yet). In our last still, Jeremy detected a hint of compassion sneaking across Kurtz’s face—offering, perhaps, a snapshot of Kurtz’s true self, the kind-hearted yet beleaguered Austrian obscured by his perpetual Cheshire Cat-grin…

We are here face to face with Baron Kurtz. His face is inclined gently to one side, one eyebrow gently raised in an expression that is almost unreadable. In this moment is he annoyed or curious? Is he listening to Holly? Thinking of something else? Watching carefully for Holly’s reaction to prepare his next slimy silver-tongued lie? Cropped from the shot is his bug-eyed little dog, which Matt…