Blip

Identity & Modernity in The Third Man

In order to evaluate how identity is framed by Modernity and the urban context in The Third Man (directed by Carol Reed 1949) we must first understand what is meant by the term Modernity.

Modernity essentially refers to all that is “new” or a modern improvement, in terms of a social revolution which occurred around the 17th Century in Europe. In Marshall Bergman’s book, ‘All that is solid melts into air: The experience of Modernity’, he explains that “To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often destroy all communities, values, lives, and yet to be undeterred in our determination to face these forces, to fight and change their world and make it our own. It is to be both revolutionary and conservative: alive to new possibilities for experience and adventure, frightened by the nihilistic depths to which so many modern adventures lead” (All that is solid melts into air: the experience of modernity-By Marshall Berman… Verso, 1983)

Modernity highlights the changes throughout society, from industrial and technological advances to the new avant guarde art movements that were beginning to challenge the social constraints of modern life; communication was sent into overdrive with the inventions of photography, film and later television. Social Theorists such as John B. Goodman embrace modernity as a positive movement “If man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, as Geertz once remarked, then communication media are spinning wheels in the modern world and, in using these media, human beings are fabricating the webs of significance for themselves.” (Thompson, John B. The Media and Modernity 1995 Blackwell Publishers)

Modernity also brought us bureaucracy and the nation- state which enables nations to not only control economies but allows a form of national identity and social understanding.

Modernity focuses predominately on city life. This is because, whilst cities are not new, it is a modern reality that the majority of people live and work in them. Bustling metropolitan cultures were therefore the main fascinations for modernist artists and thinkers alike.

Film noir is a genre that is particularly appropriate for this question. This is because the genre has always been notorious for being particularly interested in modernity; it is a genre that gives the audience a darker more pessimistic view of a time in America that was somewhat more positive, economically and culturally. In particular, modernity is shown through the urban context, the winding and shady streets of the urban landscape, which reflect the shady inhabitants of the film noir city. It also gives us more obvious references to modernity, particularly by using modern (within the films historical context) transport, the romanticised use of trains or old Morris-Minor type cars.

Focussing on post-war America the genre film noir appears particularly transfixed on using a sometimes sinister cityscape, which helps to create an aura of mystique, nostalgia, and most importantly claustrophobia. Edward Dimendberg sums up the alienation of the protagonists in film noir and explains that such claustrophobic emotions can be externalised through the settings of film noir.

“Nostalgia and longing for older urban forms combined with fear of new alienating urban realities pervade film noir. The loss of public space, the homogenization of everyday life, the intensification of surveillance, and the eradication of older neighbourhood by urban renewal and redevelopment projects are seldom absent from these films. Thus, it is hardly surprising that the movement of protagonists from urban centre to periphery is a pervasive spatial trope. Unlike the contemporaneous conquests of the big sky and open frontier by characters in the film genre of the western, the protagonists in film noir appear cursed by an inability to dwell comfortably anywhere” (Dimendberg, E, Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity Harvard University Press 2004)

I have chosen to write about The Third Man because I have found it to be a particularly interesting film from the film noir genre. This is because, while it follows all of the general rules of the genre, such as the shadowy lighting, the story of an unlikely hero, it is not a typical film noir being that it is not set in post war America. Instead, the film follows an American man on his journey to post war Vienna, a city savaged by the war not only physically, but in the unusual bureaucratic politics enforced as well. The gothic style city is torn up, quartered, with mostly Austrians not allowed in to the specific quarters, and passports needed for any inhabitants that wish to live in different quarters, highlighted by the character of Anna, originally Czech but who used a forged passport to escape the Russian quarter of the city. The bureaucracy of the film is often emphasised within the film as Anna is caught out by the police with regards to the forged passport. As well as this, the Viennese locals are left looking somehow subservient to the other nationals that have moved into the city as a result of the war. They are often seen serving the other nationalities, as porters, taxi drivers and musicians in restaurants and are seen in many shots as neighbours “peering” through windows, watching the seemingly chaotic lives of the protagonists that are not native.

The Third Man also literally encapsulates itself with an artistic style that is definitive with Modernity, that which is the avant guarde style of abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism is a style that developed in the 1940’s but originally derived from German Expressionism in the 1920’s, and was a style that was very rebellious in the fact that it challenged the conventions of the art world and also of its predecessor, surrealism.

A style that was often thought to be nihilistic, there is little wonder why abstract expressionism was chosen stylistically to be incorporated into the cinematography, as it incorporates the overall isolation and alienation that film noir stands for. The film has some very deliberate nihilistic undertones to it, which is why the city seems so unforgiving and lonely. Nihilism is brought in to the spotlight through the script in the scene in the Ferris wheel, when Harry Lime says: “Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don’t. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it’s the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.” and Holly Martins replies: “You used to believe in God.”

The Third Man has a balance of chaos and order as an underlying story throughout the film. There is the chaos of the war stricken city, buildings damaged and demolished, the chaos of Holly Martin’s story, arriving in a faraway country from America to see his friend, only to find he had died not long before, the winding unlevelled structure of the streets of Vienna, but order is also enforced by way of the police rule, the political restrictions inflicted on the inhabitants, the strict composition of every shot within the film, and the diagonal and strict shards of light and shadow that resonate throughout the frames. This is reminiscent of the abstract expressionist art that was being produced at the time, metaphorically from the chaotic paint spattered works like Jackson Pollock’s “No. 5 1948” to the stricter, geometric works of the artist Mondrian, emphasising the cinematographic theme of using strict lines throughout the film.

From literally the opening credits, the film opens with a geometric shot of close up of the strings on a musical instrument, a ‘zither’, a popular and traditional Austrian instrument, immediately hinting about the ambiguous nationality of the film or the protagonists within it. The close up of the strings set the audience up immediately for this style of composition in the shots, a particular style which resonates the whole way through the film, including the famous scene on the Ferris wheel, where the framing appears rather graphic- like, with stark diagonal lines of the wheel slicing and the background and foreground around the protagonists. It is also echoed through shots on the bridge and the beautiful shots on the staircase when Holly Martins first arrives in Vienna.

Perhaps the use of these compositions is to give us a sense of order, and structure, amongst the chaos that Vienna has found itself in. Half of the shots are exactly the opposite, they are tilted, a lot of the shots are stationary with the camera completely immobile, sometimes obscurely cropping the protagonists’ faces, which gives the audience a disorientated disposition, the feeling of not belonging and unease. An example of this is when Holly Martins first introduces himself to Anna, the framing of the doorway is at a very obscure angle, and the whole image appears rather tilted.

This is typical to the genre, as throughout film noir it is usually vital to the composition of the framing that the camera is stationary and the characters move throughout the space of the city, rather than the camera moving and actually following the characters around the space, emphasising the city, the urban. As the city has been savaged by war, crime thrives which is typical to the film noir genre. In The Third Man, it is the fact that there is a booming black- market (of which Harry Lime we find out is involved with) which is another example of how the film emphasises the ‘urban’ theme.

One of the most interesting aspects of The Third Man is the spectators gaze throughout the film. There is an increasing sense of unease in Vienna, not only because it has been hit extremely hard by the war, but because it feels increasingly like a city that doesn’t belong to its native inhabitants, another example of the modern beaurocracy that has been forced upon the capital.

Viennese people in the beginning of the film are seen not being allowed into one of the military quarters of the city. Throughout the film there are constant little looks from behind shutters or through gates, which Holly is unaware of. The audience is reduced to watching a race watch different races patrol the streets of their city, as outsiders that no longer belong in their rightful home. Holly is oblivious to the fact that while he is observing a foreign city, it seems the city itself is characterised and is also observing him, the sporadic shots from cranes help to create an uncomfortable sense of voyeurism. The eeriness of the situation is highlighted, because, although he does not realise that he is actual fact being watched by so many people, he finally gives the audience and indication that he can sense their presence, when he proclaims that he will soon return home to the United States : ‘It’s what you always wanted, all of you!”

In conclusion, identity is framed by modernity in many ways in the urban context of The Third Man. The visual references throughout the film almost personifies the city itself as an important protagonist within the film. The set gives us indications, not only to the historical and urban context of the film but also references in to the shady characters that thrive amongst the cities where film noir is set.

The Third Man uses strict, geometric artistic compositions in order to emphasise the modernity of the film. Through a cleverly interlaced narrative, the film also hints at modernity and the changing politics of the lives of Vienna’s inhabitants the racial segregation, alienation, and claustrophobia, which is what film noir as a genre is notorious for.

-The Blip

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