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Film Noir

Film Noir. FILM NOIR. French for “black film” Typically a Hollywood drama with cynical attitudes and sexual motivations Films dated from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Origin.

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Film Noir

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  1. Film Noir

  2. FILM NOIR • French for “black film” • Typically a Hollywood drama with cynical attitudes and sexual motivations • Films dated from the early 1940s to the late 1950s

  3. Origin • Classic film noir started after the second world war. Much of the fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia were put into film noir as these were the feelings felt by many at that time. • Later the cold war played a big role in reaffirming fear that was then put into more film noir.

  4. STORYLINES • Literary influence from the American detective novel and crime fiction • Usually include convoluted storylines, frequently involving flashbacks • Protagonist usually wishes to elude their mysterious past and has to choose which path to take

  5. MOODS Film Noir is less a genre, per se, than it is a mood. They reflected the tensions and anxieties of the post world wars era. Generally, they featured: • Melancholy • Alienation • Bleakness • Disillusionment • Paranoia

  6. CHARACTERS • Central figure usually private eye or plain-clothes policeman • Hero is generally flawed, morally questionable, alienated • Criminal motivation often jealousy • Archetypes include femme fatale, hardboiled detective, corrupt policeman, jealous husband • Smoking is mandatory as it is used to create a mysterious atmosphere.

  7. Men and women • Very often, a film noir story was developed around a cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character who encountered a beautiful but promiscuous, amoral, double-dealing and seductive femme fatale. • She would use her feminine ways and come-hither sexuality to manipulate him into becoming the fall guy - often following a murder. • After a betrayal or double-cross, she was frequently destroyed as well, often at the cost of the hero's life. • Female characters were often dominant due to the the war period giving them a new-found independence and better job-earning power.

  8. FEMALE DICHOTOMY • Dutiful, reliable, trustworthy, loving • Mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative (the femme fatale)

  9. FEMME FATALE • French for “deadly” or “fatal” woman • Typically villainous, sometimes anti-heroine • Represents direct attack on traditional womanhood and nuclear family • An alluring, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them to compromising, dangerous, and/or deadly situations

  10. APPEALING ELEMENTS OF FILM NOIR • The male/female relationship and archetypes • The femme fatale and female dichotomy • Mystery and crime • How American attitudes are expressed

  11. Conventions used in Film Noir • Mise en scene - Eerie and mysterious settings, an old house, an empty street or a old fashioned bar. • The weather is usually wet or rainy, reflective of the mood. • Characters costumes define their class. • Low key lighting creating a Chiaroscuro effect taken from German Expressionism.

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