Enough from me, take it away, Leigh...
Picture Books: Graham Greene
by Leigh Russell
The film captures the paranoia of a city split between three different ruling powers, each with their own conflicting bureaucracy, creating an atmosphere kafkaesque in its claustrophobia of Austria after the Second World War. Into this political turmoil, an innocent American novelist, Holly Martins, arrives to visit an old friend. He discovers that his friend is dead. But the situation is not as simple as it first appears, and Martins' internal struggle is reflected in the external turmoil and paranoia of post-war Vienna.
Some of the visual images in the film are haunting - a vast shadow of a man moving across a wall at night, magnified by a street light, and dominating the screen, a brilliant symbol of Harry Lime's state of mind, Martins and Harry Lime on the big wheel gazing down on minuscule people on the ground below, and Harry Lime's fingers reaching up into the air of freedom which he will never again breathe...
If the main characters in The Third Man are displaced, meeting in a city which is foreign territory to them all, the same is true of The Heart of the Matter, set in 1940s Sierra Leone. Here the main characters are expats living on a different continent where the customs and climate are alien. The film evokes a sense of suffocating heat. The British and European characters' struggle to cope with the hostile location, reflects their conflict with a hostile society.
Trevor Howard starred in many well known films, but this is generally considered to be his finest performance. Once again, we watch a complex character enduring an internal struggle between love and ethics, like Holly Martins whose friendship conflicted with his moral duty. The Heart of the Matter is the story of a kindly Catholic police officer, Harry Scobie, who is engaged in the struggle to control a volatile society. When Scobie falls in love and commits adultery, he suffers unbearable torment, knowing he must hurt one of the two women who love him. Worse, he cannot shake off his Catholic faith, and he has committed carnal sin.
One of his young colleagues has already committed suicide, unable to cope with the pressures of trying to maintain control in an alien community. Scobie resolves to do the same, knowing he will face eternal damnation if he takes his own life. But the cruelty of his fellow man intervenes in a finale that Scobie welcomes as salvation. Once again, the power of the film comes from the voice of an author who creates characters who are memorable through their conflicts and desires. Even minor characters leap off the screen and seem real.
If you had never heard of Graham Greene and watched either of these films, or any other collaborations between Graham Greene and Carol Reed, or the classic British noir film Brighton Rock directed by John Boulting you would know they were based on profound novels. Graham Greene's evocation of the human condition is haunting. Everywhere the voice of the author is evident, combining gripping drama with fascinating historical insight. He contrives to be uncompromising and harsh in his portrayal of human nature, yet with an underlying compassion for the struggles his characters face - struggles we all face on our daily lives.
photo by Marte Lundby Rekka |
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