New York-based distributor Rialto Pictures is releasing a 4K restoration of Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’, starring Orson Welles, in the U.S. this summer.
Rialto made the announcement on the eve of Welles’ 100th birthday. ‘The Third Man’ restoration will premiere this month in the classics section of the Cannes Film Festival, Variety reported.
The US opening has been set for New York’s Film Forum on June 26 for a two-week run, followed in Los Angeles on July 3. Engagements in San Francisco, Washington, Seattle, Philadelphia and other major markets will follow.
‘The Third Man’ was Reed’s second teaming with novelist-screenwriter Graham Greene. The film, set in Allied-occupied Vienna, also starred Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli. In the movie, a pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime.
A 1949 British film noir (a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace), the movie is considered one of the greatest films of all time, celebrated for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and musical score.
It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the British Film Academy’s best British film award and an Academy Award for Robert Krasker’s cinematography. Anton Karas’ score was played entirely on a zither, and the theme song was the most popular international title in 1950.
George Orson Welles (1915–1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film.
He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar; in radio, the 1938 broadcast ‘The War of the Worlds’, one of the most famous in the history of radio; and in film, ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films.
