Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Stylistic and thematic characteristics of film noir
Evolution of film noir
Evolution of film noir
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Film Noir and neo-noir are two famous movie categories that come stem from the early 1900s. While film noir was created in the 1900s, neo-noir is a more modern version of film noir. Each type of film can be seen in popular movies from the last century. An example of film noir is The Big Sleep, directed by Howard Hawks in 1946. The Dark Knight is an example of neo-noir. It was directed by Christopher Nolan in 2008. Both film noir and neo-noir are very similar, but do have some very large differences. Film Noir dates back to the 1940s right after World War I. The French were the first to come out with the movie category, after viewing a number of America’s movies. The French noticed that something was different about these movies than any of the movies America had made before. They were very dark and mysterious. In the book Fatalism in America: Film Noir, Robert Pippin describes film noir as being in grim urban settings, gloomy, and almost always about crime. He also says that they can have “almost unfollowable plots (Pippin 6).” Film noir is also often about fate, and gambling can often times be associated with it. Pippin states “That is one way of dealing with the perceived …show more content…
The film is set in a small urban city that is bustling with people. The town is full of criminals, which is a prime example of being a film noir. Film noirs almost always have some type of criminal or criminal act in them according to Robert Pippin, and this movie has many. The film also has a total of 6 different murders. These murders happen at different times throughout the movie but are all connected. The Big Sleep also has dark and obscured scenes in it. Film noirs are known for being dark, and this movie fits the description. Robert Pippin also discusses how gambling is usually a big deal in film noirs, and this movie’s plot has a lot to do with gambling. The movie The Big Sleep has many different elements of film noir in
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.
ChinaTown, directed by Roman Polanski, is a non-traditional hard-nosed detective film made in the 70's. The typical elements of character type are there; J.J. Gittes (a private detective in LA) played by Jack Nicholson is the central character, sharing the spotlight is Fay Dunaway playing the femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray. This film breaks all types of norms when compared to the hard-nosed detective films it is modeled after. The film is filled with allusions to the Big Sleep, especially taken from scenes of Marlowe and Vivian. Chinatown has formal elements indicative that it is going to be in the style of traditional Film Noir hardboiled detective, until you examine the characters' personalities next to the story content.
Film noir, by translation alone, means dark film, and by that measurement Sunset Boulevard certainly fits the genre. A gloomy story that follows a jaded and sarcastic protagonist, Joe Gillis from his initial dire circumstances to his untimely death, Sunset Blvd. earns the description “dark” several times over. But there is more to film noir than crushingly depressing plotlines. There are common motifs and icons that are found in most film noirs, such as crime, dark alleys, guns and alcohol. Deeper than this, film noir features certain visual elements, character archetypes, and themes that create a unique style of film. Although some have argued that Sunset Blvd. fails to represent some of these elements, it has become known as one of the most iconic film noirs ever made. Sunset Boulevard (1950), written and directed by Billy Wilder exemplifies the film noir style through its use of visual elements (lighting, shots and angles), memorable characters, themes and overall structure of the film.
Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness.
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 Narrative or storyline is much the same as any other film noir movie. It has a ‘hard boiled’ cop (Russell Crowe) who we grow attached to. The narrative of any film must have certain ‘key conventions’ which are apparent for the audience to tell the genre of the film. The narrative can be used to provide an explanation as to why the film contains certain things, or why a character does something.
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 French term, ‘Noir’ translates to ‘Black’ in English however we also use it describe a genre of film
NAREMORE, J. (1998). More than night film noir in its contexts. Berkeley, University of California Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=42280.
Howard Hawks chose to film The Big Sleep in the genre of film noir; this seemed like the obvious choice for a hardboiled detective novel. Film noir is the "'dark film,' a term applied by French critics to [the] type of American film, usually in the detective of thriller genre, with low-key lighting and a somber mood" (Bordwell 479). By using this genre of filmmaking, Hawks had an effective vehicle with which to retain the tone of Chand...
Hawks' version of The Big Sleep is known to be one of the best examples of the film genre-film noir. "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. In the novel it is questionable how lawfully moral he actually is, concerning the situation of turning Carmen into the police for killing Sean Regan. This aspect of Marlowe's character added yet another difficult task of formatting The Big Sleep to the big screen-the question of how the audience (media) might react to such a personality trait was now placed before the writing staff (IE production codes).
... and negative associations within the genre. Even with the obvious differences, both styles have borrowed concepts from the other, enriching each of their popularity in cinema.
Films of the Hollywood genres express elements of ‘order’ and ‘chaos’ using different filmic elements in the movies. The films that will be analyzed are a pair of film noirs, The Big Sleep(1946) and Polanski’s Chinatown(1974).
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.