The Third Man 1949 Carol Read

  The opening shot is that of a Zither, this is a cultural signifier as it is an Austrian instrument which is where the film is set. It is also used as Harry limes is good at pulling people's strings. 

  The audience are finally introduced to the setting of the film; Vienna- the capital city of Austria. Various stills from Vienna inform the audience of the context of the film shoiwng a once grand city, now a fragmented bomb site also telling them about the black market from during and after the war and already an element of darkness and mystery has been introduced upon the film. Suddenly a different wave of emotion is brought into the film with a photograph of a half sunken ship, surrounded by ice with the remains of the destroyed, once thriving, capital city in the background. A dead body, floats in the water. Only a minute in and already connotates of a thriller are uses through the sad sight of what is left of the second world war, destroyed buildings and destroyed people.  

   The camera cuts to a low angled shot of a steam train which is silhouetted against the extremely light background. The low angled shot makes the train look massive compared to the background. The train brings Holly Martins, a friend of Harry Limes, into the scene. He steps off the train wearing a trilby hat and trench coat with steam from the train covering his face- classic costume of the 1940's noir thrillers.  The use of a train pulling in to a station is often used in thrillers as it is mysterious and builds tension as we are unsure of who is about the step off the train, or who is going to be meeting our character. The person stepping off the train is often vulnerable as most of the time they are entering a place they are unsure of, such as our character here; Holly Martins. A long shot is taken of him walking through the streets of Vienna, almost as if someone were watching him from a distance. The camera cuts to a long shot of him him walking under a ladder which is foreshadowing, because it is suggested that something bad is going to happen to him. He is seen walking up the stairs and we see a fantast

ic high angled shot on a stairway looking down to Martins, as if from the perspective of the Austrian man he is talking to. A looming shadow is cast behind him causing a sense a mystery and fear. The man is talking in Austrian/German and there are no subtitles, meaning the audience do not understand what is being said, connotating he way Holly Martins is unsure of what is happening. The high angled shot has been used to show Holly as being vulnerable making the audience feel un-easy. 

The Sewer Scene is one of the most famous scenes from a film ever. It is iconic because of the varieties of different shots and the fact that it was actually shot in the infamous Vienna sewers.  

The effect used by using the sewers is showing how Harry Limes used the sewers in order to move from the different parts of the city, occupied by the different Superpowers, labelling him a 'sewer rat'. He did this by going underground and moving along the dirty, wet sewers. With the filming in black and white, this makes the wet clobbles stand out more causing a 'nightmare' effect.

Towards the end, Harry Limes is shot and suddenly the tables are turned as he becomes the vunerable one. A high angled shot looking down at Harry Limes is taken as he is dragging himself up a spiral staircase, this makes him look small and in danger. The effect of suddenly showing the villain is this vunerable light is allowing the audience to feel empathy with him. Harry Limes is seen as a loveable villain because the audience does not see him throughout the films until the very end meaning they cannot form an opinion of him.

Intertextuality:

When Harry limes reaches the top of the stairs, the camera takes a low-angled show of his hands, showing them as bigger than they would normally appear connotating a nightmare.

Tarantino uses this is Kill Bill volume two when the bride manages to free herself from the grave and the camera (much like the one used in the Third man) takes a low angled shot of her hands. The music in this scene in Kill Bill 2 is the same as from The Good, Bad and the Ugly, meaning Tarantino has devoloped his scene from referencing two others.

 

A majority of the shots filmed in The Third Man are tilted, this connotates the way Harry Limes life isn't straight forward, it's tilted and doesn't make sense, it shows him as not being perfect.