The Third Man - Opening Sequence

I am going to analyse how the Opening Credits of The Third Man establishes the Thriller genre



The opening credits of the film, uses Non-Diagetic Sound in the beginning, when the Zither was playing when the credits was rolling. Then as the opening scene went on, the film uses Diagetic Sound, by using a voice over with the soundtrack playing along, throughout the opening sequence.

The film uses Non-Ambient lighting throughout the whole scene which of course creates shadows which shows that there is another presence within the scene.

The camera angles used in this opening scene are mostly tilt shots and close up shots, the purpose of the use of these shots is to illustrate disorientation and confusion, making the film look weird and different.

The opening sequence also follows traditional conventions of a Thriller film. It uses big open Train stations and also big isolated buildings, in which Harry Lime's apartment was located.

Another generic convention the film uses is enigma. When it was said in the beginning that Harry Lime is dead, there was a bit of enigma to it, as Martins had suspected, like something wasn't right. Another thing that made the language barrier of Holly Martins and the people of Vienna because he couldn't understand what they're saying, makes it much more difficult for him to know what the people are saying to each other.