Film Noir

Film Noir

Typically filmed in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s

On location shootings – the underworld (criminal)

Literally means “black cinema”

First coined by French film critics who noted the ‘dark’, downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many detective films of the post-war years.

“Classic” film noir period developed during and after WW2, reflecting the anxiety, pessimism and suspicion of those times.

Traditionally film noir is seen as a more mood, style, point-of-view or tone than an actual genre.

Style:

• Filmed in black & white with stark contrasts
• Brooding/foreboding soundtracks
• Expressionistic lighting, disorienting visuals, jarring editing, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles
• Settings – interiors: low-key (or single –source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms with claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors: urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet roads, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights and low key lighting. Locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities or abandoned warehouses.
• 1949- The third man

Examples

• Moods : alienations, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt and desperation and paranoia
• Themes : the dark and inhumane side of human nature/doomed love
• Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex and maze like
• Razor-sharps, slang-laden dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first person voice over narration.
• Often directed by European immigrants

 

Fritz Lang (Hollywood director born in Austria) + 2hard-boiled/pulp/ American Literature (Advances in Printing & distribution an influence) + The Mood in WW2/ Post war America = Film Noir

Stock characters

-the protagonists

Predominantly “hard-boiled” male

Of relative integrity in a world dominated by crime, corruption and cruelty

Flawed hero, often indulging in the vices of his world.

Often a private detective

Often socially alienated/lonely

 

The Femme Fatale

• Invariably beautiful
• Mysterious and seductive
• Charming and sexually alluring
• Promiscuous – a rejection of the nuclear family & motherhood (perhaps leading to the ultimate destruction of the male?)
• Ensnares lovers into dangerous, often deadly situations
• Fiercely independent
• Actions often lead to her death

 

The good Woman

• Represents and embraces the traditional “nuclear family”
• Out of place in the film noir world
• Often offers the protagonist an escape from the femme fatale
• A representation of the American dream
• Often unattainable
• A foil to the femme fatale