FILM NOIR

FILM NOIR

Film noir is a distinct branch,sub-genre or off-shoot of the crime/gangster and detective/mystery sagas from the 1930s (i.e. Little Caesar(1930), Public Enemy(1931) and Scarface (1932), but very different in tone and characterization. It can be defined as a style but not as a genre. It’s rather the mood, style, point-of-view or tone of a film.
Classic film noir as a style of black and white American films that first evolved in the 1940s,became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in a classic “Golden Age” period until about 1960.The term film noir, literally “black film”, was coined by French film critics who noticed how “dark” and “black” the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France following the war.
The themes of noir, derived from sources in Europe, were imported to Hollywood by Emigre film-makers. Noirs were rooted in German expressionism of the 1920s and 1930s such as in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari(1919) and French sound films. These first European film noirs were noted for their stark camera angles and movements, chiaroscuro lighting and shadowy,high contrast images.
German expressionism had risen as the horrific child of two major forces in German life in the early 20th Century: Expressionist art and the loss of World War I. Expressionism can be conceived as a movement which dealt with what impressionist art had ignored. Impresionism had sought to give an outward impression of an object. Expressionism wanted to impose the emotional feeling an object invokes upon the artist. An expressionist painting is more about the artist than than the subject.
German expressionist films were just the expression of confusion and social collapse which resulted from being on the losing side of a war. Being the product of people essentially displaced within their own country and social order, these films radiated a sense of displacement. In the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is the archetypal German expressionist film, this sense of displacement was evoked by a madman’s twisted reality.
The common point in expressionist films is that there is always a sense of “wrongness”. This sense of “wrongness” gives them their horror. Modern horror does not seek answers; it declares there to be no answers, and proceeds to prove it by ripping everyone to strips. In Expressionist films, the world may still be confusing, but some answers are found. In these movies, the whole process is meant to involve the viewer in the landscape of the characters’ minds. The artistic design of German Expressionism, which has a prolonged effect on future’s film noirs, was mainly characterized by a high contrast between light and dark shading, eccentric and often highly angular set designs, dream-like haziness, and eerie and horrifying characters.
Classic film noir developed during and after World War II, taking an advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism and suspicion. They counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood’s musicals and comedies during this same time period. Fear, mistrust, bleakness and paranoia are readily evident in noir. Reflecting the chilly Cold War period when the threat of nuclear annihilation was ever-present. The criminal, violent, misogynistic or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film-noir were a metaphoric symptom of society’s evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict. Film noir is a world where nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. It is an aesthetic, cynical and disturbing way of looking at the repressed nightmare lurking beneath the post-war American Dream.
The earliest film noirs were detective thrillers. Very often, a film noir story was developed around a cynical hard-hearted, disillusioned male character (e.g. Robert Mitchum, Fred MacMurray, or Humphrey Bogart ) who encountered a beatiful but promiscous, amoral, double dealing and seductive “femme fatale” (e.g. Mary Astor, Veronica lake, Jane Green or Lana Turner ) who used her feminine wiles and come-hither sexuality to manipulate him into becoming the fall guy- often following a murder. After a betrayal or double-cross, she was frequently destroyed as well, often at the cost of the hero’s life.
So-called post-noirs (modern tech-noirs, neo-noirs, or cyberpunk ) appeared after the classical period with a revival of the themes classical noir. Tech-noir ( also known as ‘cyberpunk’ ) refers to a hybrid of high-tech sci-fi and film noirs portraying a decayed, grungy, unpromising, dark and dystopic future.
‘Cyberpunk’ was first popularized by William Gibson’s book the Neuromancer, and best exemplified in the late 70s and-90s with the following films: Alien (1979), Outland (1981), Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) with Harrison Ford as a futuristic LA replicant-killer, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), The Terminator (1984), Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Gattaca (1997) about futuristic genetic engineering and Alex Proya’s visually stlistic sci-fi Dark City (1998).
Primary characteristics and conventions of film noirs rooted in the classic film noir can clearly be realized in the moods, heroes, heroines and employed film techniques. In classic film noir. the primary moods are melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
Heroes (or anti-heroes) were corrupt characters and villains including hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, socio-paths, crooks, war veterans,petty criminals, and murderers. The hard-boiled detective was a cynical player in the new cynical post-war world. The Maltese Falcon is often considered to be the archetypal hard-boiled detective film; and Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart ) the archetypal hard-boiled-detective. Protogonists were often morally ambigous low lives from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. They were cynical, tarnished, obsessive, brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men) struggling to survive- and in the end, ultimately losing.
The females in film noir were either in two types- dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femme fatales-mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women.
Usually the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take ( or have the fateful choice made for him ). Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one. Often it would be to follow the goadings of traitorous femme fatale who destructively would lead the struggling hero into comitting murder or some other crime of passion. When the major chracter was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption and death.
Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music. Flashbacks ( or a series of flashbacks ), witty and acerbic dialogue,and/or reflective and confessional voice over narration were some of the characteristics of film noir. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain the hero’s own cynical perspective on life.
Film moir was marked by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus camera work ( a technique of great depth of field including the three levels of foreground, middle-ground and background objects) , disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtoposition of elements, skewed camera angles (usuaaly vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal ), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced compositions,
Orson Welles’s film Citizen Kane inspired many of the directors of film noir in many tecnicah recpescts. The film’s contributions to film noir were high-contrast-lighting ( revealing certain characters in bright, almost washed-out light, while casting others into almost total shadow 9, low angle camera set ups (making the subject seem taller and more powerful ), and deep focus which allows the camera maintain in focus objects and characters in both the background and foreground in the same shot. )
Settings were often interiors with low-key lighting, venetian blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic gllomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon ligths, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abondoned warehouses.
Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, and Howard Hawks.

CHINA TOWN
Scene 1 ( The Detective’s Office ) : The film starts with a pessimistic setting and a pretty awful event.( All evoking a feeling of distrust and disloyalty ) A feeling that the world is evil is dominant throughout the film. Life is full of darkness and treachory. Nevertheless the tough detective ( Jack Nicholson) is aware of all the ugly realities of life; and knows how to cope with them. Though an ordinary man( the betrayed husband) can still be led into disappointment by the world’s usual happenings and human being’s evils ( his wife’s disloyalty ); nothing can surprise film noir’s cool detective. While the husband is in a great pain of seeing his wife’s photographs having sexual relationship with a man; the detective can talk about his office’s newly repaired venetian blinds. Implying the idea that these things can happen, this is the natural way of life.
Regarding the setting, being the most evident characteristic of film noir,darkness reveals itself. A privete eye’s dark office looking at a busy LA street intoduces the audience with the dark atmosphere of the rest of the film. Deep shadows and extreme brightnesses allows the director to show what he wants us to see and to leave the rest in dark. The venetian blinds are the most useful tools in this sense, to allow just a little bit of sunshine to enter into our world of darkness.
Scene 2 ( Mr Mulray’s Office Building ) : Film noir is critical about society. It strictly denies seeing the world as something like Alice in the Wonderland. It stands against the dreamy optimism of the Hollywood movies. The feeling of wrongness strikes the audience just from the very beginning of the film to the end of it. The police and the politicians as well as a disloyal housewife are playing their roles in the overall going moral corruption. The idea that the world is evil undermines an ordinary citizen’s naive belief in the innate goodness of the state and the police. They do not exist to protect us but to secure their incomes.
The witty dialogues are the playgrounds for the critical detective who is the representative of the outsiders in the society. We hear a dialogue between Jack Nicholson ( an old cop ) and his colleague, which reveals , in an ironical attitude, all the hatred he feels towards the corrupted institution.
Scene 3 ( Mrs Mulray’s House ) : We can see the dark and bright objects together in the same scene. Deep focus including fore, middle and bakgrounds, leads the audience wonder more about what is inside. Camera is just at the back of the investigator following him very closely. So that the audience feels as a part of the investigation and is forced to think with the investigator and discover the facts.
Mysterious dialogue between the gardener and the investigator adds to the mysterious and suspicious atmosphere of the setting. Nothing is what it seems to be and nothing said is what is meant . The audience is invited to figure the things out of the mystery and get used to this manner of double speaking and double thinking in order to bring all these compilacated events and relationships into a resolution.
Scene 4 ( The Canals Where Mr Mulray’s Body was Found) : His collegues do not symphatise with the detective. He’s an outsider; and the institution does not accept him. They continuously mock and punish him for not being one of them. The instutional corruption is evident in the dialogues. People doing nothing are honored by promitions; seeing the facts brings you only despair.
Scene 5 (Meeting with Mrs Mulray at the Restaurant ) : Mrs Mulray with her suspicious character and gorgeous outlook stands in the film as the femme fatale character of film noir. She is cool, self-confident, smart. She looks as if she were acting all the time and hiding something of which our trust-worthy detective is not aware yet. She looks as if she were disloyal to her husband, excessively free in her manners, shortly a femme fatale who is a must be avoided of for men. Due to the fact that China Town intentionally and purposely included the elements of classic film noir,and was aimed to be a revival of classic film noir, Fay Dunaway’s first impression on the audience as a femme fatale is not unexpected. In a way, the film should satisfy the expectations of the audience who would be in search of well-known genre elements which are promised by the commercials, film poster and everything that makes one go and see the film. Nevertheless, at the end of the film Mrs Mulray turns out to be a victim of a very pathetic tragedy; and in her character proves the main thesis of film noir that nothing is what it seems to be.
Jack Nicholson starts to reveal his anti-hero aspects of a detective of film noir. Beginning from the restaurant scene and for the rest of the film he is seen with a bandage on his nose. When we consider the usual “too good to be true” Hollywood protogonists, the peculiarity with this type of hero is not difficult to recognize.
Scene 6 ( When We Learn Why China Town ) : This scene reveals a little bit of the mystery of the significance of China Town. Being the name of the film and the occasional references to China Town throughout the story provocates the audience’s curiousity about this place’s importance in hero’s life and its future contrubition to the end of the story. But the mysteries are not to be figured out so easily in a film noir, therefore the detective mentions only a part of this China Town story.
This dialogue is also effective in the sense that it gives an insight of the mysterious past of the detective. We come to understand under what circumstances his character has become so tough and indifferent. A tragic event, which is common with most of the film noir protogonists’ lives, dominates all his past memories and shapes all his present actions. All these usual characteristics of a typical film noir detective, such as an obsession with the past and being an old cop who is tired of violence, evil and witnessing the victory of the bad all the time, can be seen in Jack Nicholson.
Scene 7 ( The Trap) : One of the most typical of a classic film noir plot is the detective’s getting trapped and victimized though he is innocent. In search of truth which the society and its institutions tend to neglect, the truth seeker one way or another must be stopped. Here the detective finds himself in the middle of a well-plotted trap and is arrested by his old collegues.
Having been associated with the evil, the degree of darkness defines how bad the things are. Darkness foreshadows a horrible awful event to happen. This time the detective comes across the dead body of a woman and is caugth as the murderer.
Scene 8 ( the Detective Thinks He Captures the Truth in the End) : After he discovers Mr Mulray’s glasses in the pond; he knows without doubt that Mrs Mulray has murdered her husband in their house. He questions Mrs Mulray, wants to hear the truth from her. But again we come to the ultimate conclusion that the truth is relative.

DARK CITY
Scene 1 ( Tech Noir Introductive Setting ) : Dark, rain drench streets, neon lights, urban landscape, busy city life, gothic impressions and verticular shots all evoking horror and a feeling of insecurity are the aspects of a classic film noir of Los Angeles.
On the other hand, the most recognizable interior setting aspects are low-key lighting, deep shadows owing to the light bulb hanging on the ceiling, and extremely dark and extremely bright parts of the setting resulting in a contrast. In this film the distorted visions are frequently employed especially when dreams or memories are shown. Darkness represents evil and brightness represents good. The “shell beach” image is exaggeratedly bright since it symbolizes all the good days to come and longed for.
Scene 2 ( The Aliens Visit the Hotel Room ) : A scene with deep focus shows the three planes( foreground, middleground and background ) at the same time. The faces of the aliens are particularly bright adding to the gothic atmosphere of the scene.
Scene 3 ( John Murdock Questions his Identity ) : The setting here totally looks like 1950s America. It can be considered as a reference to classic film noir where the tough detectives wear trench-coats and the natural elements like chilly cold or wind add to the thrilling atmosphere.
Scene 4 ( Scientist in the Swimming Pool ) : After the shock of the atomic bomb used by Americans in Japan, people’s ultimate confidence in science was undermined. Science and scientists have been frequently considered in tech-noirs and in the products of science fiction, as servants of the evil. They are looked down on and in different ways humiliated.
Scene 5 ( When the Buildings are replaced with the New Ones ) : Every night at 12, they destroy the old buildings and replace them with the new ones. They are actually are trying to destroy the memory of a whole society. The personal memories, the memories of childhood or the neighbourhood are all to be destroyed in a night. We again come across a very favorable theme of film noir; the search for identity and the question “who am I?” What amkes us what we are today are the memories. They make us different from each other. The aliens are in search of this difference.
Memories are important in film noir. Jake in China Town is trying to get rid of his memories, but at the same is very closely connected to them. The past haunts us. It is there all the time.And in Dark City, the lack of memories and the absence of a past causes in John Murdock a feeling of unease. A past is desperately needed.
Scene 6 ( Emma Singing in a Club) : Emma looks like a typical film noir femme fatale character, attractive, cold and distrustful (she betrays her husband ). But since at the end of the film everything turns out be not real; she is not to be blamed and a false femme fatale. ( In China Town Mrs Mulray turns out to be innocent as well; a victim of the system.)
Scene 7 ( When the End is the Wall) : Some of the common film noir themes are symbolically given in this secene. Being trapped, getting stuck, longing for mobilization and freedom.
Scene 8 ( The Dialogue with the Alien ) : The complicated plot and the mystery in it is finally resolved. The question “ what do the aliens want from them? “ is answered leaving us with another universal question “what makes human beings different from each other? “. As a film noir, it never lets the audience sit and enjoy the film in peace.
Scene 9 ( The Sun ) : In a totally clastrophobic atmosphere the characters and the audience have longed for warm sun beams. The light is identified with sunny good days. The reign of the evil has been ended; the darkness has left the scene. So it is the sun’s turn to enter the scene.
The film has got a relatively optimistic ending, but it is still not good enough. Knowing the fact that they are still in a place where they do not belong and just trying to create an artificial nature ( ocean and sun) makes us uneasy. Cause no film noir is intended to make the audience happy.