Introduction to Film - Genre Study I

FILM NOIR

Film NoirFilm Noir - literally “BLACK FILM” – is a French phrase, but it refers to an American

cinematic phenomenon made in Hollywood. These films are considered “downbeat”; they

focused on the dark sides of life. They violated the traditional narrative and stylistic practices

of classical Hollywood cinema that oriented and stabilized audiences. Noir films created an

uncomfortable and disturbing malaise or anxiety in their viewers and are sometimes referred

to as “feel bad movies.” The time period typically associated with NOIR films is the early

1940’s – the late 1950’s. FILM NOIR was categorized retrospectively. Noir did not have this

title while directors were creating them during this time period. Noir directors of the time

were not necessarily intentionally trying to create films that fit into a specific category.

Instead, they were simply creating films that reflected much of the sentiment of the time.

FILM NOIR &

PULP FICTION

The source material for the bulk

of NOIR narratives came from the

underworld of American pulp

fiction. For example, nearly 20%

of FILM NOIRS between 1941

and 1948 were adaptations of

hard-boiled detective novels.

FILM NOIR deals with a uniquely

American experience of wartime

and post-war despair and

alienation as a disoriented

America readjusts to a new social

and political reality. These issues

were highlighted in the pulp fiction

of the time.

GENRE

In film theory, FILM GENRES are forms or identifiable types,

categories, classifications, or groups of films that are recurring and

have similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, syntax, filmic

techniques or conventions – that include one or more of the following:

settings, content and subject matter, themes, mood, period, plot, central

narrative events, motifs, styles, structures, situations, recurring icons,

stock characters and archetypes, and stars. Many films are considered

hybrids – they straddle several film genres.

NOIR as GENRE

Though most critics and historians regard NOIR as a MODE of

film practice whose identity resides chiefly in its ability to make

audiences uneasy, there is considerable disagreement over

what exactly FILM NOIR is. A number of recent scholars treat

NOIR as a GENRE, discussing it in terms of its iconography

(dark city streets glistening at night with fresh rain, for example),

fixed character types (tough guy, anti-heroes ensnared by

treacherous femme fatales), and predictable narrative patterns

(murder plots and criminal investigations in which the hero’s

moral fallibility leads to his victimization and/or defeat at the

hands of his enemies, and often results in his death or in an

otherwise unhappy ending). For those who view it as a genre,

FILM NOIR relies on a well-defined system of conventions and

expectations.

AESTHETIC MOVEMENT

Viewing specific films as part of a particular AESTHETIC MOVEMENT requires individuals to analyze the STYLISTIC ELEMENTS of the film – what the film looks like.

In the case of FILM NOIR, this AESTHETIC or STYLE was characterized by low-key lighting; deep-focus cinematography; distorting, wide-angle lenses; sequence shots; disorienting mise-en-scene; tension-inducing, oblique, and vertical compositional lines; jarring juxtapositions between shots involving extreme changes in camera angle or screen size; and claustrophobic framing. The cinematography reinforces the darkness in the plot and theme. Long, sharp shadows are used in FILM NOIR, as well as inky blackness. Tilted camera angles suggest a sense of claustrophobia, and emphasize a nocturnal world. Sets have a gloomy feel. NOIR films often take place indoors - in spaces with low-key lighting. Blinds often obscure windows. Exterior scenes include streets and alleys, dark and wet. Flashing neon signs were popular to use in FILM NOIR. These types of sets were partially due to war-time scarcity. The characters will often be seen in murky streets, cheap city apartments or hotel rooms, or abandoned warehouses. These movies are often based on situations based in reality – usually crime and espionage. They are set in urban areas and deliberately have a realistic feel. They are produced in a semi-documentary style to suggest the darkness of reality.

MODE

Discussing films as being representative of specific

MODEs is focusing on the specific emotional reactions

produced by certain films in an audience. Some films can

be categorized as affective phenomena that produce

certain emotional responses in people. MODES are the

way stories are told in order to elicit certain reactions.

MODES transcend time; there are no limiting temporal

properties in that they are not bound to one time period.

FILM NOIR AS A MODE

The emotional reaction audiences experience when viewing NOIR films is uneasiness and anxiety. We feel displacement. We feel temporally uncertain.

Those who view NOIR not as a genre, but rather as a MODE believe that films do not need to be NOIR from start to finish. Instead, the characterization requires only a single character, situation, or scene that is NOIR to produce the disturbance or disorientation that is necessary to give the audience the unsettling twist or distressing jolt. NOIR thus emerges as an adjectivial attribute or characteristic, functioning in the same way “tragic” or “comic” might. NOIR becomes a description of tone, attitude, or mood.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FILM

NOIR: FATALISM

FATALISTIC ATTITUDE:

Fatalism is the acceptance of all

things and events as inevitable;

submission to fate. In NOIR films, a

character will often feel like his/her

life is pre-ordained and that free will

is an illusion. This film noir

characteristic was influenced by the

international conflicts of the time and

powerlessness to avoid them that

many Americans felt

CHARACTERISTICS OF FILM

NOIR: FATALISM

This FATALISM is often

expressed by one transgression

that spirals out of control. The

average citizen character makes

a mistake that snowballs into

much greater problems. Every

attempt at correction just makes

everything worse. This is often

called a SPIDER WEB OF

DECEIT in FILM NOIR. It can

suggest hysteria and panic. Also,

FATALISM is expressed in the

NOIR characters who are

innocent victims of circumstance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FILM

NOIR: EXISTENTIALISMEXISTENTIALISM is a philosophy

that is often considered a product of

post-WWII Europe. This philosophy

states that there is no defined

purpose in life, there is no defined

morality, there is no defined meaning.

People must create their own

meaning through exercising their free

will, making choices, and committing

to and accepting the consequences of

those choices. In this way, people

create their essence. For

existentialists, existence precedes

essence. A man’s essence is how he

defines himself and the meaning he

ascribes to his life. Existentialists

often felt alone in a hostile world.

They felt anxious and isolated; they

believed that there was a futility to life

because there was no external

authority/purpose/meaning/morality.

AMERICAN EXISTENTIALISM

IN NOIR

AMERICAN EXISTENTIALSIM in

FILM NOIR is evident in the films

through themes of isolation, anxiety,

futility, and death in the thrilling

context of the urban crime thriller.

NOIR films present a world of doom.

Characters grapple with the futility of

individual action; the alienation,

loneliness, and isolation of the

individual in an industrialized mass

society; the problematic choice

between being and nothingness; the

absurdity, meaninglessness, and

purposelessness of life; the

arbitrariness of social justice, which

results in individual despair leading to

chaos, violence, and paranoia.

NOIR SETTING:

CORRUPT METROPOLIS

Noir settings are dark and reflect a lack of defined morality. Many noir

films are set in an urban area that is full of crime and immorality. In

these films, the city serves as a character itself, one which the

protagonist needs to fight against. Consider Gotham City or the urban

settings in the neo-noir film Sin City.

NOIR ARCHETYPES:

THE NOIR HEROThe male protagonists/heroes of film noir are often cynical, brooding,

and obsessive. They lead a seamy existence as private detectives,

gangsters, or government agents, among others. In a world without

morality, the protagonists often must make a choice that goes against

their values. They believe that any choice – exercising free will – is

better than remaining passive – even if that choice is defiant. This

choice could be criminal or motivated by lust or even one that results in

another’s death. In film noir, the struggle these characters undergo

often ends in failure. The noir hero feels isolated. He suffers from social

estrangement

NOIR ARCHETYPES:

HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE

The HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE is

the most iconic noir hero. Because

noir films presented a very different

view of the world, directors and

writers needed to create a

completely different hero to exist in

that world. These heroes are often

as amoral, ruthless, and greedy as

the criminals they worked to defeat.

These heroes often show a lack of

compassion and even a cruelty.

Their heroism does not lie in any

innate goodness or concern for

justice, but in their personal code of

loyalty, professional responsibility,

and integrity.

NOIR ARCHETYPES:

HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE

The noir detective does not rely on the powers of

deductive reasoning , acute observation, or scientific

method to solve their cases, but rather on dogged

perseverance, animal cunning, physical stamina, and

brute force. Noir heroes are often considered to have

weak intellect. This detective is often a brawny proletariat

(working class or low class). They often try to make up for

their lack of intellect with their control of language and use

of VERBAL WIT. This wit enabled them to enjoy an edge

over their opponents. Their world was a no-nonsense

world. They had directness, they relied on linear logic.

NOIR CHARACTER ARCHETYPES:

THE NOIR HERO

Typical noir heroes do not need to be HARD-BOILED DETECTIVES, although they often are because the social alienation of those figures in that profession makes them archetypal noir protagonists. Often they are merely ANTISOCIAL LONERS, sometimes DRIFTERS or TRAMPS. But even the gainfully employed can be subject to a certain deadpan- existential angst, especially given their relatively faceless anonymity in a larger, dehumanizing work environment.

Perhaps the most existential of all NOIR HEROES is the AMNESIAC who possesses only enigmatic clues to his identity. The amnesiac epitomizes the social estrangement and psychological confusion that had settled in the formerly healthy American psyche after the war. Audiences established a troubled identification with these heroes who had become cut-off from their own pasts and whose identity crises mirrored those of the nation as a whole.

NOIR CHARACTER ARCHETYPES:

THE PROLETARIAN TOUGH GUY

This character is a working class man who achieves his

toughness by repressing all signs of weakness in himself. All

weakness, for him is associated with the feminine. He represses

“feminine virtues,” like feelings, and heightens “masculine

virtues,” like loyalty to a professional code and facing problems

with aggression and dominance. These men reject their

“feminine side.”

WOMEN IN FILM NOIRWOMEN AS SOCIAL MENACE: The threat that women and the feminine posed

to the noir hero presented itself on two different fronts – the socioeconomic and

the psychoanalytic. On the socioeconomic front, the changing status of

American women during the war and postwar period challenged male

dominance. The entry of women into the workforce and their taking over of

traditional male roles violated the fundamental order of sexual relations.

Previously middle-class women were confined to the home, where they took

care of the domestic needs of the family, while men were able to move back and

forth freely between the home and the workplace.

WOMEN AS

SOCIAL MENACE

These changes posed a threat to traditional values, which centered in the institution of the family. Film Noir registered the anti-feminist backlash by providing a picture of postwar America in which there is no family or in which the family exists chiefly as a negative phenomenon. In noir, the family was either non-existent or negative. It was characterized either as a claustrophobic, emasculating trap or as a bankrupt system of perfunctory relationships, featuring murderous wives and corrupt children. Film noir dramatized the consequences of the neglect of family people believed was happening as a result of women entering the workforce, transforming women into willful creatures intent on destroying both their mates and the sacred institution of family. Traditionally, Hollywood had taken great efforts to shield the family from the world of crime. In film noir, crime moved from outside the family to within it, and the impetus for crime came as often from women as from men.

WOMEN AS

SOCIAL MENACE

The destruction of the family was evident in extreme ways within NOIR

films. Wives murdered husbands. Children committed crimes,

sometimes even violent crimes. These deviations from standard moral

values were a reaction to the perceived threat to society prompted by

women claiming independence.

WOMEN IN FILM NOIR

WOMEN AS PSYCHOLOGICAL TERROR – The

psychoanalytical front reflected women in film noir who

presented a psychic threat to the typically insecure noir

hero. Basically, it is a fear of symbolic castration – of

emasculation. Hollywood tried to allay this fear through a

process called DISAVOWAL in which the female’s

“castrating status” was denied. This denial could be

achieved either through fetishization, or through her

devaluation, or both.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL

DESTRUCTION OF WOMEN

Fetishization is creating the

image of women as

overvalued, often through

the use of lingering close-

ups, soft lighting,

glamorous costumes, or

other techniques that

transformed her into a

spectacle and not a human.

In becoming pure

spectacle, she is

objectified. The woman

becomes an object of male

desire and fantasy.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

DESTRUCTION OF WOMEN

Devaluation is creating the image of the woman as guilty object. These

women were often objects of male investigations into the original

source of their guilt. These woman are “fallen women.” They are first

punished and then later, having revealed their guilty secrets, rescued.

FEMME FATALE

In film noir, women are

routinely devalued by the

male protagonists, who feel

threatened by them. Thus,

women in film noir tended

to be characterized as

FEMME FATALES, intent

on “castrating” or otherwise

destroying the male

protagonist. This archetype

is also called a SPIDER

WOMAN.

FEMME FATALE

The FEMME FATALE, or

the “deadly woman,” is a

woman who exploits the

weaknesses of men to her

own advantage. These

characters are sexy,

mysterious, duplicitous,

double-crossing, unloving,

predatory, tough-sweet,

unreliable, irresponsible,

manipulative and

sometimes desperate.

MENACED WOMAN

Another female role

common in film noir is the

MENACED WOMAN. If the

main character is female,

she will often be tormented

psychologically or

physically by a man,

usually a love interest.

COMMON STYLISTIC

ELEMENTSTHE NARRATIVE VOICEOVER was very common in film noir. This is

due to the popularity of Freudian thought at the time. The voice-over

narration film noir characteristic represents psychological reflection and

introspection by a character.

CRITIQUE OF POPULISM

The destabilization of sexual relationships found in film noir is symptomatic of a larger social disorder. Prior to WWII, American society had been held together by various myths that structured its identity as a nation. These myths rested, in large part, on the principles of Jeffersonian democracy, which assumed a fundamental equality based on the universal ownership of property. This equality through ownership concept provided a fundamental principle for 19th century American Expansionist theory, the motivation for western settlement, which became a realization of America’s manifest destiny. But the closing of the frontier, the exhaustion of free land, and the rapid industrialization of America began a slow process of social change

CRITIQUE OF POPULISM

The agrarian ideal gave way to an industrialized mass society. By 1920, for the first time in American history, more people lived in urban areas than in rural ones. The old middle class consisting of shop owners, formers, and other property keepers gave way to a new middle class dominated by hourly wage workers, who owned neither land nor homes.

Though millions of laborers lived this new reality, they continued to subscribe to the old, pre-industrial era myths. It was only after the Depression that the power of these myths began to waver. Film noir reflects a transitional stage in American ideology and American identity shifted from 19th century, preindustrial, agrarian prototypes to 20th

century models that acknowledged the nation’s transformation into a mass consumer society and an industrialized, corporate state.

Characters in noir are products of post-war consumerist society. Film noir captured the emptiness of these people’s world. As a movement, it reflected the chaotic period in which old myths began to crumble and no new myths were there to take their place – the period in which national identity was in crisis.

NOIR suggested that American innocence had been lost and could not easily be recaptured.