Lesson 6: Notes about Film Noir

Repetition of elements makes a genre. Some argue that film noir should be a genre, due to repetitions in plot, character, iconography, but it is too similar to another genre (thriller) to be categorised as its own. What distinguishes film noir from thriller is its style and overall appearance (storyline and character may fall into the thriller genre).

In film noir, the most significant feature is the strong emphasis and dramatic use of light and dark (lighting and shadows), as it gives a lot of suggestions to storyline, characters, relationships, and often foreshadows what will be happening next. The storyline is meant to reflect something bigger in society. Double Indemnity adopts a non-linear storyline, and the story is dictated to the audience. There are a lot of plot twists, which makes the audience feel uneasy and unsure about who to trust / the true identity of characters.

"Happiness is fleeting in noir films; worse yet, it is a cruel illusions, a twist of fate which promises power, sex, and money but which delivers only suffering."

Film noir reflects the culture of the time - Post World War II - the misery of society / social outcasts / depressing atmosphere. It is a term coined by French critics to categorise American films from the 1940's to the 1960's which presented a gloomy, pessimistic world view. The contemporary version of film noir is called Neo noir.

German Expressionism is another film style that came before Film Noir, which also uses strong contrasts between light and dark. 

Historical Background: World War II caused great changes in American society and had a great impact on cinema. When looking at films, look at its historical background and cultural setting. Though victorious, American soldiers returned to an aftermath of social frustration caused by the atrocities of war, industrial disputes, race riots, fear of the atomic bomb, and changing gender roles (because all the men went to war).

The Noir World
External |
Exterior Settings, Dark, mean streets of the big city, or a too perfect Los Angeles, with its beaches, apartments, palm-lined trees;
Interior Settings: Nightclubs, cafes, police stations, haunts of the underworld.

Internal |
Violence, trauma, nightmares of the hero's mind - often they are depictions of the protagonist's mental state.

Cinematography

• Hard / undiffused look
• Looks like a tabloid newspaper
• Cluttered, dark, claustrophobic interiors framed or restricted by camera frame
• Many night scenes
• Dutch angle and deep focus shots
• Stark light / dark contrasts
• Low key lighting
• Bleak, fatalistic overtones of despair / madness
• Heightened expressionistic scenes with elements distorted / grotesque / exaggerated 

Iconography (things you expect to see in the film)

• Telephones
• Voice recorders
• Newspapers
• Dark sidewalks
• Rain-drenched streets
• Flashing neon lights
• Fairgrounds & Carnivals 
• The city as a villain / dangerous / hostile 
• The border town or casino
• Imagery of water and alcohol that represent merging and release 

General Principles

• World of film noir is where protagonist is "out of his depth"
• Film noir recognises people's inherent capacity for disaster
• Actions of the protagonist leave the viewer with a sense of moral ambiguity and a sense of "the lesser of two evils" (you feel sorry for the bad guy - antiheroes)
• Protagonist is isolated; he fights alone yet must be part of society
• Protagonist earns his own damnation / redemption
• Film noir often ends with a sense of futility / meaninglessness

Plot Structure

> Set Up

• Protagonist on the edge of a world of dubious values
• Protagonist has maintained integrity and is in control of his situation
• Protagonist uneasily accepts the status quo 

> Conflict

• Protagonist drawn into a situation for ambiguous motives (sexuality, money)
• Protagonist acts according to experience, but without complete knowledge
• Opposing forces manipulation protagonist, usually without him knowing
• Protagonist's flaws emerge. Goes through process of moral self-discovery as hidden elements of his situation are revealed. 
• Protagonist provokes others to take action against him.
• Clash for power / shift in balance of power occurs. 
• Movement continues towards catastrophe.

> Resolution 

• Recognised defeat, protagonist aware of error and longs for a simpler time when life was less complicated
• Defeat occurs due to a character flaw 

The protagonists of the stories may be cool private eyes, newspaper reporters, victims of deception, good men / women gone wrong, hard-core criminals, often driven by obsession with women. No expression in voices. Frequent images of olden men connected to the Female Fatale.

Characteristics

• Low-key lighting 
• Unique angles of throw - makes character more grotesque, can symbolise one's power over another. Shows who the character is on the inside. 
• Equal lighting on setting and character
• Deep focus - to reveal secrets to the audience
• Internal Framing / Masking (frames) - show entrapment ("internal prison) in the world they are in 
• Compositional Balance with Mirrors - to reveal to the audience what the character can't see, symbolises the duality of character, suggesting that there is an alternative aspect to that character
• Oblique Angles - use of lines - often foreshadows criminal activity - lines symbolise prison 
• Unconventional Camera Angles - to show the characters' power 
• Dutch Angles - to make characters look superior / vulnerable, and make the audience feel uncomfortable since its unconventional / not horizontal

Story Essential Motifs

• Love of romantic narration (voice-over) - irretrievable past
• Complex chronological order - hopelessness and lost time
• Flashback --> denies effect of progress
• Flawed leading man
• "Femme Fatale" - woman who lures protagonist from stability to lawless disorder

Themes

• People have turned to paranoia and claustrophobia
• Passion for the past and present, but also a fear of the future
• No one can be trusted
• The world is unforgiving and hopeless