FILM NOIR
During the summer we were asked to make a short suspense film (2 minutes) this gave us the opportunity to:-
- Experiment with the cameras to prepare us for our coursework ( 5 minute short film)
- We were able to experiment shooting from different camera angles and develop our camera skills through using the camera both on a stand and handheld
- We produced a storyboard which helped us have a guideline whilst filming.
- We also had a look at other extracts from films which included suspense scenes to get an idea of codes and conventions.
This helped me experience problems with sound levels, and background noises such as cars, I learnt that when filming you must research your location and film at specific times to get the best quality.
our two minute film:
After returning this summer we have looked at a few examples of film noir, both short 5 minute productions, such as 'Ark' by Mal Woolford, and Double Indemnity (1944 classic noir feature) an American film by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler.
Codes and Conventions
Film noir french for 'black film' (came around 1940's/1950's) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations.
There are particular codes and conventions used throughout the genre which enable the audience to recognise the film as film noir:
- The cinematography is usually distorted and skewed reflecting the tone of film noir it also makes the viewer uneasy and evokes discomfort
- High and low camera angles are often used
- Close ups and extreme close ups
- Depth of field shots
- Urban settings (rain and dark streets)
- Includes femme fatale and anti hero
- Low lighting to add to the mysterious setting
- Ambiance of the city suburbia
- Sudden noises
- Melancholy music
- Telling of a story through flashbacks
- Shadows
- Reflections obscured through objects
- Voiceover
- Detectives
- Filmed in black and white
- Props, e.g. hats and cigarettes
- Ambiguity and moral corruption
Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity (1944) directed by Billy Wilder, starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G.Robinson as the main actors is an example of a classic noir film set in America's LA. An overview of the film from IMDb ' An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.' Double Indemnity demonstrates many of the codes and conventions of film noir which I listed previously. The characters, scenario and stylistic elements of double indemnity all represent early film noir, the dark tone of Double Indemnity, both visually and thematically additionally add to this. The anti hero who is led astray by greed and lust and the seductive yet deadly femme fetale are all essential in making the film categorize into the film noir genre. The evidence of crime and violence and the use of props, such as cigarettes and costume, such as suits and hats also make the film more conventional of its genre.
Neo-noir
Neo-noir has established itself as the preferred term for film noirs made after the classical period (1940-1959).
There are three different types of neo-noir film, Leighton Grist (1993) distinguishes between what he calls 'modern', 'modernist' and 'post-modern':
Modern
E.g. 'Harper' (1966), remakes and updates classics, tends to introduce 'a number signifier's of modernity', which include 'an updated setting, the use of colour, greater sexual frankness and the transmission of decidedly modern attitudes and mores'
Modernist
E.g. 'Point Blank' (1967), 'Taxi Driver' (1976) These films challenge noir as a genre and are more questioning and radical, they challenge film noir ideology and values, subverting film noir codes and conventions.
Post-modern
E.g. 'Blade Runner' (1989), Quentin Tarantino, they use a bricolage effect, by using noir combined with other genres in a sampling way. Post modern noir is seen as radical and steps away greatly from the codes and conventions of film noir.
RedBlack
'RedBlack' a short film by Mal Woolford (2007) showed typical codes and conventions of Film Noir. The urban night time setting gave indications to film noir from the offset. The sounds from the urban city in the background is common of film noir. Additionally the woman actress is most certainly a femme fatale as she evokes mystery and danger and her appearance being beautiful and seductive is a common trait throughout the film noir genre. The lighting also resembled film noir as it usually relies heavily on lighting to set the mood within the scene which this short film did, the street lamps were used to create an eerie feeling within the film. The camera angles used within 'Redblack' indicate that the woman is in fact a femme fetale to the audience as the close up shots of her face and body convey to the audience her mysterious nature.
Taxi Driver (modernist)
Taxi Driver (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader is considered as a modernist neo-noir American film, it both challenges the film noir genre and typical codes and conventions but shows evidence of them also:
- Travis Bickle, (Robert De Niro), is presented as an anti-hero as he shows violence throughout the film and odd tendencies but he also proves himself to be a hero by saving Iris (Jodie F oster) at the end of the film.
- Demostrates some voice overs
- Night time settings
- Street lamps used as lighting
- Violence/ crime/ gun culture
- Femme fetale (Jodie Foster)
- Rainy urban setting in New York
An overview of Taxi Driver from IMDb:
'A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage prostitute in the process.'
Taxi Driver Trailer
Auteur Theory
The term Auteur originates from France, which translates as author, meaning a director's film reflects their creative vision.
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| Quentin Tarantino |
Also known as signing the screen, is evindent by many film producers/directors today such as Quentin Tarantino. The theory of authorship is crucial in modern day culture. The idea of the author of a film having a great impact on the films we watch with specific directors leaving their unique marks on their films and having creative control over them.
Quentin Tarantino demonstrates the idea of Auteur theory through his film Pulp Fiction (1994)
He makes his unique mark on his films in many ways, the way he used particular storyline's, frames shots and uses certain music makes his films reconisable within an instant.
Tarantino's use of the same actors known as his 'lucky actors' are an example of his auteur's signatures, he uses uma thurman in both Pulp Fiction and Kill bill, Samuel L Jackson in both Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown and Bruce Willis in both Death Proof and Pulp fiction. Additionally Quentin Tarantino usually plays minor roles within his films such as Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp fiction and Mr.Brown in Resevoir Dogs.
Another Autuer signature from Quentin Tarantino is that he usually uses old/forgotten music within his films and revives them in some way such as in Pulp fiction set in the 90's he uses an old song by Chuck Berry during the swing contest scene, which became popular again after the film had been released.
There are also connections between films which make viewers realise the film is infact a Tarantino film for example sometimes the same dialogue is used, the line 'Any time of day is a good time for pie' is used in Tarantino's pulp fiction and also a film written by him names 'True Romance'.
'Any day is a good day for pie'- scene
Pulp Fiction (post-modern)
We also looked at the neo noir film 'Pulp Fiction' by Quentin Tarantino (1994), starring John Travolta, Samuel Jackson and Uma Therman as the main actors. An overview of the film from IMDb 'The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.'
Pulp fiction is considered as a post modernist noir film, as it demonstrates a 'mash-up' of genres but shows intertextual references to film noir, such as reference to the classic noir film 'Kiss Me Deadly'.
The film showed some similarities to noir films such as:
- There was lots of crime and violence, additionally the use of weapons such as guns
- Similar props were used such as cigarettes
- The men wore smart suits and hats which is typical in film noir
- There was also evidence of a femme fetale and an antihero.
Pulp fiction also demonstrated some differences to film noir such as:
- The film was in colour.
- A villian was used as the protagonist (John Travolta) instead of a typical detective.
- The music used is not Jazz.
Pulp fiction Trailer
Narrative Theories
Tzevetan Todorov
He came up with a narrative theory that suggested that there are 5 main stages to every narrative:
1 - Equilibrium
2 - Disruption by an event, causing an unbalance
3 - An enigma, realisation that the disruption had occurred
4 - A path to resolution, attempting to fix the disruption and damage.
5 - Restoration of equilibrium
We looked at some short films in class and applied the theories in which we had learnt, we applied Tzevetan Todorov's narrative theory to a short film named 'Stripes' (2003) directed and written by Sean Speancer.
'Stripes' (2003)
Todorov's theory put into context
1 - Equilibrium
1 - average working man making breakfast on a day off at home
2 - Disruption by an event, causing an unbalance
2 - intruder
3 - An enigma, realisation that the disruption had occurred
3 - interrogation by intruder, and revelation that intrudr was householder's victim of bullying at school
4 - A path to resolution, attempting to fix the disruption and damage.
4 - Intruder cutting the mans face with knife, as payback
5 - Restoration of equilibrium
5 - homeowner, working male, is now the victim.
Vladimir Propp
Propp looked at the way characters were represented in folk tales more as stereotypes rather than individual characters and looks at the characters and their actions:
- The Hero- protagonist, on a quest
- The Villain- antagonist, opposes/challenges the hero
- The false hero- tempts the hero away from his quest
- The Helper- helps the hero in some way
- The dispatcher- starts the hero on his way
- The donor- helps hero by giving him a magic tool
- The princess- is the hero's reward
- The father (of the princess)- Rewards the hero for efforts
Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss believes that the elements in film which give meaning usually appear in a series of opposites/pairs (binary oppositions), they can either be visual e.g. Day and Night, or conceptual e.g. Love and Hate. These oppositions tend to structure a narrative/film once they have been noticed. He argued that the meaning of a word was more defined by its opposite, a relationship between opposing ideas.
Rolande Barthes
Rolande Barthes has narrowed down the narrative action into five basic codes and suggests that this is how readers make sense of the narrative:
- The action or proairetic - the way tension is built and the audience is kept guessing
- The enigma or hermeneutic- The story avoids revealing all the facts, creates mystery by dropping clues
- The semantic- refers to the connotations that the story suggests
- The symbolic- uses symbolic knowledge e.g. religious understanding
- The cultural or referential- cultural/social values/norms which we tend not to challenge for example, murder is wrong.
Richard Dyer's "Utopian pleasures" theory
Richard Dyer (1977) has a theory that people will respond to a media text if it provides them with compensation for the inadequencies in their own lives. Richard Dyer's utopian feeling or fantasy, and its coded entertainment forms are:
- Abundance
- Energy
- Intensity
- Transparency
- Community
Energy is replacing Exhaustion, for example, pressures of work and at home, work as a grind.
Intensity is replacing dreariness
Transparency is replacing manipulation.
Community is replacing fragmentation
A utopian feeling or fantasy has been created in some films such as Blade Runner.
Abundance can been in Blade Runner through the futururistic and over the top set, the lack of poverty shown throughout the film also through the costumes and the company 'Tyrell' appearing afluent creating a sense of abundance throughout the film.
Energy is evident within Blade Runner through the sci-fi action and the energetic characters and thier energy filled dialogue.
Intensity is also seen in Blade Runner through the action filled plot itself, which replaces the mundane reality of people's lives. For example the character Rick Deckard being placed in dangerous satuations creating acion-packed scenes creates intensity during his quest to try and retire a replicant.
Transparency is shown in the film Blade Runner through Deckard going against his orders in retiring Rachel.
Community is also show through the replicants that were ordered to be retired stick together when defending thier lives and show a sense of community.
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| Blade Runner |
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