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Film NoirTV Studies 1A - 2013

Rita Hayward

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Film noir indicates a darker perspective upon life than what was standard in classical Hollywood films and concentrates upon human depravity, failure and despair. The term also implies a cinematic style: a way of lighting, of positioning and moving the camera, of using retrospective voice-over narration. Its narrative often relies heavily on flashbacks and choice of setting—usually a run down, urban landscape, a world gone wrong.…

The Big Combo, Joseph H. Lewis (1955)

FILM NOIR(black film or black cinema)

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The Dark mood and distortion of German Expressionism influenced the model of Film Noir. The angst and disillusionment was carried over.

Street Lantern, Lyonel Feininger (1918)

FILM NOIR

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FRITZ LANG’S METROPOLIS (1927)

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Film noir has stylistic and thematic antecedents in American hardboiled fiction of the 1920s and 1930s, German expressionist films of the 1920s, American horror films and radio dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, and French cinema of the 1930s.Its first cycle ran from the 1940s to the late 1950s.

FILM NOIR

M, Fritz Lang (1931)

Peter Lorre in ‘M’ (1931)

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FILM NOIR

Brigitte Bardot in La Verité, Henri-Georges Clouzot (1960)

Marlene Dietrich 1901 - 1992

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After 1960, neo- noir films have included a component contrasting the earlier films: a conflicted nostalgia for the post–World War II era evoked in references to the period's socio-cultural atmosphere as well as to its filmmaking practices.

FILM NOIR

Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless, Godard (1960)

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Codes & Conventions

FILM NOIR

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FILM NOIR - CINEMATOGRAPHY

Low & High Angles

Direct lighting resulting in high contrast and deep shadows

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FILM NOIR - CINEMATOGRAPHY

Extreme Close Ups

Deep Focus

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FILM NOIR - CINEMATOGRAPHY

Use of Dutch tilts or irregular framing of shots

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FILM NOIR - MISE-EN-SCENE

Rain and damp streets

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FILM NOIR - MISE-EN-SCENE

Low Key Lighting (Chiarascuro) Use of venetian blindsHigh contrast images Cigarette smoking

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FILM NOIR - CHARACTERS

Two Film Noir characters that appear with regularity are the Private Eye and the deadly Femme Fetale.

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FILM NOIR - NARRATIVES

Crooks - Amnesia - Black widow - Psychological - Heists - Double CrossesGangsters - Sin and punishment - Downward spiral - One wrong decisionMurder - Drugs - Whodunnit - Sexual obsession - Anti Heroes

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FILM NOIR - SOUND + MUSIC

• Melancholy downbeat music (Jazz)

• Orchestral (strings)

• Use of quiet and silence Often discordant and grating music Voice over or narration by protagonist Sound effects and ambience of the city & suburbia

Film Noir sound was often used to complete a feeling of pessimism and foreboding.

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FILM NOIR - EDITING

•Non –linear start at the end, then tell story in flashbacksOften shot day for night using filters. Makes productions cheaper.generally make use of continuity editing (smooth transition of time and space). Some montage in dynamic sequencesUsing jump cuts and jarring juxtaposition sometimes to under-scribe a psychological stateOccasional use of CU then move out to reveal action

Film Noir editing follows many of the traditional crime characteristics but they are generally told non linearly

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The Maltese Falcon, John Huston (1941)

FILM NOIRA private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

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Orson Well’s Citizen Cane (1941)Kane’s character was based on the reclusive and enigmatic newspaper magnet William Randolph Hearst.

FILM NOIR

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Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder (1944)

Smooth talking insurance salesman Walter Neff meets attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and an affair begins. They cook up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go to plan...

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The Big Sleep, Howard Hawks (1944)Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

FILM NOIR

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A private detective (Jack Nicholson) investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water distribution.

FILM NOIR

Chinatown, Roman Polanski (1974)

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