Casino Royale

Despite not falling under the genre of 'Film Noir' the opening to the James Bond film Casino Royale could easily fool an audience into believing that it does, merely from the conventions and connotations that it creates from the opening sequence (which is completely different to the remainder of the film).



For example one of the first shots captured is this:
Facial expression - The characters drooped mouth, wide eyes and slightly raised eyebrows imply that at this point the character is stressed, possibly in a dangerous situation and automatically, because of this on-edge persona the audience identifies him as perhaps an untrustworthy character and a possible villain in the plot. Typically in Film Noir films, the villian is a key character and is therefore introduced to the audience very early on in the narrative - as is done here. Themes and connotations hinted by the facial expression - such as danger, a fast-moving plot and a serious villian are all typical aspects of the Film Noir genre.

The camera shot - The low angle puts the audience in a position where they are looking up at the character, therefore he is represented as powerful and possibly scary to the audience. This is also often used in Film Noir to ensure that the audience fear the villain, therefore making suspense and tension throughout the film easy to create. The very slight tilt on the angle also distorts the audience, again making them feel on-edge and therefore interested in the plot of the film wondering what will happen next. Distorting the audience slightly is a commonly used strategy of FN, as the films generally have quite complex, fast-paced plots and if the audience are very interested (and watching intently to see what happens next), then it ensures that the audience will be able to understand and enjoy the film overall.

Another example of how Casino Royal uses Film Noir convensions is shown in this image by:
Setting: Where this particular scene is set is obviously in a large business' sky scraper and Film Noir's typical characters are usually either very rich or are very money orrientated. The very posh interior of the building implies to the audience - who know very little about this character at the time - is probably a man very high up in a successful business and therefore is quite an impressive figure. Not only the building where the opening of Casino Royal is set is typical of Film Noir, but the night-time setting is also a commonly used convention. Since the genre usually involves a great deal of mystery, running away, tension, lust and suspense and a dark knight connotes all of that. The night also means that few people are around, therefore the audience gains the impression immediately that there's something secretive and odd about this character going to his work place in the middle of the night, when no one is around.

The audience is then introduced to their hero - James Bond. Lighting- most Film Noir hero's are in some way morally ambiguous, though the audience know nothing of James at this stage in the plot, simply the lighting on his face connotes that he may be the typical FN hero. The half of his face that is lit up to almost show up as white, suggests that as a character he is good, compassionate, it reassures the audience that this is their hero. On the other hand the half of his face that is not lit, which only blends into the darkness implies that despite being the hero that doesn't mean that his hands are always clean, like most FN hero's he has perhaps killed people, broken the law, committed adultery etc. and maybe sometimes he gets lost and commits darker actions at points in the film. Typically in Film Noir, lighting is also very harsh which then creates dark, defined shadows which help to add to the theme of mystery. In this shot, behind James are a great deal of shadows created by his body and his chair - these help to create a very dark enigmatic setting (one which would easily fit into a film that fell under the genre of Film Noir).

Props: Generally, FN films do not rely heavily on props at all however almost every film of the genre features atleast one gun. In this shot, the gun is very clearly shown to the audience - a suggestion that it's an important prop which will probably be used throughout the film, since the focus of this shot, is the gun. A gun connotes every aspect of a Film Noir movie - defence, danger, power, risking life etc. The gun being in the draw could represent a secretive plot, suspense rather than a lot of obvious action - which is the structure of FN. The otherwise emptiness of the draws implies that the business office is not used for a business purpose, which implies some sort of corruption and secrecy.



Finally, this snap shot also suggests that Casino Royal has conventions of the Film Noir genre - mainly by the body language. The gun is being almost directly pointed at the camera therefore the audience are put in a position where they would feel intimidated. Yet the relaxed positioning (sitting down into the chair, one arm down and other than the gun pointing little other body language) this suggests that the villain is powerful and doesn't need body language to reinforce his speech because he's already powerful enough. This links to Film Noir because the villian is typically very dangerous and dark, the relaxed facial expression also implies that he's very used to handling guns - and as I stated previously, guns are a very key prop in the FN genre. The tight grip on the gun is an implication of a tight grip on the world of crime and corruption, a world in which Film Noir movies are set in.

Film Noir

'Film Noir' general research



Film noir is a film genre which often deals with corruption, violence, exploitation and treachery. The plots were written by "hard-boiled" writers in the early 1940's, and are visually associated with a subtle black-and-white visual style that sprouted from German expressionist films (which feature bold and very artistic ideas, which are usually more dramatic than realistic). The camera work is very important for these films, shots are usually taken from quite extreme angles, distorting the audience, they're also quite suspicious (matching the tone of the films) for example taken from behind a door or round a corner, as if the audience are spying on the characters.
Themes and moods that typically occur:

• Darkness
• Betrayl
• Crime
• Lust
• Deceit
• Bleakness
• Suspicion

The general style of the genre is typical for films set/written in the fourties, the leading lady whether she's a damsel in distress or a femme fatale is usually very glamerous to match the classiness of the film as a whole.
Costume

Typical Film Noir costume centers around the classy fourties era, therefore characters tend to be dressed in glamerous clothing for example male tend to be wearing suits, hats, braces and well made shoes etc. (As shown in the image below) however since the lead character in a Film Noir is usually a detective of some time there are other additions to this, such as hats which add to the enigmatic elements to these films. The suits tend to be dark to add to the classic style of the characters, the very low key colouring helps them to blend into the shadows and dark settings.   

 Whereas women's costume is usually very important, glamorous dresses and expensive-looking jewelry tends to be warn to add to the theme of lust between the hero and the leading lady. The lighting usually supports the mysterious, enigmatic narrative - it's generally a very strong and harsh light which creates huge shadows. These huge shadows are very effective when tension needs to be built because they add darkness to the background, and put emphasis any action the character does.The mis-en-scene is of great importance to Film Noir films, therefore the settings tends to be very mysterious and claustrophobic such as small business offices or next to lamp posts in the night time. However props are hardly used at all, the three props which will definitely occur though, are hats such as in the Maltese Falcon: 
Here the characters are spies and have to create an enigmatic persona, therefore with a hat covering a portion of a characters face and therefore expressions, it creates a more mysterious character.











Another key prop in the Film Noir genre, are cigarettes - as most of the films were either made or set in the forties or fifties, at the time it was considered extremely glamorous and classy to smoke. Again, cigarettes are featured in the Maltese Falcon - often because the characters may be in a stressful situation and despite the cool front that they put on, smoking shows them to be secretly on-edge. The audience are then left to worry about the fate of their hero, which makes it easier for the film producers to create suspense.




Heroes in film Noir:
Film Noir hereos tend to have similar characteristics such as they often have a moral ambiguity and they often stand out in society, not complying to 'social normality'. The hero's often lack companionship towards co-workers or other men in the plot, yet have a sincere weakness of a strong lust for beautiful women. Despite all of this, the audience always feel either sympathetic or feel admiration towards the hero, because he is generally represented as being lead into a bad situation, which he then regrets and tries to put right. For example Breaking Point's  hero was Harry Morgan - he was a war hero, who was a father and husband with little luck. He falls into debt and then ends up as an accomplice in a robbery (example of moral ambiguity). This is the trailer for Breaking Point:- 


In the trailer Harry is represented as a typical Film Noir hero; it shows their to be lust and a possible affair in the film, despite participating in illegal activities it's shown that he may know that it's wrong and feel guilty about what he is doing especially by the line of 'I don't want you to know about this, no part of it'. The opening shot of the trailer, is Harry kissing his mistress passionately alongside the title 'holds this kind of a woman...he's close to danger!' therefore straight away the audience can  distinguish their hero. He's represented as quite noble however, he has told his mistress that he is in love with his wife therefore the audience feel that he's been caught up in a bad situation however is not a bad character, and therefore roots for the hero to succeed in the plot despite this obvious moral ambiguity - like most Film Noir hero's. 


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