The Prater Wheel Scene, And Mise-En-Scene In The Third Man

617 Words2 Pages

The Prater wheel scene packs everything that makes The Third Man (Reed, 1949) an excellent movie into a single sequence. There is a lot to unpack in the two and a half minutes, especially between Holly Martins (Joseph Coen) and Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Due to the overwhelming amount of formal symbolism in the film, this paper will narrow down to three aspects: the movement between the actors, the lighting, and the mise-en-scene. The initial striking aspect of the Prater wheel scene is the movement between the two actors. Blocking is important, and their continual circling of each other, with Lime (Welles) almost always in control of the situation. Not only are they in an incredibly tight space, but a moving space at that. Consequently, being on a Ferris wheel not only changes the lighting hitting each actors face at differing intervals, but also symbolizes the going around circles that Martins has been doing to this point. It could also add to Lime (being representative of capitalism) and cyclicality of the economic system. (210) …show more content…

With Harry Lime being in some form of shadow throughout it, the audience is shown how untrustworthy Lime ends up being. And this is all within a scene that was supposed to be a reunion between two friends. The lighting in the scene makes special use of chiaroscuro: the strong, dramatic, contrasts between light and dark (thinking about Lime and Martins dueling moralities.) The effect this causes is foundational to film noir, and specifically to German Expressionism noir. Martins is almost completely in the light when the camera faces him however, with his entire face consistently shown. Lime, on the other hand, is always obscured in some way. Lime becomes sinister through this; signifying how the audience should feel about

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