According to David Cook’s, A History of Narrative Film, “both the problem pictures and the semi-documentary crime thrillers made it seem that Italian neorealism had found a home in an uneasy, if affluent, America. Yet another variety of postwar American film, one that depended on the controlled environment of the studio as well as on real locations for its depiction of the seamy underside of American life, soon appeared.” This literally was film noir, meaning “black film;’ it was discovered and named in 1946 by French critics. They gave it this name because when they saw American motion pictures they felt this strange mood of “cynicism, darkness, and despair in certain crime films and melodramas” (Cook, 293). While some regard Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) as the prototype for film noir, …show more content…
These films thrived on the unembellished representation of greed, lust, and cruelty. The basic theme in these film noirs was the “depth of human depravity and the utterly unheroic nature of human beings” (Cook, 294). Considering the plot, character types, and visual elements The Maltese Falcon fits into the stylistic category of film noir. The very “mechanisms of crime and criminal detection provide a perfect metaphor for corruption that cuts across conventional moral categories” (Cook 294). The plot was full or crimes, murders, lies, and deceit; many of the basic components that made up fil noirs. There was no shortage to murders and tricks played in The Maltese Falcon. Sam Spade’s partner, Archer, was killed and then Thursby, who
In the article “Twoness in the style of Oscar Micheaux” by J. Ronald Green critiques the common theme of twoness which was a common debilitating dilemma for black film in America concerning American Social Codes. African Americans face the possibility of two identities at the same time but somehow resolve individually for her or himself. The point is made that African Americans are American citizens, but are hindered by the color line which sets them up to be positioned to understand two sides to the American hegemony. Hegemony consists of leadership or domination, either by one country or social group over others. American black cinema acquiesced in segregation, placed white cupidity off limits as theme, rehashed white Hollywood stereotypes
The genre film noir has some classical elements that make these films easily identifiable. These elements are displayed in the prototypical film noir, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. These elements include being filmed in black and white, a morally ambiguous protagonist, and a prominent darkness. However, the most striking part of a film noir is the femme fatale, a woman who craves independence through sexual and economic liberation. In his film, Chinatown, Roman Polanski uses many of the classic elements of a film noir, however he twists many of them to reflect the time period. This is particularly evident in his depiction of his “femme fatale,” Evelyn Mulwray.
As the 1920’s came to a close and America was in the midst of the Great Depression, a new genre of film was becoming popular. With 1928’s Lights of New York the “gangster” film genre as we know it today was born. Little Caesar and The Public Enemy (1931) were also highly influential and set the scene for the modern gangster film. The culmination of the gangster genre came about a year later. Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), is one of the boldest and most political gangster films ever made. Many changes were made by industry censor boards due to the diabolical nature of the film. Most notably, all scenes that contained shots of blood were removed and a subtitle was tacked onto the film denoting it as Scarface: The Shame of the Nation. Considered
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
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.
Janey Place and Lowell Peterson article “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” establishes noir as a visual style and not a ...
The French term, ‘Noir’ translates to ‘Black’ in English however we also use it describe a genre of film
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
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.
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
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.
While all this was taking place on the other hand in France a new movement was surging of blanket term devised by critics for some of the French filmmakers of the late fifties and sixties who were impacted by the Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood films. It initially was never a movement which was officially planned, but the up surging filmmakers were being connected to it because of their self-conscious dismissal of classical filmmaking methods and their spirit of young iconoclasm which was a sample of the European art movies. Many filmmakers were involved with their work as they tried to involve the social and political turmoil’s of the era.
Film noir is not a genre of film but rather defined through its subtle qualities of tone and mood. Noir was also a specific period in Film history, mostly sprouting in the 40’s. Numerous amount of films helped contribute to the popularity of film noir, but there were some that innovated the way we portrayed it. Maltese Falcon was one of the pioneers of film noir that influenced many more noir type of films such as The Devil in a Blue Dress. With plots being different but yet a similar feel towards the movie. Similar character roles are very common in noir, like in the Maltese Falcon and The Devil in a Blue Dress. Both films use very alike characters that help give it a better noir feeling. In the Maltese Falcon, Sam spade is the main character but unlike regular plots. Sam is an anti-hero that works
In the American Cinema / American Culture book by John Belton expresses film noir as an American Expressionist movement. Film Noir differs from the Classical Hollywood Cinema with specific elements. Belton explains this differences as “[…] the same old familiar classical Hollywood cinema possessed by a new, recognizably alien spirit […]” (Chapter 10, p. 229). The “possessed” and “alien spirit” refer to the stylistic elements of Film Noir’s. Extreme camera angles of low and high angle perspectives, extreme lighting on actors (dark atmosphere), dramatic or mysterious genre of murder or crime, and a detective to solve the case. Another strong Film Noir element is a visibly narrative presence that turns out to be untrustworthy and/or sometimes a form of flashback changing back and forth to the
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.