After Tuesday’s metacinematic interlude, vivified by the intricate connection between cinema and railroads, we’re back to the story proper: Anna has sharply lambasted Holly for agreeing to cooperate with the police and turn in Harry Lime, tearing her passport (which Holly helped procure) in half and tossing his overcoat brusquely on the floor of the train station. A dissolve segues from the…

What we are looking at today is a visual conflation of modern-era technologies–we are looking at a train on film. As Holly and Anna wait in this deserted station cafe (you can see the edge of a poster in the upper left), we watch Anna’s train depart without her on it. But for this post, […] What we are looking at today is a visual conflation of modern-era technologies–we are looking at a train on…

Two weekends ago, the Walker Cinema was host to a marathon screening of Mark Cousins’ expansive 15-hour documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Adapted from Cousins’ own 2004 tome of the same name, The Story of Film seeks to do no less than offer “a refresher course in movie language,” spanning more than 120 […] Two weekends ago, the Walker Cinema was host to a marathon screening of Mark Cousins…

A harsh truth is dawning upon Anna: suspicious as to why Major Calloway would suddenly bend the rules to help her out, and subsequently by her discovery that Holly is covertly seeing her off from a train station cafe, she quickly puts two and two together and discerns the questionable trade that has been orchestrated in order to capture Harry Lime. As we’ve mentioned before, Holly has offered…

Hunched and toadlike in this strangely unpopulated train station cafe (there seems to be no one working), Holly seems to be studying his coaster closely as a way of hiding his face. As we know from the last two posts, Holly has made a deal trading Harry for Anna, and of course, Anna knows nothing […] Hunched and toadlike in this strangely unpopulated train station cafe (there seems to be no one…

Much ado has been made about Joel and Ethan Coen’s legendary Twin Cities roots. From the cheesy Minnesota colloquialism in William H. Macy’s accent in Fargo to their magnum Minneapolis opus, the St. Louis Park epic A Serious Man, these two natives have never left their home far behind. But now, springing up in the […] Much ado has been made about Joel and Ethan Coen’s legendary Twin Cities roots…

Anna Schmidt finally has some good fortune coming her way, for what might be the first time in months (or years?): her passport issues have finally been resolved with the Russian authorities, as she’s kindly escorted by Sergeant Paine onto a train presumably bound for her native Czechoslovakia. But at what price comes her freedom? […] Anna Schmidt finally has some good fortune coming her way, for what…

The look that graces Holly’s face today is one of dynamic determination, that is to say, we can see Holly’s strong moral fiber working to change his personality and this expression is a sign of his change in character. The naive and romantic figure we have simultaneously admired and lambasted throughout the film thus far […] The look that graces Holly’s face today is one of dynamic determination…

Holly and Harry have finally disembarked from the Ferris Wheel voyage that has revealed so many disconnections and fallouts between them: in the time it takes to revolve once on Vienna’s Riesenrad, Holly and Harry discover (if they weren’t already aware of it) that their once intimate friendship can no longer be rekindled. With seemingly […] Holly and Harry have finally disembarked from the Ferris…