The Third Man

Cinematography

In the film The Third Man cinematography works to create an opinion about the mise-en-scene through different camera levels, lighting and distance. The first way I will analyze this is through camera levels or angles the film was shot from. The film is shot through many different angles. It is taken from high angles, which brings the viewer a view as if they were looking down on the person. In one of the very first scenes of the film this high angle shot is used when the butler is telling Holly Martins that Harry Lime was hit by a car and killed. With this high angle shot it helps express the shock and puts a shadowy or mysterious view on the scene you wouldn’t have gotten with a medium or low angle. The film also used low angle shots; these were used to help put almost a desperation feel to some of the films scenes. The low angle was also used to help put more of the physical surroundings into the shots like buildings and such.
The second way cinematography was used to create an opinion was with the lighting.
Even though the film was black and white the lighting still plays a major role in creating the opinion for the mise-en-scene. At the beginning of the film when Holly Martins first arrives in Vienna the lighting is bright which helps express his excitement for arriving to a new place and hope for the new job that he was offered it places a happy opinion to the film. The film also used dim lighting to express a gloomy and dangerous opinion. This was used when people were walking in alleyways or in the streets at night, and also at the very end when they were hunting for Harry Lime in the
sewers. The third way it was used was through the distance different shots are taken from. The distances vary from extreme long shot to extreme close-up. The first one to discuss is a mixture of them when the shot is taken with the camera being moved; an example of this is in the film is when Holly Martin is in the car leaving the funeral and they drive by a girl. The camera starts right next to her and continuously moves away from her, it gives the viewer a feeling that they were looking at her as they drove by and also gives the feel that she is important even though the viewer doesn’t know she will be. Another way distance was used is through close-up shots. These shots are often taken to show importance or seriousness of something or someone to the film; even though something else may be happening in the background like voices or such that the viewer can hear or almost see what is happening while the camera is still focused on just one object. Long distance shots are used in films for various reasons. They are used to show more surroundings than your just average shot, it could be for scenery or to be able to show multiple things happening at once. The long distance shots in this film where used to give the feel someone was getting away and showed that maybe something else was happening in the street while the camera was still focused on the character. This allowed the viewer to maybe see something the character couldn’t at the time. Cinematography is used to give the films mise-en-scene a different opinion. It does this through different camera angles, lighting, and shot distances. When many different kinds of cinematography is used it gives the film a different and more complete feel than it would have if it just consisted of a single camera angle, lighting, and distance.