As the Walker Cinema stews in its top-to-bottom renovation, we wait patiently for the moment we can submerse ourselves in the forthcoming red trimmings and the best that analog and digital technologies can provide. That moment will come on June 22 with a very special pre-screening of Sundance darling Beasts of the Southern Wild.(Psssst!Tickets are freewhile they last!) When that evening…

Today’s still places us in a small oasis–away from the high-octane intrigue of Vienna at large. Holly takes a few minutes to reminisce during a brief cigarette break. The action will of course pick up again soon, but for this brief respite we are allowed into a more intimate moment in Anna’s apartment. Holly helps Anna rehearse for a new stage role (I had almost forgotten she was an actor…

Adrift amongst melancholy memories, Anna sits fiddling with one of her bedknobs (which Jeremy surmised might contain hidden secrets) until Holly Martins interrupts her reverie. Holly seems to have a chipper air about him, perhaps because the porter had promised to divulge more secrets regarding Harry Lime’s death later that evening—a promise that’s nullified with the offscreen murder of the…

Were zither chords visible, a jangly milleu would still hang over this frame from the chord marking the end of our poor porter’s life. His clear eyes turn and look to an unknown assailant, and hang suspended behind Anna in cross-dissolve limbo. Is it one of the four men who met on the bridge last week? Or perhaps some dastardly assassin hired by the group? Whoever it is, the porter’s eyes tell…

This ghostly image is an ominous portent of things to come: here, Dr. Winkel is preparing to bike to “the bridge,” a meeting point to which Popescu has called his cohorts (Baron Kurtz, Popescu, and the unknown Third Man are also en route) in order to address the situation with Harry’s former porter. Having foolishly informed Popescu that the porter saw the mysterious Third Man ushering Harry’s…

Today’s frame finds our elusive Romanian friend Popescu skulking away from the center of this frame as if afraid that the limelight might shine out the dark secrets hidden beneath his thick mustache. Maybe he fears being the center of attention but maybe a shadowy figure like Popescu simply fears the symmetry that his central presence would instigate. Were Popescu standing front and center…

Holly Martins has finally met Mr. Popescu, the mysterious Romanian who was allegedly at the scene of Harry Lime’s death, along with Baron Kurtz and the unknown “Third Man.” (Not to mention Harry’s own driver, behind the wheel of the truck that struck him.) One wonders if Holly is starting to catch on that none of Harry’s “associates” can really be trusted. He greets Baron Kurtz civilly enough at the…

Last week, Matt divined an unbreakable connection between this nightclub, the “Casanova Club,” and the famous “Rick’s Café Américain” in Casablanca (1942). The similarities do not end at the similarity of names–Casanova to Casablanca–nor at the decor, style or position. Indeed, these nightclubs are in some ways direct mirrors of one another, settled on opposite sides of World War II. Casablanca is set…

The lineup for the 65th Festival de Cannes was announced last week with a number of names familiar to Walker Film/Video. As Curator Sheryl Mousley prepares for her annual trip to Cannes to forge new connections, we thought we would highlight Walker appearances and screenings connected to this exciting slate of directors and films. : After The Battle (Baad el mawkeaa), directed by Yousry Nasrallah…