Adam Garwood

1. Adam Garwood

2. Definition of classic noir • Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941)and Murder, My Sweet (1944).A wide range of films reflected the resultant tensions and insecurities of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are readily evident in noir, reflecting the 'chilly' Cold War period when the threat of nuclear annihilation was ever-present. The criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were a metaphoric symptom of society's evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict, purposelessness and sense of injustice. There were rarely happy or optimistic endings in noirs. • Sources: • http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

3. Source- imdb History of classic noir (timeline) The Big Sleep (1946) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Fury (1936) Laura (1944) Rififi (1955) Touch of evil (1958) The narrow margin (1952) Maltese falcon (1941) Notorious (1946) The Third Man (1949)

4. Main protagonists • Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption • For example: Samuel Spade in the Maltese Falcon is a classic example of the types of main characters there are in classic noir films. Here is the trailer showing the character of Sam Spade in more detail. • Sources: • filmsite.org • video from youtube

5. Definition from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/femme+fatale Femme Fatale • The clip on the previous slide also shows another main protagonist in a classic noir film. The femme fatale. A femme fatal is A woman of great seductive charm who leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. They are usually considered to be alluring and mysterious. For instants in the Maltese Falcon we see Brigid O'Shaughnessy as the obvious femme fatal who gains the detectives attention and causes him to get into dangerous situations for her. • Another femme fatale can be seen in the character of Goldie in Sin City as her death causes Marv to seek revenge by killing her killer thus getting him into many dangerous situations.

6. Plots and Storylines • Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. • For example in The Third Man a huge plot twist in the film is that a character is not really dead. Even though we see his funeral at the beginning of the film leading the audience to believe he is. Here is a clip from the third man in which harry lime is introduced to be alive. Source: filmsite.org

7. Mens Costume • Men’s costume would, at first glance, appear to have drawn the short straw. The best male characters could hope for, surely, was just a version of the male uniform, the business suit. Wide-lapelled, solid suits too. It would seem that the only way that a man’s social status could be told was in the cut of that suit or whether the shirt was grimy. • John Garfield’s overcoat in “Body And Soul” is of the massive camel-hair variety. Humphrey Bogart’s sundry detectives are rarely seen sans trenchcoat. In an America so shortly out of the austerities of Depression and war, ownership of a coat was the ultimate luxury Sources: http://noiresque.com/sandrasite/CINframe.htm

8. Womens costume Sources: http://noiresque.com/sandrasite/CINframe.htm • From the films I have seen in the classic noir genre the women always seem to wear either dresses or something seductive. After the war we began to see “types” of women from which an audience could see at a glance where a character was coming from. These types fell into several stalls – “Good Girl,” “Bad Girl,” “Tomboy,” “Independent Woman,” etc. Within the set categories, there were all manner of hybrids – the most popular of which was the “Good-Bad girl” – every man’s fantasy. • From the films I have seen we see these types were widely used for example in the Maltese Falcon we see Brigid O'Shaughnessy as the typical hybrid of good-bad girl. Wearing many dresses and seductive costumes throughout the film to grab Sam Spade and the audiences attention.

9. locations • Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.] • This clip is from Scarlet Street (1945) showing a typical location in the film noir (a low lit hotel room). It focuses on the lighting/ the lack of lighting in the room as well as the low quality and small size of the hotel room creating the idea of bleakness and loneliness of the character.

10. Source:http://www.slideshare.net/gumisash/film-noir-powerpoint-3338948Source:http://www.slideshare.net/gumisash/film-noir-powerpoint-3338948 Atmosphere • The atmosphere in film noir from what i have seen in films such as The Maltese Falcon and in neo noirs such as Goodfellas is usually created through the use of lighting. Creating shadows the sense of good and bad sides to characters. • Additionally smoking is a key element in many scenes as smoking in the times of noir was socially acceptable, the focus on the curling smoke creates a more intimate atmosphere.

11. Source-http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/glossary/index.asp Lighting • backlightingThis phenomenon occurs when the lighting for the shot is directed at the camera from behind the subject(s), causing the figure(s) in the foreground to appear in semi-darkness or as silhouettes, or highlighted; with backlighting, the subject is separated from the background. • chiaroscuroLiterally, the combination of the two Italian words for "clear/bright" and "dark"; refers to a notable, contrasting use of light and shade in scenes; often achieved by using a spotlight; also referred to as low-key lighting or high-contrast lighting. This lighting technique had its roots in German Expressionism.

12. Lighting continued • hard lighting/ low-key lightingLighting that creates sharp-edged shadows. • high-angle lightingLighting coming from above a person or object, usually in order to outline the upper areas of the figure or to separate it more clearly from the background; also called top lighting. • high-contrast lighting Lighting that creates strong contrast between light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows and little fill light; also called low-key lighting. • highlightingThe use of thin beams of light to illuminate selected or limited parts of the subject.

13. Definition of Neo-Noir • Neo-noir (from the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black) is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s. Definition from wikipedia

14. Neo-Noir Timeline Souce - imdb The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) Cape Fear (1962) Goodfellas (1990) Death wish (1974) Memento (2000) L.A. Confidential (1997) Tequila Sunrise (1988) Taxi Driver (1976) Bullitt (1968) Sin City (2005)

15. Mood and social context in noir • The darkness of film noir reflects the disillusionment and pessimism felt by many Americans after WWII. This gives film noir a mood and social context. • The Cold War generated a climate of suspicion and fear which was reflected in film noir. • An unstable peacetime economy, the threat of an atomic bomb and fear of communists created a feeling of uncertainty. Film noir embodies these fears. It reveals the darker unhappy side of American life, one of social and cultural alienation. In film noir, America is depicted as a modernized and heartless society. • The night scenes and use of shadows in film noir emphasize the darkness of American society. Various stylistic elements serve to disorient the audience and create a mood of uneasiness, alienation and loneliness. The dark visuals of film noir emphasize the cruel thematic content. Source: http://filmnoirish.tumblr.com/mood