Black Dahlia A2 Media studies

1. {The Black Dahlia

2. • The Black Dahlia was released in 2006 as an
American neo noir crime thriller movie by
Brian De Palma.
• It’s based on the novel (of the same name) by
James Ellroy and was focused on the murder of
Elizabeth Short.
• James Ellroy also wrote LA Confidential.
• The film stars Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson,
Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank
The Black Dahlia

3.  Both of the main women act as Femme Fatale’s.
 Good vs Evil – Binary Opposites
 Madeleine Linscott – Madeleine has connections
with Betty and her killer. She has Red nails – red
connoting danger and dark hair. She also wears
tight, black, revealing clothing.
 She’s a very seductive woman too and uses her body
to her advantage, especially when the male
protagonist and her are together.
 Kay Lake – Highlighting binary opposites here. Kay
wears white clothing and has blonde hair. However,
Kay has a boyfriend. With this in mind it still seems
unusual that she still shows signs of liking Lee’s
partner Bucky
Femme Fatale

4.  There are two main male protagonists LAPD
officers Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert and Lee
Blanchard.
Hero/Anti-Hero

5.  Point of view shot when Bucky meets
Madeleine’s family and when he looks over the
newspaper spying in the park.
 360 degree shot when they are talking to Betty’s
friend.
 Often there are mirror shots with the Femme
Fatale. E.g. in the bathroom when Bucky comes
in. You can see Kay in the mirror.
Use of Camera

6.  Venetian blinds often feature in the film and
when we first see Kay there are various
different objects in the shot blocking out a lot of
her body.
Distorting Objects

7.  The film is set in the Urban City of LA.
 Madeleine lives at her large extravagant family
home.
 Kay lives with Lee initially but when Lee dies
she then moves in with Bucky in his smaller
contemporary house.
 Madeleine goes with Bucky to a motel just out
of town quite often.
Setting

8.  There is a flashback when it goes back to
Bucky’s earlier career.
 When Bucky finally realized who the murderer
is there is another flashback showing all
different things that helped Bucky to piece the
story together.
 There’s a flashback when Bucky and the other
officers are looking at what happened to Betty
in her past.
Use of Flashback

9.  Right at the start of the film there is a quiet
voice-over.
 Also as Bucky is piecing the murder case
together there are different voice-overs from
different characters reading out what has
happened.
Voice-overs

10.  Throughout the film the accompaniment
matches the thoughts and feelings of the actors.
 Sound bridges feature in The Black Dahlia too.
Sound

11.  In the scene where Lee dies, there is
Chiaroscuro lighting which creates shadows,
helping to cover the identity of the killer.
 Shadows are often used to hide the identity of
people in Film Noir.
 There are quite a few scenes that are filmed
during the day e.g. when Lee shoots the
innocent (according to Bucky) man, but, in fact
he is actually part of the murder case.
Lighting

12.  The riot at the start of the film is set at night
time. The high contrast lighting helps to make
the scene even more tense.
 The darkness is a common theme of Film Noir.
 Also when Bucky realizes the place of Betty’s
murder and pieces the various different bits of
the story together, this is shot at night.
Night Time Action