FILM NOIR
Today Ms. Wong talked us through introductory facts and knowledge about film noir. Here are the notes from the lesson.
In French, the term 'film noir' literally means 'black film', named this way because of their characteristic dark tones and themes. Additionally, film noir originates from detective and femme fatale novels in the 30-40's.
The noir world is usually a that of which has lost its moral certainty, and features the prevailing cynicism of characters. Its dark themes were largely in reaction to important events of the time, for example, the atomic bomb, the Cold war, totalitarianism, propaganda, the Hollywood Blacklist (which was the act of exiling communist sympathies in Tinsel Town), corrupting power of government and press, men returning from World War II, and the crisis of the liberal movement.
Contrary to the American Dream, with its glossy color and glamorous roles; the Noir protagonist is rather the antithesis of that ideal. They're not the traditional 'hero', but rather average and conventional. They were often a war veteran (a shoutout to the soldiers returning from war), or a detective (due to the popularity of detective novels at the time). The protagonist was often a loner, introverted, troubled, hard-boiled, and pessimistic.
Meanwhile, the antagonist, and an famous archetype conceived at that time was the Femme Fatale. She is a predatory woman that lures, tempts, and seduces the hero. Additionally, she usually already possess another man e.g. an older, proprietary husband. The genesis of the femme fatale occurred during a time of feminism, as before the society was rather conservative (50's housewives). However, when the men went to war, women took over the jobs and took over positions of responsibility. Unsurprisingly, there was widespread dissent from the women once the "war heroes" returned. So, the Femme Fatale was an outward manifestation of the film studios' rich white directors' frustration with women's growing independence at the time.
On the other hand, another newly conceptualised archetype was The Good Woman. The opposite of the femme fatale, the Good Woman stood for home, nurturing, rehabilitation, and submissiveness.
From these examples, we can see that characters come from historical context. The storyline and themes are always rooted in the some concerns of life at the time, and Film Noir exemplifies this.
There are also some characteristics of film noir. They usually feature the seeker-hero on a quest, one on which they are repeatedly tested, interrogated, attacked, persecuted. In the end, they either emerge safely, uncorrupted or killed. The key aspect in film noir is that things are not what they seem; people change identities, and the plot has unforeseen twists and turns. Moreover, there is usually a first-person voice-over.
In the noir world, the exterior settings are usually in the dark mean streets of the big city, or a too perfect Los Angeles, with its beaches, apartments, palm-lined trees. Meanwhile, the interior settings include seedy nightclubs, cafes, police stations, and general haunts of the underworld. The settings of the noir world are much more sketchy and shady compared to those of the huge constructed studio productions of the past. Additionally, there are also the internal settings- the violence, trauma, nightmares of the hero's mind.
The cinematography is very complex in film noir. Film noir has a hard, undiffused look, with emphasis on shadows, angles, lines, stark contrast (almost like tabloid newspaper with giant headlines and enlarged pictures of celebrities). The frame is usually dark, cluttered, and claustrophobic, giving the impression of the characters almost being restricted and trapped into the camera frames. In film noir there are many night scenes, since to put it simply, sketch things tend to happen at night! The film noir also frequently implements the Dutch angle and deep focus shots. The Dutch angle disorientates the viewer, and also echoes the morally ambiguous Noir world. The deep focus shot focuses on everything, and questions the viewer where they want to look at, adding mystery, and provides as a nonlinear view compared to shallow focus.
Here we can see that in most genres of films, but especially in film noir, the form of film mirrors content.
Moreover, the lighting usually features stark light and dark contrasts, as the harsh colors mirror the harsh world, and the dark shadows resonate with the mystery in the world created. The lighting is always very low key. The opposite of high key lighting, which includes well-seen and brightly lit frames, low key incorporates a lot of change, for example the face is half enveloped in shadow, adding a fair amount of depth and dimension. In film noir there are also bleak, fatalistic overtones of despair and madness in unorthodox, disheveled fashions. Film noir incorporates heightened expressionistic scenes, with distorted, nightmarish, exaggerated, and even grotesque elements- the direct effect of shadows, with their blobby, too-big-too-dark shapes cast over the wrong areas.
Film Noir incorporates a fair amount of iconography as well. These icons can range from telephones, voice recorders, newspaper, dark sidewalks, rain-drenched streets, flashing neon signs, fairground and carnivals, the city as a villain, the border town or casino, and imagery of water and alcohol that represent merging and release. All of these reinforce the environment as one of no place of innocence, but rather one for the world-weary and unsure.
The general principles of the noir world is that it is one where the protagonist is 'out of his depth', adding to the dramatic irony as the viewer watches the situation spiral out of control. Film noir recognises people's inherent capacity for disaster, and channels that into unforeseen calamity. The actions of the protagonist leave the viewer with a sense of moral ambiguity and a sense of having to choose 'the lesser of two evils' (which is ironic due to its dichromatic color scheme). The protagonist is isolated; he fights alone yet must be part of society, which leads to the protagonist earning their own damnation and redemption. Finally, film noir often ends with a sense of futility and meaninglessness.
The plot structure of film noir reaches three stages: set-up, conflict, and resolution. In Set-up, the film sets the scene, on the edge of a world of dubious values where at first the protagonist has maintained integrity, and is in control of his situation, uneasily accepting the status quo. During the Conflict, the protagonist is drawn into a situation for ambiguous motives (e.g. sexuality, money). Subsequently, the protagonist acts according to experience, but without complete knowledge, as opposing forces manipulate protagonist, usually without them knowing. The protagonist's flaws emerge, and they go through a process of moral self-discovery as hidden elements of their situation are revealed. The protagonist provokes other to take action against him, and a clash for power and shift in balance of power occurs, and the events continue to spiral towards catastrophe. Finally, during Resolution, the protagonist recognises defeat; they become aware of error, and long for a simpler time when life was less complicated. At the very end, defeat occurs due to a character flaw of the protagonist.
After the popularity of film noir died down, neo-noir became an intriguing and up-and-coming genre of film, incorporating noir concepts and aspects. This is seen in the science fiction works of Ridley Scott like 'Blade Runner' (1982), as it's set in noir-esque gritty, dystopian world. The predatory women of Adrian Lyne's 'Fatal Attraction' (1987) are extremely reminiscient of the noir femme fatale. The hard boiled cops of Curtis Hanson's 'L.A. Confidential' (1997) embrace almost all film noir aspects; and the gritty contemporary world of Nicolas Refn Winding's Drive (2011) have a noir storyline, one in which a loner tries to help the world but things catch up with him inevitably.
Thanks for reading this long post, and hopefully film noir will continue to be as 'interessante' as it's been so far!
