In the heist itself, time overlaps, and actions that have already been shown are repeated from another character's point-of-view. The audience is left to pout the pieces together so that we see a character do something and then se how it helps the next action lead to the desired conclusion.
At the racetrack, with the announcement of the start of the fifth race, the film cuts to Johnny, in the words of the voice-over narrator "beginning what might be the last day of his life." Such a voice on the soundtrack emphasizes again the uncertainty of the course of action being taken by these criminals, contributes to the suspense, but also keeps a sense of doom in the film, as if the ending were already known by Fate. From this point until the end of the robbery, the pace of the film speeds up as the camera cuts from one…...
Film Noir
Among the various styles of producing films, it has been observed the noir style is one that has come to be recognized for its uniqueness in characterization, camera work and striking dialogue. Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s were quite well-known for their feminine characters that were the protagonists, the femme fatale. This was most common with the French, later accepted in the United tates. There might have also been reservations over these films probably because of the moral implications and repercussions that such 'dark films' would have in society.
Generally, film Noirs were characterized by the presence of a femme fatale who was the protagonist. The whole movie would revolve around this character because virtually every thing that took place in the movie would involve her (Doane, 1991).
The femme fatale was almost the complete opposite of what a heroine is. A heroine is somewhat a moral, law abiding…...
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Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir 1941-1991, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press: Madison, Teaneck, London (1996)
Take the movie the Maltese Falcon, for example. The character played by Humphrey ogart is not driven by an idealistic approach, but by the financial motivations that different characters will offer him throughout the movie.
At the same time, the main female character is usually the femme fatale type, dangerous, yet attractive, with whom the main male character tends to bond. This is not, however, the usual Hollywood type love story: the characters have a non-committal relationships and, like the other characters, are ready to betray one another if the situation imposes this.
In my opinion, following the definitions of genre and style and the discussion previously presented on this topic, as well as the main assumptions related to the film noir, we can argue that the film noir is a film genre rather than a film style. The main reason for this is the fact that there are several common…...
Film Noir
The 1945 film "Mildred Pierce" is the epitome of film noir, complete with the femme fatale, theme of betrayal and hopelessness and use of flashbacks. hile the 1954 "On the aterfront" also uses the theme of betrayal and hopelessness, it breaks from the film noir genre, and rather than using flashbacks, it is told in present time and the use of the femme fatale is replaced by an unscrupulous union leader.
Both movies possess the theme of family dynamics. In "Mildred Pierce" there is the element of a mother-daughter relationship as well as a forbidden affair between Mildred's second husband and her spoiled daughter from her first marriage, Veda. Sexual tension and melodrama runs throughout the movie: between Mildred and her first husband Bert; between Bert and Maggie Biederhof; between Mildred and second husband, Monte Beragon; between Mildred and her business partner and long-time friend, ally Fay; and between Veda…...
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Work Cited
"On the Waterfront." Elia Kazan. Columbia pictures. 1954
"Mildred Pierce." Michael Curtiz. Warner Brothers. 1945.
The fact that she flirts with gender roles and norms is equally as dangerous. For Corky, the danger is manifest in the potential betrayal and also in the eventual show down between the women and their male captors.
Jessica is portrayed as a more passive figure, as a more classic pre-feminist femme fatale; whereas Violet is a more active figure, a true "postfeminist good-bad girl hybrid." Things happen to Jessica, even the things that seem to happen because of Jessica. The things that happen because of Jessica were not instigated by her. Furthermore, Violet betrays a man for whom the audience has no sympathy; whereas Jessica betrays no one. In Violet's case, though, things happen because of her machinations entirely. She chooses to involve Corky in the scheme; and she chooses to orchestrate the heist. In the end, both Violet and Corky outsmart the bad guys and without being "rescued"…...
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Works Cited
Bronfen, Elisabeth. "Femme Fatale -- Negotiations of Tragic Desire." New Literary History. Vol. 35, No. 1, Winter 2004.
Gundareva, Alesia. "Caricatures of Film Noir in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'"
Harris, Oliver. "Film Noir Fascination: Outside History, but Historically so." Cinema Journal, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 3-24
Holden, Stephen. "Neo-Noir's a Fashion That Fits Only a Few." 1998.
Film Noir / Cinema Architecture
Perhaps one of the most fruitful ways in which to trace the evolution of Film Noir as a genre is to examine, from the genre's heyday to the present moment, the metamorphoses of one of film noir's most reliable tropes: the femme fatale. The notion of a woman who is fundamentally untrustworthy -- and possibly murderous -- is a constant within the genre, perhaps as a way of subverting the standard role that would be played by the female lead in a Hollywood film of the 1930s or 1940s, as a love interest for the hero. The film noir femme fatale in her classic iteration usually functions as a way of complicating sexuality with death: we think of Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) attempting (and failing) to get Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade to overlook her murder of his partner Miles…...
Paranoia, Entrapment, And the Corruption of the American Dream
in Double Indemnity and Detour
Film noir can be described as "murder with a psychological twist" (Spicer 1). As a genre that flourished during the 1940s, film noir came to reflect the anxiety, pessimism, and paranoia that pervaded post-war America (20). In Anatomy of Film, Bernard Dick writes, "The world of film noir is one of paranoia and entrapment, of forces bearing down on the individuals that are too overwhelming to resist." Entrapment and paranoia are prominent concepts in Billy ilder's Double Indemnity and Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour and help to exploit the dark side of the American Dream.
In Double Indemnity, Phyllis Dietrichson, a bored housewife, manipulates alter Neff, an insurance salesman, into securing accident insurance for her husband and helping her kill him. From the moment Phyllis reveals her plan to alter, he becomes a co-conspirator, not because he refuses to participate…...
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Works Cited
Borde, Raymond and Etienne Chaumeton. A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953.
Trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002. Print.
Detour. Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer. United States: Producers Releasing Corporation, 1945. Netflix
film noir movement by examining two films from the genre made at two different times within the movement. This will first mean looking at definitions of what classifies a film as noir and then looking at conventions of the movement such as: story, character and setting. This will explore how production value expresses the story and acts as an important filmic tool. The first movie to be discussed is Double Indemnity; the second film will be Bound. There will also be mention of other films where warranted to prove that noir in its new forms of neo-noir and independent story-telling still exists as a movement within American cinema.
Film Noir as Genre
Before defining the term genre within the filmic context, one must look to one's self for the social, personal and psychological rules in which decisions and expectations are born. Thomas Schatz simply states, "a genre film involved familiar, essentially…...
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Works Cited
Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton. A Panorama of American Film Noir 1941-1953. Ed. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002.
Bound. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, 1996.
Burgwin, Kahlen. "Treacherous beauty portrayed in classic film." University Wire (Feb. 22,2005).
Butler, Jeremy G. "Miami Vice: The Legacy of Film Noir." Journal of Popular Film and Television 13 3 (1985, Fall): p. 129.
omen in Film Noir
hen artists - painters, sculptors, film directors - create a portrait, they are depicting more than what they see in front of them. They are also painting themselves as well as painting their moment in history. These last two may or may not be intentional; indeed they are most usually not intentional. However, every artistic portrait is a window into an entire worldview, as we see can see when we look at the world of film noir and particularly at the way in which women are portrayed in this world. omen in this genre are routinely portrayed by the male directors of most of these films as at least metaphorically food to be devoured by the viewer.
Although it is certainly not an original idea that male artists undress and serve up their female subjects for a variety of different kinds of pleasure, it is still somewhat disturbing…...
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Works Cited
Behar, Ruth. "A Woman's Body is Her Country." J. Of the International Institute 5 (2), Winter 1998.
Kaplan, E. Ann. (ed.) Women in Film Noir. Berkeley: U. Of C. Press, 1998.
Memento as Film Noir
Christopher Nolan's Memento as Film Noir
Film noir rose to prominence in the late 1940s and was at first described as being "murder with a psychological twist (Spicer 1). Since the 1940s, the film noir genre has undergone a few changes, yet the central concepts of the genre remain the same. Christopher Nolan's 2000 film Memento is a neo-noir film that integrates many of the concepts found in traditional film noir into its narrative and editing. Memento utilizes traditional film noir devices such as narrative structure, the opposition of good and evil, setting, lighting, and mise-en-scene to play upon the themes of memory and perception.
Memento follows Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pierce, a former insurance investigator with anterograde amnesia who is on a quest to find the person that helped to rape and kill his wife. During the course of his investigation, Leonard meets Teddy, played by Joe…...
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Works Cited
Borde, Raymond and Etienne Chaumeton. A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953.
Trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002. Print.
Chinatown and Film Noir
The influence of classic film noir on Chinatown
Rising to prominence in the late 1940s and initially described as "murder with a psychological twist," film noir helped to introduce audiences to a new genre that could be distinguished by its subject matter, themes, and stylistic trademarks (Spicer 1). Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanksi and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, helped to redefine the genre while maintaining several aspects of classic film noir. hile Chinatown was released in 1974, it remains a definitive film of the film noir genre and adheres to the "murder with a psychological twist" trope.
The classification of film noir was first used by French film critic Nino Frank to describe a series of four recently released crime thrillers that included The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), and Laura (1944) (Spicer 2). Crime films, including the gangster film…...
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Works Cited
Borde, Raymond and Etienne Chaumeton. A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953.
Trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002. Print.
Los Angeles Aqueduct. From History.com. Web. Accessed 24 June 2011.
Polanski, Roman, dir. Chinatown. Paramount Pictures, 1974. Film.
EuropaThe film Europa by Lars Trier uses the film noir style to create an aesthetic of moral ambiguity, guilt, and innocence: the theme of the film is found in the overwhelming interplay of these three componentsmoral ambiguity, guilt, and innocence. Leo represents innocence and naivety. He is plunked into Germany in 1945 as though by the persuasive powers of narrative voice alone. The film is bookended by a hypnotic sequence, the first setting the viewer on a railroad track racing ahead into Europa; the second setting the viewer in the sinking sleeper with Leo as it fills with water and we are told that we will be dead by the count of 10. Trier as an auteur commands the narrative and the spectacle in this way: he is deliberately making a point about the complexities of the film noir tradition and how it raises such overwhelming questions. For a truly…...
Act of Violencea Film Noir Whose Advertising Promises Something for All: Pretty Gals for the Male Gaze, and Domestic Drama for the LadiesIntroductionAct of Violence is an American noir film released in 1949 by MGM Studios, directed by Fred Zinnemann. The film follows two main characters - Frank Enley, an American expat of WWII and a squad leader - and Joe Parkson, an expat himself and an underling of Frank; his once best friend turned enemy after an excruciating ordeal set into motion by Frank himself. The film follows an atypical noir formula, depicting both characters and both sides of the story at once, leaving the audience to deduce the story themselves through the scenes the characters go through. However, the marketing of Act of Violence tells another story. Throughout MUCH of the marketing material, the three female characters in the movie are featured PROMINENTLY - the extent of which…...
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7. Accessed 3 Mar 20228. https://www.nytimes.com/1949/01/24/archives/act-of-violence-a-metro-film-with-van-heflin-janet-leigh-new.html Accessed 3 Mar 20229. https://www.proquest.com/docview/177670289/177A2BE058484E2FPQ/1?accountid=14523 Accessed 3 Mar 202210. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/americancinemato29unse_0268 Accessed 3 Mar 2022https://www.ebay.com/itm/262066198880?hash=item3d045cd960:g:aGUAAOSwsB9WBiQI
Too Late for TearsAs the title of the 1948 film noir suggests, Too Late for Tears the unrepentant pursuit of ill-gotten wealth by one nobody named Jane. Jane and Alan and middle-class Americans; Alan is okay with thatJane is not. She chafes at the condescension of her wealthier peers, and the opening sequence of the film centers on her griping about having to spend another evening with one of their rich friends. The sequence is set on the open road, as Jane and Alan head to a party. Jane becomes so filled with anxiety and resentment that she tries to force Alan to turn back. In doing so, she causes Alan to swerve and the lights of the car flicker on and off. As fate would have it, there just so happens to be another car pulled off to the side of the road waiting for exactly such a signal.…...
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BibliographyPlace, Janey A., and Lowell S. Peterson. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Some visual motifs of film noir.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" Film Comment 10, no. 1 (1974): 30.Schrader, Paul. “Notes on Film Noir,” Film Comment (1972), vol. 8 no. 1, 9.Thomas, Deborah. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"How Hollywood deals with the deviant male.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" The Movie Book of Film Noir (1992): 59-70.
Sunset Boulevard is a classic film noir produced in 1950 and directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with the murder of Joe Gillis, a floundering screenwriter who ends up dead in a swimming pool. "Poor dope," the voice over says. "He'd always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, only the price turned out to be a little high." The voice over, delivered in classic film noir style, turns out to be none other than Gillis himself. Far from being an unreliable narrator, though, Gillis promises "the facts" and delivers. The entire film Sunset Boulevard is the retelling of "the facts" from Gillis's perspective. Wilder's choice of narration is dutifully ironic, as a failed filmmaker becomes famous. The theme of the movie is reminiscent of the Great Gatsby, with its peek at American decadence and lost dreams. Because it offers rich social commentary, Sunset…...
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References
Armstrong, R. (2000). Billy Wilder: American Film Realist. NC: McFarland & Co.
Smoodin, E. (1983). The image and the voice in the film with spoken narration. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8(4): 19-32.
Wilder, B. (1950). Sunset Boulevard. Feature film.
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