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Noir films
- 2. DEFINITION • FILM NOIRIS A FRENCH WORD WHICH MEANS ‘’BLACK FILM’’. IT’S A TERM USED FOR MANY HOLLYWOOD THRILLER FILMS OF 1940’S AND 1950’S IN WHICH THE ATMOSPHERE OF PESSIMISM, CYNICISM, MISTRUST, DISAPPOINTMENT ETC. ARE CAPTURED AND ARE CHARACTERISTIC FOR AMERICAN SOCIETY DURING WW2 AND FIRST YEARS OF COLD WAR.
- 3. EXAMPLES • HERE ISA LIST OF FAMOUS DIRECTORS THAT MADE NOIR FILMS AND THE FILMS THEY DIRECTED: Howard Hawks To Have and Have Not (1944) The Big Sleep (1946) Billy Wilder Double Indemnity (1944) Sunset Blvd. (1950) John Huston The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
- 4. OTHER EXAMPLES HERE ISA LIST OF DIRECTORS THAT ARE NOT REALLY CONSIDERED AS NOIR DIRECTORS BUT ALSO DIRECTED SOME FILMS THAT HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON NOIR FILMS: Orson Welles Touch of Evil (1958) Stanley Kubrick The Killing (1956) Alfred Hitchcock Strangers on a Train (1951)
- 5. GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM • IT’SNOT HARD TO NOTICE THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN 1920’S AND 1930’S GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM FILMS AND 1940’S AND 1950’S CLASSIC NOIR MOVIES. MANY INFLUENTIAL DIRECTORS THAT DID NOIR SUCH AS ORSON WELLES AND BILLY WILDER NEVER DENIED THAT THEY WERE INFLUENCED BY THE DARK AND PESSIMISTIC WORKS OF GERMAN DIRECTORS OF POST WW1. THE BEST EXAMPLES OF GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM WORKS ARE: • ‘’THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI’’ (1920), ‘’NOSFERATU’’ (1922), ’’THE LAST LAUGH’’ (1924), ‘’FAUST’’ (1926)
- 6. FRITZ LANG • THEBEST GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST DIRECTOR IS WITHOUT ANY DOUBT THE AUSTRIAN-BORN FRITZ LANG. THIS MAN CREATED A LOT OF FILMS THAT ARE CONSIDERED CLASSICS TODAY SUCH AS: • ’’DOCTOR MABUSE, THE GAMBLER’’ (1922), ‘’DIE NIBELUNGEN’’ (1924), ‘’METROPOLIS’’ (1927), ’’M’’ (1931), ‘’FURY’’ (1936). SOME OF THESE FILMS HAD A MASSIVE IMPACT ON ON BOTH THRILLER AND NOIR DEVELOPMENT.
- 7. CHARACTERISTICS • THIS GENREIS CHARACTERIZED BY CRIMINAL PLOT, DARK ATMOSPHERE OF CYNICAL FATALISM AND PESSIMISM, BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN HERO AND ANTIHERO, MORE REALISTIC ACTIONS AND DARK SCENE LIGHTNING, USUALLY AT NIGHT. WOMEN USUALLY ACT AS BEAUTIFUL MODELS WHO GIVE AN OCCASION FOR MAIN HEROES TO START INVESTIGATION. IN NOIR FILM THESE WOMEN ARE USUALLY CALLED BY THE FRENCH TERM ‘’FEMME FATALE’’ WHICH MEANS ‘’LETHAL WOMAN’’. THEY USUALLY ACT AS DECEITFUL WHO CAN’T BE TRUSTED ALTHOUGH THEY MOTIVATE THE MALE PROTAGONIST.
- 8. KEY ELEMENTS • THEFOLLOWING ELEMENTS OF NOIR ARE COMMONLY USED: • MAJORITY OF SCENES-NIGHT SCENES OR INTENTIONALLY DARKENED SCENES; • LIGHTING DOES NOT DISTINGUISH THE ACTOR FROM THE SETTING, OFTEN HE IS GENERALLY PLACED IN THE SHADOW, WHICH EMPHASIZES THE DISSOLUTION OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN THE GENERAL GLOOMY ATMOSPHERE; • NOIRS IS CLOSER IN SPIRIT TO THE METHODICAL, MEASURED BUILDING OF TENSION FROM DIALOGUE TO DIALOGUE WHICH IS KNOWN AS SUSPENSE; • IN THE TRADITION OF GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM, DISTORTED ANGLES ABOUND: THE CAMERA OFTEN CAPTURES THE CHARACTERS OR THE SCENE WITH A WIDE-ANGLE LENS, FROM AN UNUSUALLY HIGH OR LOW SHOOTING POINT, DUTCH ANGLE.
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- 10. DEFINITION • NEONOIR ISA FORM OF NOIR WHICH IS USED FROM 1960’S TO OUR TIMES. JUST LIKE CLASSIC NOIR, NEONOIR APPEARED BECAUSE OF CERTAIN SITUATIONS THAT LED TO 1960’S AND 1970’S PESSIMISM SUCH AS VIETNAM WAR, ECONOMIC STAGNATION IN THE WESTERN BLOCK, WATERGATE SCANDAL ETC. HOWEVER THE TOPICS BECAME MUCH DARKER AND THE PLOTS BECAME NOT ONLY ABOUT DETECTIVES AND FEMME FATALES BUT ABOUT ANYTHING WHILE USING THE STYLE OF CLASSIC NOIR ALTHOUGH NEONOIR FILMS ARE MOSTLY COLOURED RATHER THAN BLACK AND WHITE. IT CAN BE BOTH THE 1930’S- 1950’S NOSTALGIA (‘’L.A. CONFIDENTIAL’’ (1997), ’’CHINATOWN’’ (1974)) AND MODERN TIMES (‘’TAXI DRIVER’’ (1976), ‘’SEVEN’’ (1995)). IT CAN FEATURE FEMME FATALE (’’BLADE RUNNER’’ (1982)) AND CAN BE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO GO CRAZY (‘’OLDBOY’’ (2003))