Friday 14 July 2023

We Had A Quiet Day,

Diana was not going into work until the afternoon,


so a lazy breakfast, in the afternoon after she left, I caught up with a few things, as it happens I had to call BT about the change over of telephone lines in the shop, and by shear happenstance they called me! all sorted to be changed in 2 weeks time, I also had a few other bits and pieces to see to, and say hello to Matt who has returned to his flat after working abroad, after which I watched a documentary, Bismarck 24 Hours to Doom, a programme on Chanel 4, the documentary was based on a book by Iain Ballantyne, the graphics were quite good, as the programme gave a blow by blow account of the battle, at the end of the programme photographs of some of the survivors brought home the harsh truth, although a victory for the UK it cost 2,365 crewmembers of the Bismarck, with only 116 survivors, 

after my evening meal time for a classic, The Third Man, filmed in Vienna, I have lost count of the number of times we have watched it, and here are my thoughts on the film that I have published before,

 I would guess if you have not seen the film, you will recognize the theme tune of it in any event in the recording of it above, the tune starts after the credits and if you have not seen the film here is a description of it, I mentioned that both Diana and myself would like to visit Vienna, and go on a Third Man tour, little did I know but there is such a thing,

for myself and I guess many others the closing scene is the shot that means so much, after a long, almost two minute shot of her walk along the cemetery road, with Martens waiting for her, Anna ignores him, and the movie ends, this final long walk was apparently shot by uncredited German cameraman Hans Schneeberger, but due to the mindless pettiness and instance of British unions, none of the Viennese cinematographers units were allowed to have credits in the film,

the avenue as it is today, as an aside Orson Welles was the Third Man, apparently a difficult actor, but in this film he made perhaps one of the most well known add on's, in a speech where he improvised whilst talking to Cotton,

and it was kept in the film, just a 20 second speech and totally off of the cuff, what a great film, nearly at the end of which Diana arrived home, so a coffee and a chat, before watching a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.


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