Controversial Aspects of Film
Noir
Genre or not?
Some critics say it is not a true genre but is rather a ‘style’, ‘mood’ or ‘tone’ of film making.
Indeed, there have been westerns and gangster films made with a film noir ‘feel’. A lot of
conventions identified are common but not necessary (there is not always a ‘hard-boiled
detective’, the plots vary, the settings vary) and the one constant is the dark mood and visual
style. Other critics say these constant aspects make it a genre.
What classifies as ‘film noir’?
The actual genre term ‘film noir’ was not invented until years
after the initial wave of films was made in the early 1940s. So,
film makers were not trying to conform to a genre – it happened
fluidly. This makes it hard to define films as definitely being of
this genre. There is no universally agreed upon list of movies
that fall into the film noir category. Some critics will list movies
that others don’t. There are also modern movies that some push to class as neo-noirs that
others won’t. Some class films as film gris (grey) if they don’t quite fit the mould.
What happened to the genre after 1958?
There are still films with a film noir feel to them being made. The new wave is referred to as
neo-noir films (new-noir). Again, there is no universally agreed upon list of films. There are
also films that mix other genres with a noir feel (femme fatales, disillusioned and amoral
protagonists, pessimistic mood, overwhelming forces that can’t be escaped, sardonic wit,
ambiguous or endings lacking in redemption).
Neo-Noir
Chinatown
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Basic Instinct
Heat
Collateral
LA Confidential
Fargo
Reservoir Dogs
Insomniac
Batman Begins
Training Day
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Sin City
History of Violence
Veronica Mars
Road to Perdition
The Usual Suspects
Psycho-Noir
David Lynch (director)
Twin Peaks
Mullholland Drive
David Fincher (director)
Alien3
Se7en
Fight Club
Momento
Sci-Fi Noir
Blade Runner
Gattaca
Minority Report
The Matrix
Terminator
Film Soleil (sun/light)
films where light, open
spaces such as water or
desert settings are used to
create a feeling of unease,
instead of dark,
claustrophobic ones
Miami Vice
Film Noir Parodies
Dead Men Don’t wear Plaid
What might happen in the future?
Our present day fears are to do with homeland security (terrorists
attacking us). Will this spark a new wave of noir sparked by isolation
politics and paranoia?
TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF FILM NOIR
The following words and phrases have been used (many repeatedly) to describe the
predominant mood/style/tone present in film noir. Look up the meanings of unfamiliar
ones – they’re great words to know!
Oneiric
Macabre
Perverse
Desperation
Hopelessness
Acerbic
Cynical
Fatalism
Pessimistic
Harsh
Unusual
Cynical
Eroticism
Nihilism
Fear
Dread
Moral ambiguity
Corruption
Suffocating
Alienation
Dark
Sadistic
Misogynistic
THE SETTING – Again, these are phrases taken from a range of film noir articles.
‘Dark rooms with light slicing through venetian blinds, alleys cluttered with garbage, abandoned
warehouses where dust hangs in the air, rain-slickened streets with water still running in the
gutters, dark detective offices overlooking busy streets….’
‘A dark urban world of crooks and gangsters’
‘busy streets.…’
‘A labyrinth or maze…. Visually complex’
‘worlds drenched in shadows….’
‘a word of darkness and violence…’
‘corrupt and devoid of human sympathy…’
‘eternal nights…’
‘sounds of shots and sirens and screams and sobs…’
‘a world where people were not essentially good – but deceitful and rotton…’
‘that swampy dark place in the soul where crime ferments…’
‘The city street becomes more desolate, the hotel rooms sleazier, the killers more sadistic, the
‘heroes’ more ambivalent’
‘A deeper turn towards corruption, rampant
psychosis, overt sadism and suicidal impulses’
‘dingy realism…’
‘it’s always night and it always rains’
1) LINKS TO PREVIOUS GENRES – progressions and departures
Gangster
In the 1930s were popular. They reflected an era where the mood
was full of hopelessness and pessimism because of the economic
collapse leading to The Depression. There was also the growing
threat of the rise of the dictator (Hitler, Mussolini) around the world
and apprehension about the approaching war. These factors had
created a fatalistic attitude about the prospects for the future and life
in general. What separates them from film noir is that they did, in
the end, adhere to the Production Code and they were socially
conscious (bad guys got it in the end).
Detective
The traditional detective genre of literature and film (Sherlock Holmes) were also socially
conscious.
Here are some examples of the difference between the traditional
detective genre and what was emerging in film noir.
‘In film noir private investigators solved mysteries as a profession –
not a hobby – and chased criminals through dark, rain-soaked
streets of American cities rather than the well kept lawn of an English
country house’.
‘Instead of upper class detectives, new tough guy detectives were
used, often finding themselves on the edge of law and crime’
‘If a private eye is hired by an old geezer to prove his wife’s cheating
on him and the shamus discovers long-buried family secrets and
solves a couple of murders before returning to his lonely office - that’s detective fiction. If the
same private eye gets seduced by the geezer’s wife, kills the old coot for her, gets doublecrossed by his lover and ends up shot to death by his old partner from the police force – I can
say with complete assurance: you are wallowing in NOIR.’
Musicals and Comedies
Most of the films being made in the early 1940s were upbeat and optimistic – emphasising how
good it was to be an American, aimed to make people forget the troubles of the Depression
and keep spirits up. Film Noir provided a real alternative to this, which struck a chord as
depicting the darker feelings of society. It was a flipside to these American success stories.
Other War and Crime Movies
On the whole, films were stories of personal sacrifices made for an
important cause. They were a positive statement about life in
America and the things she was fighting for. Also, war movies
focussed on triumph or returned soldiers overcoming physical
problems they came back with (blindness, immobility). Film noir did
not have this uplifting message and dealt with the darker
psychological scars soldiers dealt with (often metaphorically rather
than explicitly).
SOCIETAL INFLUENCE – GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
CINEMA
EXPRESSIONISM – an overview
Expression is a general movement in art. It is a progression from, and in some ways the
opposite of Impressionism where you paint or show an object in a representational way
(recreating it as it is). It is a sheer visual representation of an object, rather than emotions.
Expressionism wasn’t concerned so much with being aesthetically pleasing, rather with
producing vivid emotions.
Rather than being objective, Expressionism tries to express the subjective emotions or inner
experiences of the artist or director. To put it simply, it shows artistically the mood of the
object. So, in film noir if a person is feeling ‘dark’ the director surrounds them in menacing
shadows. It is showing the inner feelings of the characters, a kind of visual metaphor. Reality
can be distorted for an emotional effect. It is largely associated with angst and the darker side
of life, so this is a form of art that is naturally more popular in times of social upheaval (ie –
Germany post WWI and America post Depression and WWII).
Key words: intense, expressive, inner emotions, surreal, subjective, dark
1) The German Expressionism art movement
Expressionism was an art movement that became popular in the early 1900s.
The term is usually linked to paintings and graphic work in Germany at the turn of the century
which challenged the academic traditions, particularly through Die Brücke and Der Blaue
Reiter. An extension of this art movement was the German Expressionist Film Movement.
2) The German Expressionism film movement
Expressionism in German films took off in the 1920s (post WWI – a time of poverty due to war
repayments). This style of film making was cheap to produce but took advantage of elements
such a mise en scene and lighting to create mood and show symbolism.
The first Expressionist films, were as ugly as your man-wife The Golem (1915), The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and Schatten (1923), were highly symbolic and
deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories. The plots and stories of the Expressionist
films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to
standard action-adventure and romantic films);
However, the themes of Expressionism were integrated into later films of the 1920s and 1930s,
resulting in an artistic control over the placement of scenery, light, and shadow to enhance the
mood of a film.
3) Influencing Hollywood movies
This dark, moody school of filmmaking was brought to America when the Nazis gained power
and a number of German filmmakers emigrated to Hollywood. They found a number of
American movie studios willing to embrace them, and several German directors and
cameramen flourished there, producing a repertoire of Hollywood films that had a profound
effect on the medium of film as a whole.
The social climate in Germany following WWI was similar to the climate in America
following the depression in the 1930s and the uncertainty of entering WWII. Hence, these
times were ideal for expressionist cinema to become popular, with its dark undertones.
LIGHTING – Shadow and Light
One very obvious use of expressionism in film noir is the lighting and use of shadow. The
scenes are predominantly dark, with striking use of shadow. This represents the feelings in
society at the time – the lack of faith in the government and economic scarcities etc.
CHIAROSCURO
An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a bold contrast between light
and dark. – wikipedia
Chiaroscuro is also used in cinematography to indicate extreme low-key lighting to create
distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films.
Frank Miller's Sin City is an example of this style in both the graphic novel and the subsequent
film, as is the David Lloyd/Alan Moore book V for Vendetta
and Mike Mignola's Hellboy.
One particular type of
lighting that captured
this mood and can also
been seen in art is
chiarscuro. Literally,
the term translates to
mean ‘light and dark’.
It uses limited light
sources to illuminate
only small areas of the
painting/shot, casting
the background or rest
of the shot into shadow
and darkness.
Samples of Expressionism in art.
The Scream by Edmund Munch (Norwegian, but early influence on the movement) with
intense psychological and emotional themes.
Kirchner (German) led Die Brucke (The Bridge) group of artists
Klimt (Austrian)
Matisse (French) led a movement called Fauvism which is a lighter side of
expressionism.
Kandinsky (Russian, moved to Germany) one of the first artists to move away from
painting representational images. Very spiritual.