The Power Of Light And Shadow

The Third Man is quickly becoming one of my favorite films. It’s just so unique. I watch it and think to myself that there never has and never will be another film like it. The making of this film, more than many others, seems to have been an instance where a group of incredibly talented and eccentric people came together and made something that just worked on every level. Graham Greene’s brilliantly written script, Anton Karas’ unique musical score, Robert Krasker’s intriguing cinematography and Carol Reed’s fearless directing combine to make an unforgettable film that is new and fresh every time you experience it.

The Third Man won the academy award for best cinematography in 1948, which comes as no surprise. Robert Krasker creates stunning images. This film really shows the importance of not only what is lit in the frame, but also what isn’t. When Holly Martins first sees his friend Harry Lime (who, for all he knows, is back from the dead), all the viewer is shown at first are two shoes planted to the ground and a cat that curiously rubs up against them. The doorway Harry stands in is completely black while a light, presumably created from a street lamp, floods the bottom half of the frame. Due to Holly’s loud voice, a woman turns on her bedroom light which allows for Lime’s entrance. The revealing of Orson Welles’ character is no less dramatic and spectacular than that of a star that has just appeared on stage.

Shadows play a very important role in film noirs. Considering the aesthetics, the high contrast lighting creates both a haunting and mysterious look that many of these dark detective stories require. We mentioned in class German Expressionism and the influence that this particular movement had on film noir. German Expressionist cinema relied heavily on mise-en-scene to create mood and capture emotion. In The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, rather than using expensive lighting setups, the filmmakers painted dynamic patterns on the walls to represent shadowed areas and to direct our eyes to certain parts of the frame. Rather than using painted diagonal lines, The Third Man tilts the camera and uses light and shadows to give us a skewed sense of reality.

Another aspect of the film’s cinematography is the way Krasker uses the “Dutch” or oblique angle. Last summer I was able to see the film Doubt which, in my opinion, was one of the most impressive films of 2008. The film was shot by Roger Deakins who not only created a beautiful looking movie, but also showed me the impact the “Dutch” angle can have in a film. There are only two moments where Deakins chooses to use these extremely tilted angles but when he does, they carry so much emotional weight. Krasker, much like Deakins, has a clear understanding of how this angle can be used to enhance the way we subconsciously experience the story. With The Third Man, Carol Reed creates a world that, right from the start, is off kilter. When Holly Martins gets off of his train, he heads straight for his hotel. As he enters the building, he walks underneath a large ladder which undoubtedly foreshadows the amount of bad luck he will very soon experience. When Holly enters the hotel, Krasker foreshadows the skewed cinematic world by showing us the porter in an obvious oblique angle. The porter tells Holly that his friend Harry Lime has just recently been hit by a car which killed him instantly. Nothing else could have possibly shook up Holly’s state of mind more than being told this news and Krasker expresses this through the frame’s composition.

Krasker also uses this oblique angle throughout many of Holly’s conversations and interrogations with people. While Holly talks to/interrogates the people that Harry was with when he supposedly died, we can’t help but think that some of the information we are being given is false or is slightly manipulated. Krasker uses oblique angles throughout the entire conversation between Holly and Baron Kurtz. Kurtz, who menacingly stared at Holly at Lime’s funeral, now acts completely different. He is suspiciously kind and gentile to Holly, providing him with all of the “advice” that he has to give.

In his article, “The Revenant of Vienna: A Critical Comparison of Carol Reed’s Film The Third Man and Bram Stoker’s Novel Dracula”, John Dern interestingly compares Harry Lime’s character to that of Dracula. Looking back at Nosferatu, an example of German Expressionism, one can see strong parallels between the two characters’ mystery and presence. While The Third Man is a 1940’s film noir and Nosferatu is a 1920’s German Expressionist horror, these two seemingly opposite films are quite similar in their aesthetic approach. The inspiration is clear not only in the very similar entrances of Count Orlok and Harry Lime but also in the way each one is often filmed in shadow. While Dern claims at the end of his article that he is in no way implying that Lime is a vampire, he makes an interesting statement where two opposite characters are conceptually and aesthetically connected through their cinematographer’s use of composition, light and shadow.