The Third Man - Sewer scene

The Third Man was created and produced in 1949 and it's a very good example of a dark film noir movie. The plot includes Holly Martins travelling over to a very dark, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime who was involved in some unethical black market trading. 

In Film Noir, creating a certain atmosphere is extremely important - especially in scenes that are full of tension and drama. A very effective way of creating an uneasy, eerie atmosphere for the audience is by using claustrophobic techniques to keep the audience on edge. There's a very long scene in The Third Man which is set in a sewer and is the climax of the plot, Harry Lime has been seen and is being chased through the sewers by a huge number of policemen and soldiers. For example in this shot, the audience are given a claustrophobic impression due to the effect of the tunnel - because the only light is so far away the audience are put in what feels like a very dark place with very few escapes near. A tunnel also completely circles around the audience, the curved edges at the top of the tunnel give the feeling that the ceiling is pressuring down upon them.The outline of the character at the end of the tunnel also seems quite spooky due to the lack of visibility of his face or identity and therefore the audience actually want to back away in to the dark tunnel which again gives a claustrophobic feel. The stream of water running from the character to the camera, with the glimmer of light reflecting off of it, looks very similar to a lightening strike. Therefore the character is represented as dangerous, deadly perhaps, therefore the audience feel a fear towards this character. 
Again, the screen shot (left) shows this. It also shows an even stronger "light at the end of the tunnel" a clear connotation to the close proximity to this character - Harry, and death. The panicked body language with the arms out to the side, facing the light also could symbolize Harry's shock towards this incident with death - a possible surprise ending. In both of the images, he is completely wearing black and pressed against a very bright white background which gives the impression that Harry is a dark, evil character who has been blocking any lightness/ happiness from the plot due to his actions. His body language in this frame is also very symbolic, the positioning of his arms resembles that of Jesus when he was crucified. Therefore there are definite links here between this and the character of Harry, due to the faking of his death and then appearing to "come back to life". However the slightly lower arms and the bent knees represent him as weaker than Jesus, due to his lack of morality and probably the fact that it wasn't a choice of his to be rediscovered.  
<Another example of a shot from the sewer scene is this, the very slight titled angle of the camera creates an uneasy and slightly disorientated feel to the shot. The audience are put in a position where they feel like the camera is edgy and possibly hidden, which works well to build tension in this scene. Harry on the ledge, higher than the police is a contradiction of what the audience may expect as in a way it represents him as a higher character. However the fact that he is hiding, pushed up against the wall implies that he should not be there - as despite a doctor being a highly valued profession, he did not deserve the title. The representation of good and evil is very obvious in this shot, the darkness and black clothing of harry and the balcony contrasts with the policemen in white with their torches (a light source). Therefore the audience is shown the classic good against evil. The shadows of the characters and the balcony is also typical film noir, the dark shadows add to the tension of the clip due to the dark patches and very little lighting. 

Another shot from this scene is the below shot of the character Harry as the police and soldiers are searching for him and he's attempting to escape via a drain. The lighting upon his face suggests a character with a classic Film Noir moral ambiguity, as the upper half of his face is brightly lit whereas the bottom half is lit much darker therefore shows the contrast between the characters good and bad side. His slightly open mouth and squinted eyes add to the tension of the clip as the audience can clearly see his panic and worry due to his facial expression. The emphasis on his frown due to the lighting and the facial expression it's self represent him as a confused character, perhaps morally or perhaps in general. Again, the beads of sweet formed along his cheek and nose shows the audience that he's extremely scared or worried, he's possibly been doing a lot of running away.  The fact that his eyes are looking up implies that throughout the film he had a goal or a target that he longed to reach and his actions were based on that target, as if possessed by a certain idea. It almost looks as if he's a moth drawn to a flame, his facial expression is almost dream like and possessed therefore there's a connotation that Harry as a character was drawn into something easily due to the positive aspects of it despite the danger. The close-up used in this shot helps create that claustrophobic feel, due to the fact that the audience can see very little other than this characters face therefore question what's going on outside of this frame, since they only see a very small proportion of the action.
Below is the shot of Harry desperately trying to escape, trying to push the drain open after he had been shot. This is such a symbolic action, the way in which he is grabbing onto the bars suggests that he is trapped and desperately trying to escape this horrible situation that he has gotten himself into yet cannot. The light upon his head is obviously supposed to be moonlight, then the ruggedness of his hair and hands in a way represents him as a werewolf. A werewolf is dangerous and unruly though can be wrongly perceived in day time as a good human, very much like the character of Harry who was believed to be a good man previously when he was thought to be selling penicillin. The uneasy tilt on the camera here helps to once again, put the audience on edge since they're given the impression of very little stability and therefore that the audience are almost spying on Harry, given the feeling that they shouldn't be there. Finally the dirty hands of Harrys could easily represent his previous dirty deeds and how they have stained him as a person, which now he is trying to escape from yet cannot.