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Noir after the forties. Context of forties. Disillusionment with American Dream – depression, war, etc Gender issues Hays code German and Eastern European influence Edward Hopper images of American life. Other aspects of Forties Noir. Studio-bound look to the genre
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Context of forties • Disillusionment with American Dream – depression, war, etc • Gender issues • Hays code • German and Eastern European influence • Edward Hopper images of American life
Other aspects of Forties Noir • Studio-bound look to the genre • Contrast to the colourful musicals of the era • B-movies • Psychoanalysis popular leads to interest in character motivation
Why the French name? • Post war influx of American films to French market • French film critics, e.g. Francois Truffaut & Andre Bazin begin to analyse the style, content and ideology of the films
How does Noir evolve? • Lighter cameras lead to greater use of location shooting
Scarlet Street – Fritz Lang 1945 Studio-bound artificial lighting
Killer’s Kiss – Stanley Kubrick 1955 Naturalistic, location lighting
Jazz music becomes more prominent in soundtrack • Times change – style follows • Different generation and attitudes • Cold war paranoia creeps in as a theme
1958 - The ‘end’ of Noir • Touch of Evil – Orson Welles 1958
1970s Noir pastiche • Chinatown – Roman Polanski 1974
1980s – Noir parody • Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid – Carl Reiner 1982
Key features of Neo-Noir • A ‘knowingness’ to convention • Deliberately retro look - postmodern attitude • Sometimes deliberate subversion of the noir ‘rules’ • References to the classic noir past • Playfulness • Often a critique of consumer society more than fully serious psychological exploration • Freedom to indulge in the amorality denied the classic noirs