The Third Man Essay

1058 Words5 Pages
1. What cinematic techniques are used to create and sustain suspicion, tension and excitement and why is this atmosphere important? The Third Man entertains the audience with a suspenseful and exciting story expressed in the style of film noir, classically defined as a black and white visual style with low-key lighting. The director, Carol Reed, engages the audience with the story as he builds the atmosphere of a broken post World War Two Vienna and a bumbling American. Carol Reed uses cross-cutting, lighting and setting to build the atmosphere surrounding the film. The Third Man is formed by Reed to produce enthralling scenes that evoke and heighten the tension and excitement in the film with the use of cross-cutting, which occurs when the shots cut between two different sets of action. In one particular scene where Martins is trapped in the back of a speeding car, driven by an unidentified man, the audience believes he is being kidnapped but in actual fact he is being delivered to his own presentation. The tension is created with shots of old men and women stricken with poverty, rummaging through trash and gawking at the speeding car with the shot of Martins screaming at the driver, ‘have you got orders to kill me’. The audience makes the connection with the aid of the cross-cutting that presents Martins as being taken to be killed. Cross-cutting is again witnessed in the final chase scene between Lime, his friend Martins and the police. Lime frantically looks between tunnels as he tries to find a way out, but he is trapped in the sewers surrounded at all exits. As the camera cuts between noisy sewer tunnels the entrapment of Lime is emphasised, hence heightening the excitement and the tension as the audience awaits Limes capture. This is important for the atmosphere of the film as Lime has been able to avoid being caught with his boyish deviance and the audience
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