The Third Man

I can't remember the last film I saw at the cinema. It may well have been Lost in Translation or The Last Samurai or possibly Madagascar (that's a kids' movie, not a poor man's Casablanca), so you can see I'm a little out of touch (and out of date) with my movies, but I finally got round to watching a DVD I picked up for a song from Arai-san's defunct bookshop. It was The Third Man, which you probably already know, is a cracking movie. Set in post-war Vienna, it's really of its time - 1949 - but in all the right ways:

• It's got the most evocative soundtrack I can think of
• There isn't a single throwaway camera angle in the whole film
• There are touches of brilliant understated British wit
• It's dark and menacing - just like the femme fatale
• The violence is all off-camera

I enjoyed watching the hero bumble his way through a strange land where he doesn't speak the language but somehow gets to the bottom of it all - with the help of an inscrutable raven-haired beauty. There's hope for me yet.