Wednesday 22 September 2010
Film Noir Characteristics
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment
, disenchantment, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. These reflected the mind sets of the pessimistic people of the time as Communism and McCarthyism threatened the American way of life as well as the social shift in male and female roles and the aftermath of WW2.
Heroes (or anti-heroes) are flawed or corrupt characters, they were down-and-out, conflicted detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals and murderers. The protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lives from the dark and gloomy underworld, they were cynical, brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive usually losing in the end. It was these players in the noir world that inspired the term “hard boiled” as they were constantly in hot water.
The femme fatale would play a crucial role in the film noir, whether in the guise of Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street, Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia, or Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. These women earned the nick-name: “black widows” as they slowly drew in the heroes with come-hither looks and breathless voices and when they fulfilled their purpose they abandoned their mates to their fates or disposed of them themselves. The femme fatale knew how to use men to get whatever she wanted, whether it was just a little murder between lovers (as in Double Indemnity) or a wild, on-the-run lifestyle (Gun Crazy).
Narratives were complex and maze-like, and always told with foreboding background music, short flashbacks, sharp snappy dialogue and often included confessional first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the hero was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent “Everyman” who fell victim to temptation, framed, made one wrong decision or was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time e.g. Detour (1945). Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.
Expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing ominous shadows, skewed camera angles ( the Dutch angle) cigarette smoke and unbalanced or moody compositions were all essential to a film noir picture and defined the genre. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting.
Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent
apartments and hotel rooms of big cities. Dark rooms with light slicing through venetian blinds, alleys cluttered with garbage, abandoned warehouses where dust hangs in the air, rain-slickened streets with water still running in the gutters, dark detective offices overlooking busy streets, such setting were uncomfortably realistic and it made the action and story all the more believable. All of these elements were put together to
emphasise the claustrophobia and dankness of a modern city (1940’s perspective of modern)
Film noir can be mixed with almost any other genre, usually from the crime and detective genres, but often joining with thrillers, horror, science fiction and even comedy like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). The visual style of German expressionism, painting shafts of light and low key lighting can be applied to any situation where discomfort, paranoia and threat need to be emphasized in a story.
, disenchantment, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. These reflected the mind sets of the pessimistic people of the time as Communism and McCarthyism threatened the American way of life as well as the social shift in male and female roles and the aftermath of WW2.Heroes (or anti-heroes) are flawed or corrupt characters, they were down-and-out, conflicted detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals and murderers. The protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lives from the dark and gloomy underworld, they were cynical, brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive usually losing in the end. It was these players in the noir world that inspired the term “hard boiled” as they were constantly in hot water.
The femme fatale would play a crucial role in the film noir, whether in the guise of Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street, Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia, or Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. These women earned the nick-name: “black widows” as they slowly drew in the heroes with come-hither looks and breathless voices and when they fulfilled their purpose they abandoned their mates to their fates or disposed of them themselves. The femme fatale knew how to use men to get whatever she wanted, whether it was just a little murder between lovers (as in Double Indemnity) or a wild, on-the-run lifestyle (Gun Crazy).
Narratives were complex and maze-like, and always told with foreboding background music, short flashbacks, sharp snappy dialogue and often included confessional first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the hero was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent “Everyman” who fell victim to temptation, framed, made one wrong decision or was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time e.g. Detour (1945). Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.
Expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing ominous shadows, skewed camera angles ( the Dutch angle) cigarette smoke and unbalanced or moody compositions were all essential to a film noir picture and defined the genre. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting.
Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent
apartments and hotel rooms of big cities. Dark rooms with light slicing through venetian blinds, alleys cluttered with garbage, abandoned warehouses where dust hangs in the air, rain-slickened streets with water still running in the gutters, dark detective offices overlooking busy streets, such setting were uncomfortably realistic and it made the action and story all the more believable. All of these elements were put together to
emphasise the claustrophobia and dankness of a modern city (1940’s perspective of modern) Film noir can be mixed with almost any other genre, usually from the crime and detective genres, but often joining with thrillers, horror, science fiction and even comedy like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). The visual style of German expressionism, painting shafts of light and low key lighting can be applied to any situation where discomfort, paranoia and threat need to be emphasized in a story.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
WELCOME
Greetings and welcome to my blog, my name is Caroline and this blog will track my progress through my AS coursework and display my research and finished project.
Here is a brief of what I will be doing this year:-
My objectives include producing a film noir opening sequence with a group, writing a treatment and synopsis of my own film noir storyline and completing a blog that shows all my working and research of film noir. My main aim is to produce a film opening, the theme is “contemporary ‘film noir’thrillers”. My work will update the noir genre but to bring the values, traditions, narrative, mood and conventions of film noir to a new audience in contemporary style and setting. I will consider and mention what sort of institution it would sit within and the cinemas and distribution pattern the film would have film and also where it will sit best in the television schedules and on which TV station it would be most suited to.
Here is a brief of what I will be doing this year:-
My objectives include producing a film noir opening sequence with a group, writing a treatment and synopsis of my own film noir storyline and completing a blog that shows all my working and research of film noir. My main aim is to produce a film opening, the theme is “contemporary ‘film noir’thrillers”. My work will update the noir genre but to bring the values, traditions, narrative, mood and conventions of film noir to a new audience in contemporary style and setting. I will consider and mention what sort of institution it would sit within and the cinemas and distribution pattern the film would have film and also where it will sit best in the television schedules and on which TV station it would be most suited to.
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