Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975) follows ex pro-football player Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman), as he tries to unravel a case centered around a missing 16-year-old girl. As Moseby tries to solve the case and deal with the revelation that his wife has been having an affair, the actual case takes a back seat to the unravelling of Harry Moseby’s life, and sense of self. Night Moves is a prime example of neo-noir that plays with elements of classic noir films, to reflect a breakdown in confidence of a post-Watergate America using a character who consistently throws himself further and further down a rabbit hole. Neo-noir takes elements of classic film noir of the 1940s and 1950s, such as detective stories, and femme fatales, and blends them with updated themes, content, …show more content…
and visual styles. While neo-noir films existed before the 1970s, the social anxiety and loss of governmental faith in 1970s America was the perfect catalyst to create neo noir classics such as Chinatown (1974), and Dirty Harry (1971). In Andy Willis’ article “Neo-Noir: The Cultural Significance (and Insignificance) of a Film Style” he explains “the style and ideas of film noir were revived most comprehensively in a decade of American soul-searching and ideological crisis: the 1970s,” (Willis 32). Before Night Moves, the country was entering a period of uncertainty and distrust. Watergate and Richard Nixon’s subsequent pardoning had left citizens with a certain level of distrust in authority. When being interviewed by Monthly Film Bulletin, Arthur Penn explained that he didn’t try to make the case watertight, instead he explained “we’re part of a generation which knows that there are no solutions,” (Galagher 1975:87). The film opts for a more open ending to the case, focusing more on the main character’s struggle to make light of a constantly crumbling life. Harry Moseby has an intimidating physicality, and demeanor to him but still fails to take control of a situation like earlier film noir counterparts. The best example of this is when Moseby confronts the crippled man his wife is having an affair with. The man tells him “Come on Harry, take a swing at me like Sam Spade would.” The methods of these classic film noir detectives seem outdated and ineffective in the world of Night Moves. Practically all of the detective that Moseby does, only serves to further complicate the situation. Many of the suspects turn out to be relatively innocent and it is only through the culprits own decision to attack Harry that he is able to figure out to fully understand the situation he’s in, but by then the revelation serves no purpose. Night Moves style and structure tend to reflect the condition of its main protagonist Moseby.
Scenes seem to have an almost abrupt, or disjointed feel and dialogue will often continue onto the beginning of the next scene. Penn said he thought the film needed “almost convulsive editing, something that might suggest a nervous tic,” (Jackson). The film also features small metaphors and items that better help understand Harry’s story, the most obvious being the chess board. The film’s original title was “The Dark Tower” before Penn decided to change the title due to the many references to chess. In one scene between Moseby and Delly, Moseby reenacts a championship game played in 1922, and explains how a player failed to recognize he had a mate and must have regretted it the rest of his life. Just like the chess player, Moseby never fully realizes characters’ true intentions and thus consistently makes the wrong moves. The film could almost be called “Knight Moves” as Moseby seems to approach most situations like a knight on a chessboard. Just as he tracked down his father only to just observe him, he avoids confronting his wife directly and instead opts to take the indirect route and approach the lover
instead. Night Moves play with classic film noir elements, and its main character’s constant struggle to make light of the world around him reflect a breakdown in confidence of a post-Watergate America. The film utilizes different film noir and chess references to emphasize the indirect nature of its main character and the ever changing society where nothing is straight forward and there is no sure answer.
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.
Film Noir, as Paul Schrader integrates in his essay ‘Notes on Film Noir,’ reflects a marked phase in the history of films denoting a peculiar style observed during that period. More specifically, Film Noir is defined by intricate qualities like tone and mood, rather than generic compositions, settings and presentation. Just as ‘genre’ categorizes films on the basis of common occurrences of iconographic elements in a certain way, ‘style’ acts as the paradox that exemplifies the generality and singularity at the same time, in Film Noir, through the notion of morality. In other words, Film Noir is a genre that exquisitely entwines theme and style, and henceforth sheds light on individual difference in perception of a common phenomenon. Pertaining
The Holocaust is known to be one the World's greatest catastrophes. Many people know about it, but very few know how life was like in the concentration camps. In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes figurative language like metaphors, irony, foreshadowing, and unique sentence structures, to convey and compare how life during the Holocaust was ghastly, full of lies and regret, and how it was like "one long night, seven times cursed"(25).
destructive, exotic and a self-determined independent who is cold hearted, immortal and less of a human. The females portrayed in the noir were primarily of two types - either projected as ethical, loyal loving woman or as ‘femme fatales’ who were duplicitous, deceptive, manipulative and desperate yet gorgeous women. In
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion 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.
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt is a true masterpiece. Hitchcock brings the perfect mix of horror, suspense, and drama to a small American town. One of the scenes that exemplifies his masterful style takes place in a bar between the two main characters, Charlie Newton and her uncle Charlie. Hitchcock was quoted as saying that Shadow of a Doubt, “brought murder and violence back in the home, where it rightly belongs.” This quote, although humorous, reaffirms the main theme of the film: we find evil in the places we least expect it. Through careful analysis of the bar scene, we see how Hitchcock underlies and reinforces this theme through the setting, camera angles, and lighting.
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.
One major attribute in Hitchcock films is how creatively Hitchcock tricks the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. Many people argue that it is a tactic by Hitchcock to surprise his audience in order to increase the suspense of the movie. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, the audience assumes that young Charlie is an innocent young girl who loves her uncle dearly. However as the movie progresses, Young Charlie is not as innocent as the audience suspects. Young Charlie, once a guiltless child, ends up killing her evil uncle. In Vertigo, the same Hitchcock trickery takes place. In the beginning, the audience has the impression that the Blond women is possessed by another woman who is trying to kill her. The audience also has the notion that the detective is a happy man who will solve the murder case correctly. Just before the movie ends, the audience realizes that the detective was specifically hired by a man to kill his wife. The detective, in the end, seems to be the hopeless, sad victim.
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.
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).
What is horror? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay." It stands to reason then that "horror fiction" is fiction that elicits those emotions in the reader. An example of a horror film is "The Shining", directed by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick was a well-known director, producer, writer and cinematographer. His films comprised of unique, qualitative scenes that are still memorable but one iconic film in his collection of work is The Shining. Many would disagree and say that The Shining was not his best work and he could have done better yet, there are still those who would say otherwise. This film was not meant to be a “scary pop-up” terror film but instead, it turned into a spectacular psychological, horor film in which Kubrick deeply thought about each scene and every line.
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