Research Of Film Noir

Task; To create a short film (no more than 5 minutes), in its entirety and create an accompanying film poster and magazine film review - brief 10)

Historical Origins

• Film Noir first hit it off just after World War Two, when women were doing the jobs that the men were doing before they left for the war and they finally felt they knew what it was like to have power, and they didn't want to give it back.

• The US cold war was making its mark, and Film Noirs rarely had a happy or optimistic ending. The films normally had a really gloomy mood, with a lot of mystery to it.

• The style of the films were often influenced by German Expressionism, which refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War.

• Films from German directors, like F. W. Murnau, G. W. Pabst and Robert Wiene were well known for their stark camera angles and movements, chiaroscuro lighting and shadowy, high contrast images. These were all elements of the later films.

About Film Noir

• There are always;

               - Seductive, powerful women and they use that to get what they want

               - About money and murder

               - Dark themes

               - Mysterious themes

               - Protagonists that have bad luck

               - Pose the question "why me?" and the answer "for no reason at all"

               - Protagonists that are on a downwards spiral in which they cannot get out of

               - A twisted triangle of love, hate and murder

               - Smoking - which is a sign of bad morals

• Film Noir portrays a world that no one had seen in detail before. They often gave the audience access to every part of society.

• The characters are like small fish in a big aquarium with lots of things happening all at once and they have to piece them all together.

• One quarter or more of the plots involve male finds out when he returns from war that things aren't the same anymore.

Target Audience

• The target audience is males; 
• The movies include a seductive femme fatale, who the male protagonist normally falls for because the femme fatale seduces her for her own purposes. This would attract the males more then the females.

• The age of the audience can vary depending on the content of the movie and what themes and the story line is like. Film noirs can be for the older generations and the younger.

Why do the Audience Watch Film Noirs?

• The audience doesn't know what is going on, but they know something bad is happening as the characters become entwined with more dark happenings, so that excites them to keep watching until the end.

• It's like a riddle or a puzzle and people want to figure them out, that is why people like them so much.

Lighting and Camera Angles

• There is often low angles and high angles when a woman is shot in a Film Noir. This shows who has the status and power between the two characters.

• After the war, the equipment they used advanced, so they were able to shoot at night and use effective lights to get the best results.

• They use wide angle lenses so that the foreground and the background are both in the shot, even though the actors cannot see each other when one stands behind the other while they are shooting a scene, the audience can see everything perfectly.

• Light and Shadows are always used in film noirs.

• Lights can show good and evil by how light or dark the location or shot are.

• The light can show a character trapped and the fact that they can't leave the situation or place they are in.
• Venetian blinds are a quick way to create psychological effects.

• 

  Film noirs often use chiaroscuro lighting, which is a contrast between light and dark lighting, usually bold contrasts which affect the whole composition. 

• Chiaroscuro lighting creates shadows and sharp lights, which can hide identities of characters, distort the audiences' view of what is happening in the scene and change the atmosphere of the film.

Location

• Some typical locations for Film Noir are; Urban settings, Dark Alleyways, tunnels etc.

• The location is a must because the film is shooting reality.

• It is important for film noir to show the city to make it seem more realistic.
  
  

James King

• He didn't write for the "pulps" and he wasn't interested in motion pictures or writing for them, so others took his work and made them films instead.

• People say he was an amazing writer.

• His story was the same for most of what he wrote - the man falls in love with the women, he ends up killing the husband and then it ends up with him getting into trouble because of it.

Raymond Chandler

• He was an American novelist and screenwriter. He started at the age of 44, when he lost his job at an oil company during the Great Depression.
• He mostly wrote detective fiction, such as "Farewell, My Lovely" and "The Long Goodbye". Both of these books have gone on to become films in the style of noir.
• Chandler was the first one to say "try it on for size" and now it is a phrase people use everyday.

Joe Lewis

• Joe Lewis was an American B-movie film director.
• His stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by film critics in the years that followed his retirement in 1966. 
• Joe Lewis was great at set ups and is remembered for his original mysteries; My Name is Julia Ross (1945) and So the Dark Night (1946).
• Some film noirs have followed in his steps and created similar set ups.

Censorship

• The censorship meant that Film Noirs were not allowed to show certain images that weren't seen as appropriate.

• People believe that censorship allows the audiences' imagination to take over, and for writers to be creative.

• The fact they aren't allowed to show when two characters have a sexual relationship, makes the audiences' atmosphere even more passionate because they don't actually see it, so their mind is left to wander.  

Traditional Conventions

 Characters

• Femme Fatale - a seductive, double-dealing woman. She normally manipulates men to becoming the "fall guy". The women were often portrayed as powerful women because they had just found their independence after the second world war.

• Anti-heroes - males that had dark pasts and were not innocent or good guys. They are often cynical, disillusioned males who get caught up in the femme fatale's plans.

• The Detective 

Costumes

Binary Oppositions in Film Noir

• A lot of Film Noirs include binary oppositions, such as;
• good vs evil
• innocence vs corruption 
• light vs dark
• male vs female
• good female vs bad female

Neo Noir

Neo Noir is a style that is often seen in modern motion pictures. These movies often have elements of film noir in them, but they have modern themes, content and styles that weren't in the original film noirs.

Some examples of neo noirs are;

• American Psycho 2000

• The Bourne Identity 2002

• Batman Begins 2005

• The Black Dahlia 2006

• The Dark Knight 2008