Immediately the title sequence suggests cultural signifyers, it establishes location and character traits. The music is called 'the Harry Lime' which is the main character of the film although he is not introduced until at least an hour into the film. The chiemious and the Zither suggest that he pulls strings to get people to do what he wants them to do and won't stop until he does.
At first, the beautiful statues located in Vienna suggest that the film will have a beautiful outcome, however the film instantaneously not all of clip shown
introduces the theme of the black market, the
fractured ice implies that society or Vienna is broken, the corpse floating in the water represents all those who were killed or died. The footage shown is real footage, highlighting that Vienna really is corrupt.
The boat has been bombed, embedding that Vienna is a dangerous place. The low angle of the train shot implies that something will come back to bite him, or surprise him. This could be to do with the main character Harry Limes. The character then walks underneath a ladder, typically associated with bad luck, foreshadowing that he will have bad luck throughout the film. However in contrast to this, it could be the opposite and that the character has really good luck even though he walks underneath the ladder.
The high angle shot of Holly portrays his venerability to others in the film. It could also signify that as Holly is on a lower platform that he is in hell, and the other character
A difficult section of the film to analyse other than how Reed establishes location and historical context. The first shot of Harry Lime would be a much better sequence to analyse, particularly the use of chiaroscuro lighting, shadows and tilt shots. You can access this sequence on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteDo watch spelling "chiemious" what do you mean???
"venerability" - I assume you mean vulnerability!