Film Noire

[3v1l |\/|1NiOn]

what is it?!

i need some facts about it for an essay, yet i have no clue what it is or where to find any information about it...

help!

[Space Prawn]

Film Noir is classic. The Big Sleep, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, these are stories of thirties to fifties America where women are called Dames and private eyes are called Gumshoes. They deal with themes like crime, corruption and moral victory. The hero either saves the day or dies.

The hero is always gritty, smokes a lot, likes to get drunk, easily led around by 'broads', especially Phillip Marlow of The Big Sleep. You know those classic Hollywodd lines like 'play it again, Sam?' they're from Film Noir. There are always wide-angle camera shots to capture the atmosphere of a seedy underworld where corruption is rife. Everyone smokes.

Modern Film Noir would be LA Confidential (especially this) and to a lesser extent, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Recommended viewing:
- The Big Sleep
- Citizen Kane
- Casablanca
- LA Confidential
- The Usual Suspects
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
- Snatch
- Scarface (YOU MUST F*CKING SEE THIS)

[queenofself]

Im doing a course on film noir at the moment. weve got a pretty crap teacher but still.

its quite an elusive concept in some ways so its hard to define. most people say its confined to 1941-58 with neo-noir then occurring in the 70's with films like chinatown.

weve been told most of the textual contexts are labyrinthine plots mostly to do with crime & murder, betrayal, (often retrospective) voiceover, flashback, also the femme fatale and the hard-boiled detective (the philip marlowe type). they often have very sexual undertones, due to the femme fatale bit, & its shown in a sophisticated, subtle way mostly. especially because of the hayes? code.

as for the visual its often harsh black & white contrast, shadow, neon lights, obscure framing & the like.

the main book on our reading list is james naremore's more than night which has plenty of good information if you can get hold of it.

the films we have to watch are

Build My Gallows High/Out of the Past 1947 (dir. Jaques Tourneur)

Double Indemnity (1944 dir. Billy Wilder)

Murder, My Sweet (1945, dir Edward Dmytryk)

Scarlet Street (1945, dir. Fritz Lang)

Mildred Pierce (1945, dir, Michael Curtiz)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (youll have to ask google!)

The Naked City (1948, dir Jules Dassin)

The Big Combo (1955, dir Joseph H Lewis)

Chinatown (1974, dir Roman Polanski)

Mulholland Drive (2001, dir David Lynch)

I do american studies so these are all american, i dont know if film noir differs much in other countries.

failing this theres always the internet movie database!
hope this helps!

edit: i forgot to say theres also often the decline of the main male protagonist often due to the manipulation of him by the femme fatale character. there are hardly ever happy endings (farewell my lovely - one of the philip marlowe ones - kind of has one though when it ends with him getting with the femme fatale's step-daughter!) more often than not they end fairly unresolved or resolved only in death & decline

[djnrrd]

Dunno much about Film Noir, but James Cameron tried to update it in the 80s with Tech Noir in Terminator.

He took some of the stylings and moods of Film Noir and added a SciFi bent to it and the rest is history. Of course one might say that Ridley Scott did this with Blade Runner earlier.

Note: Cameron called the nightclub in Terminator Tech Noir also.

[Space Prawn]

Has anyone seen the original Blade Runner? The one with Deckard's narration? Cuz I've the directors cut without it and it just sucks the bum.

Dude above is right... Blade Runner is film-noir. Future-Noir, if you will. Based on the novel 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep,' which I haven't actually read, and am unaware as to whether that's a Raymond Chandler-style noir novella.

[Dibbie]

Another modern movie with huge amounts of noir flavouring is Payback starring Mel Gibson - well worth checking out.

[l33t k1w1]

Have a chunk from my essay about The Matrix.

The movie has been called ‘Neo-Noir’ – a modern film with its roots set deep within the Film Noir genre. Such elements of Noir in The Matrix are hard lines and shadows of darkness, which are seen often, especially in the Dojo scene. Low lighting, as well as projected shadows reflect the influence of Noir. Reflections are also clearly present in this film, as they were in such films as Citizen Kane and The Lady From Shanghai (1948). These are an important part of any type of filmmaking as they present a subtleness and mysteriousness, which contributes to the “dark and ominous Noir Style”.

And another...

Chiaroscuro lighting is very apparent in many scenes, again giving a great sense of alienation with its Noir-like high angle shots. The entire film is very dark and rainy, either set in green (representing The Matrix) and blue (representing the Real World) lighting. Previous Noir movies such as Citizen Kane by Orson Welles (1941) and Rope by Alfred Hitchcock (1948) were key motivators and influences on The Matrix as mentioned by producer Joel Silver, editor Zach Staenberg and Effects Supervisor John Gaeta. These people had the Noir template in consideration when writing and editing this film.

And here's a handy bibilography entry if you do use them..

Hancock, Matt. BDM105: Assignment 3 – Editing Essay ~ The Matrix. Southern Institute of Technology, 2003.

[RamblinYeti]

for my a2 media course im studying sci-fi and its amazing how manysci fi films coross over into film nor-eg blade runner and minority report