David van der Tang At School

Introduction

Film Noir is characterised by the following major characteristics:

• A weak male protagonist.
• A femme fatale
• Dark and disturbing themes
• Style – b & w, charioscuro lighting.
• Frequent use of deep focus.
• Often low budget
• Often based on hard boiled crime novels.
• Urban setting where the city is seen as dehumanising.
• Classic Noir – 1940s & 1950s
• Deals with the subjective experience of the protagonist, we see the world from his point of view e.g. use of voice over.
• Draw on the tradition of expressionist film making e.g. visual distortion to better understand the point-of-view of the protagonist.
• Reflects the social dislocation brought about by World War II where women began to assume a much more active role in society because they moved into jobs left open by men going to war.  When the men returned they found that women had changed.  This lead to anxiety on the part of many men and this is reflected in Film Noir, especially with regard to the femme fatale.

Neo Noir

• Although classic Film Noir is largely a phenomenon of the 1940s and 1950s its impact on film making has been significant.
• There are some films which are direct “descendants” of the classic Noir tradition, the most well known being Blade Runner.
• Other types of film are not pure Noir but have clearly been influenced by the Noir tradition.  An example of this is the television series, Battlestar Galactica.  It is an action packed science fiction series but its story line includes dark themes and a classic femme fatale as well as a visual style which makes extensive use of charioscuro lighting.
• Neo Noir’s visual style may be described as an intesified version of the original concept i.e. shadows are very deep and contrasts in lighting can be extreme.
• The characters in Neo Noir are likely to be more complex and perhaps less clear cut than in classic Film Noir.
• Neo Noir can never be classic Film Noir – Noir films are not likely to be in black and white, they are also likely to be big budget films so the minimalist approach to film making that was such a defining feature of Neo Noir is unlikely to be reproduced.
• Neo Noir is fundametally a reinterpretation of classic Film Noir in a way that is relevant for today’s audiences.

Possible Texts (online sources are hyperlinked)

Classic Film Noir

1. DOA
2. Detour
3. Scarlet Street

Neo Noir

1. Battlestar Galactica
2. Bladerunner

Useful Links

Thumbnails

• Detour thumbnails
• Scarlet Street thumbnails
• DOA thumbnails

Theory

• Film Noir (complex but very useful discussion of noir)
• Charioscuro in painting