Film Noir 1941-1958???

Film Noir1941-1958???

Film Noir “Black Film” • Discovered and coined in postwar France • During German Occupation of France (1940-1944): • No American films in French Theaters • In 1945, backlog of American films hits French screens.

Prewar movies Rational Symmetrical Ordered Postwar movies Grimmer Bleaker Blacker Dominated by: Crime Corruption Cruelty “Unhealthy” interest in the erotic “Black Film” cont…

Film Noir: 3 different ways to look at it • As Genre • As Series • As Mode

Film Noir as Genre • Conventions and expectations • Iconography: Low-key lighting, dark city, character archetypes, predictable narrative patterns (p. 227-228) • What kind of character types would you expect to encounter?

Film Noir as Series • Aesthetic movement? • No body of conventions to follow, people didn’t necessarily set out to make films noirs • Generic story lines in films noirs don’t make them noir, but more the stylistic effects within the story lines (p. 228)

Film Noir as Mode • Produces a certain emotional response in people: anxiety, uneasiness, distress (p. 229) • Only needs to be “noir” for a moment or two, whatever it takes to create an emotional disturbance • Thus, mode is the particular way in which noir is conveyed

Quick Write • Given what you’ve learned about the differences between genre and series, where do you think film noir fits in? Should it be known as a genre of film, or a series? Both? Explain in a full paragraph.

Noir Aesthetics, Themes, and Character Types • Aesthetically: Shadowy, low-key lighting; deep-focus cinematography; distorting, wide-angle lenses; sequence shots, etc…(p. 230) • Thematically: existential issues such as futility of individual action; alienation, loneliness, and isolation of the individual in industrialized, mass society, etc… • Noir heroes: antisocial loners, tramps, drifters, subject to existential angst due to faceless anonymity in a larger, dehumanizing work environment

American Expressionism • Soft, evenly distributed, high key lighting style of the 1930’s that existed to glamorize stars quickly turned into harsh, low-key lighting in the 1940’s, which obscured the action, deglamorized the stars • Use of expressionistic devices: For example, highly subjective voiceover narration, hallucinatory sequences

Disturbing Conventions to Conventional Disturbances • Noir stylistics showed up in sleazy detective films, low-budget crime pictures, but even typical genre films developed psychotic tendencies, which was frightening to the public at the time

Noir and the Production Code • In 40’s and 50’s, strict limits existed to what you could show in movies, so noir aesthetics left a lot up to suggestion and the audience’s imagination (p. 234) • Filmmakers used the dark shadows and inventive narration to suggest what was happening

Literary Origins of Film Noir • Spirit of noir can be traced back to thematic and stylistic elements in popular fiction from the 20’s and 30’s • Hard-Boiled Fiction: New tradition of realism, heroes lived on fringe of criminal world • Set in back alleys, grungy offices, etc…

Women in Film Noir • Independent, aggressive, and sexual (p. 239) • From the proletarian tough-guy perspective, he achieves his toughness by repressing any signs of weakness, and weakness is associated with the feminine • Ex. Maltese Falcon: Sam Spade struggles between his feelings and loyalty to professional codes…and rejects his “feminine” side

Women cont… • Threat posed by women to the noir hero on two different fronts • Socioeconomic • Psychoanalytic

Socioeconomic • Changing status of American women during WWII and post-WWII challenged male dominance • Entered workforce, which violated order of sexual relations (took over “male” roles) • Posed threat to traditional values…

Socioeconomic cont… • Noir registered antifeminist backlash by showing a postwar America in which family doesn’t exist • And if it did, family is portrayed in a negative light: • As claustrophobic, emasculating trap • Women abandoned or neglected domestic responsibilities • Women as willful creatures intent on destroying their mates and the institution of family • In noir, the world of crime and family overlap

Women as Psychological Terror • Psychic threat to insecure hero • Hollywood supported male dominance and patriarchy • Alleviated anxiety about threat through disavowal of women • Done through fetishization, devaluation, or both

Fetishization • Women overvalued • Portrayed as objects • Ex: Lingering close-ups • Glamorous costumes

Devaluation • Viewed as guilty object • “Castration” serving as the symbol of her punishment • Remember: Women in film noir characterized as femme fatales, intent on “castrating” or otherwise destroying the male hero • Devaluation seen as their punishment, existence as female seen as punishment

Critique of Populism • Destabilization of sexual relationships: symptomatic of larger social disorder • Noir reflects transitional stage in American ideology and identity, what do you think that transition is?

New culture, Old myths • Prior to WWII, society held together by various myths that structured America’s identity • Jeffersonian democracy: fundamental equality based on ownership of property-->drove 19th c. expansionist ideology • Promise of cheap or free land to frontier settlers served as motivation for Western settlement (realization of America’s manifest destiny)

However, • Rapid industrialization in the late 19th c. began a process of social change • 1920-more people lived in urban than in rural areas • New middle class dominated by hourly wage earners, who owned neither land nor houses • Millions of laborers, but they still subscribed to the old, pre-industrial era myths

Myths cont… • Post depression- old myths began to waiver as the economy boomed during wartime • This identity crisis led to a feeling of instability, and ultimately contributed to the development of film noir

Walter Neff Corporate worker Lives alone in apt. Goes bowling for fun Has affairs w/ married women Quick Write How is this profile representative of a new American ideology? Would you agree that America was in the midst of an identity crisis? Explain. Double Indemnity and Identity Crisis

Double Indemnity cont… • Neff’s profile reflects a chaotic period in which old myths began to crumble and now new myths took hold, just as for many people, America’s national identity was in crisis • Film noir captures the emptiness of his world

Film Noir 1941-1958???