Cleveland City: The Screenplay

Each time I watch The Third Man I discover something new. This past weekend, while catching the third act of this classic Noir, I came across two new observations:           1. Scorsese paid homage to a key post-funeral scene by replicating the same scene in The Departed (more on that in a upcoming blog)           2. The physical and visual intensity of our protagonist running around and then trying to get out of the post-war Vienna sewer while he's being chased by military police is a beautiful metaphor for many of our favorite Noir characters: even if they are not in the sewer itself, their moral compass certainly is. Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, who waters down medicine that then kills the very children whose mothers survived the bombs, is both monster and charmer. Charming monsters are the scariest. Because they live their lives keeping one foot in the sewer while the other (to parap...

Nothing is what is seems. That's the premise of every single Noir story.  The characters - they're full of secrets, lies, past lives, multiple identities, mysterious backgrounds and dubious professions. The one thing they all share is that there's a duplicity that holds them together - it's what keeps so many of them alive. Ultimately, it's all about the facade - that thick or thin layer that the public gets to see - a veil behind which our favorite characters do their business and live their lives. While not a traditional Noir, Martin Scorsese's take on The Departed offers perfect example of this. Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan is both police agent and crime son, chasing his own tail. Leonardo DiCaprio's Billy is both cop and acting criminal, chasing Sullivan. Vera Farmiga's Madolyn, the cop psychiatrist, sleeps with both of them. And Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello is the big mob boss who it turns out is also the FBI informant. In the end a...