Both have enjoyed artistic success, even under East Germany’s Communist dictatorship, but the pair are rattled by a friend’s suicide and the ongoing oppression of creative individuals by the regime.

The Spy Who Came in From The Cold thus implicitly critiques the terms of the Cold War, in which low-level operatives function as pawns in a larger game of high-level espionage that disregards the value of human life.įlorian Henckel von Donnersmark’s devastating romantic drama delves into the lives of sophisticated playwright Georg Dreyman ( Sebastian Koch), and his loving girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (a luminous Martina Gedeck). He becomes yet another casualty of a conflict that's less about competing ideologies than about the distribution of global power. It’s this sensitivity –– despite his rough exterior –– that is his downfall. Leamas is ultimately victimized by the amorality of his superiors, and he’s unable to accept their indifference to the consequences of their actions. The ensuing tragic ending offers viewers a glimpse into the ruthlessness of both British and East German intelligence operations during the Cold War. However, the two soon become ensnared in a larger plot orchestrated by MI6. Disillusioned by his fall from grace, he is persuaded to provide intelligence to Communist East Germany, while also befriending Nan Perry ( Claire Bloom), who belongs to the British Communist Party. In this adaptation of the John le Carré novel of the same name, down-and-out MI6 operative Alec Leamas ( Richard Burton) is sent home to London from West Berlin after the death of one of his undercover counterparts.

It conveys an intelligent and nuanced view of post-war Europe, eschewing moralizing and instead focusing on the uncertainty and 'gray areas' that many were compelled to accept following World War II. The Third Man is both a genre-defining magnum opus and a brave meditation on Austria’s ability to reconcile with its dark past. Unpleasant discoveries throughout the tightly paced thriller are made all the more disturbing by shadow-drenched cinematography and hair-raising zither music.

The atmosphere of trickery pervading Vienna reflects the moral ambiguity of life in post-war Austria, and as it turns out, Holly’s American earnestness is no match for the newly de-Nazified city and its callous outlook, best exemplified by Welles's character. As the sinister circumstances of Harry’s mysterious death unfold, Holly, astonished by the knowledge of his friend's activities on the black market, begins to realize that nothing is what it seems. Holly befriends Harry’s bereaved girlfriend, a displaced young actress named Anna Schmidt ( Alida Valli), who fears deportation to the Russian sector of the city. When American fiction writer Holly Martins ( Joseph Cotten) travels to late 1940s Vienna to visit a friend, Harry Lime ( Orson Welles), who’s promised him a job, he is astonished to learn that Harry is dead –– or at least, it seems that way. Image via Selznick Releasing Organizationĭirector Carol Reed’s The Third Man expertly combines a noirish sensibility with an atmosphere of post-war fatigue and amorality.

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