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. 


Film Noir Photos