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Recommended: An essay on film noir
Blade Runner
Based on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? written by Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner, a science fiction/ thriller film puts a new spin on the novel. This film follows Richard Deckard (portrayed by Harrison Ford) who has to hunt and retire replicants, who are robots with more human than human attributes. Blade Runner is directed by Ridley Scott, this movie uses different elements of cinematography such as lighting, sound, film noir and camera angles to show the audience the magnified faults and shortcomings in our society, which is the pollution and discrimination against women and lower class people in the Blade Runner dystopian world.
Blade Runner is definite example of Film noir. Film noir is a style of film about dark crime films made between 1944-1954. The films are mainly shot in blacks, whites and greys. The settings often dark and gloomy appearances. Scott uses the idea of film noir to show all the pollution throughout Blade Runner. This dystopian world is rid off all plant, animals and anything that would make earth seems natural. There is lots of pollution in today's smog filled Los Angles. The sky is constantly dark, filled with the smoke from cigarettes, the audience only ever
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Most of the people living on earth are sad and live in poverty. The lighting in Blade Runner shows the discrimination of lower class people in Blade Runner, and how they are treated with less respect than other humans. From the first scene of blade Runner the audience can see that this is a dark movie. The low lighting of the futuristic L.A makes the city seems mysterious and dangerous. Most of the movie is dark because the people are shown as shadows, forgotten about. The brightest part of the film is when the sun shines over the Tyrell corporation, this is shown that Tyrell has power over the rest of the off-world and the replicants and he is seen as a
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
Another aspect of the movie “Bladerunner” is of those that broke away from the system. The “Nexus 6” were androids that developed emotions and escaped from slavery, because they wanted to live longer. Roy and Priss are good examples of androids showing that they have emotions. They were manipulative, passionate for what they wanted, and even had loving sides. Roy was the leader of the “Nexus 6” and Priss was his girlfriend
In effect all the techniques mentioned above portray a society of individuals who are weary of the world they live in. They are rejects who lead a pitiful existence in a wasteland called earth because they are not fit enough to go the out-world colonies. Suppressing their own natural instincts for the sake of physically surviving they really the walking dead. Scientific progress conducted not for the best interests of humanity but for the best interests of business has effectively brought about the progressive degradation of society. By exploiting and destroying the natural world human can no more find solace or beauty so as to recuperate their weary minds and rekindle their dying spirits. In summary the techniques that are unique to film such as camera, lighting, costuming, colour and location works in conjunction with common literary techniques such as visual symbolism, irony and characterisation to effectively convey the relationship between humanity and nature.
First and foremost, film noir refers to the visual style of a picture. The imagery of film noir was influenced by early 20th century German expressionism, featuring distorted, sinister shapes and shadows. These precursors to film noir used abstract figures and looming shadows for bizarre, emotionally stirring results. Techniques such as chiaroscuro were used to give a dark and minimalistic feeling. In many cases lighting is limited to a single harsh light source, which obscures the image, and even throws shadows across actors’ faces. These elements ensure that an audience regards the actors and the setting with equal importance. Oblique angled shots permeate many film noirs, naturally provoking anxiousness and apprehension in the viewer. In Sun...
Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
The plot of the movie “Blade Runner” becomes unrevealed till the end of the movie. Many assumptions about the plot and the final of the movie appear in the spectator’s mind, but not one of these assumptions lasts long. Numerous deceptions in the plot grip the interest of the audience and contribute for the continuing interest to the movie eighteen years after its creation. The main character in the movie is Deckard- the Blade Runner. He is called for a special mission after his retirement, to “air up” four replicants who have shown flaws and have killed people. There are many arguments and deceptions in the plot that reveal the possibility Deckard to be a replicant. Roy is the other leading character of the movie. He appears to be the leader of the replicants- the strongest and the smartest. Roy kills his creator Tyrell. The effect of his actions fulfils the expectation of the spectator for a ruthless machine.
Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.
Janey Place and Lowell Peterson article “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” establishes noir as a visual style and not a ...
The term film noir means, “black film” and was originally coined by French critic Nino Frank in 1946.. The author of “Film Noir”, Bruce Crowther, points out that “in some cases, the movies were based upon the work of such novelists and short-story writes as James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. The work of these and other American writers of the tough-guy and hard-boiled schools were published in France…The prevailing atmosphere of pessimism and doom in these new romans noire translated with ease to the medium of film and prompted the coinage of the term film noir.
destruction seen in the film into their own lives, by using familiar, mundane sounds that make a
Film noir (literally 'black film,' from French critics who noticed how dark and black the looks and themes were of these films) is a style of American films which evolved in the 1940s. " The Internet Movie Database LTD. Film noir typically contains melancholy, and not so moral themes. Another characteristic of film noir is just because the main character has the title hero, that does not mean that he will always be alive at the end of the book, or that the hero is always "good." Marlowe in The Big Sleep is a prime example of this concept.
Blade Runner became a cult classic. “The film may have survived long enough to benefit from a renewed taste for darker, more violent sci-fi. It’s appeal has less to do with a fascination for outer space (which does not feature beyond reference in a few lines of dialogue) than with a vision of earth and humankind in the near future” (Roberts and Wallis Pg 157-8). Both films have a timeless quality to it, as they are representative of the future of our planet earth. I find it so interesting that even though these films were made in different times their ideas about the futuristic city and society are almost identical.
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
In the film, the city of Los Angeles is presented as a dystopia, where reality destroys society and humanity, due to the technology created by human beings. The people of Los
Blade Runner as a film is largely driven by its subtext; the most important lines in the film are the ones that need to be dissected for their meaning. As well as subtlety of dialogue, the film is also driven by its suggestive cuts and editing, truly leaning into the form is function style of filmmaking. For these reasons, I decided to go with duration of shots, camera angle and focus and dialogue as my three cinematic codes. Duration in many of the scenes in Blade Runner is key, but specifically in the interview scene I chose. The quick cuts between the two characters across the table intercut with the 1-second shots of machinery informs the progression of plot and the development of the relationship between Rachael and Deckard.