LOOKING AT FILM NOIR
Film noir, or "black cinema", reached its apex in the decade after the Second World War. Typified by low key lighting, dark interiors, night exteriors (shot night-for-night), wet streets, a brooding mood, a hard-boiled and independent hero with an ambivalence towards or dislike of authority, cynical dialogue, villains who prefer greed and lust, and a smouldering suggestion of illicit sexuality, personified by a sexually agressive femme fatale, whose deceit threatens to undo the best hopes and fortunes of the male lead, it graphically captured the spirit of the times, though it antecedents are traceable back to the mass electrification of the cities - around 1910 - and the rise of German Expressionism, a painting movement that came to the fore duing the 30s Depression.
Its emergence as a dramatic form was disarmingly articulated in the gritty pulp fiction that followed World War II, especially in the work of writers like Hammett, Chandler and Horace McCoy among others, and the vision of several leading German and Austrian film directors who emigrated to America after Hitler came to power.
The insecurities and confusion of the post-war period wedded to a series of profound technological developments in both lighting and film stocks, were major contributing factors to the popularity of the genre.
Essentially, there are two types of dramatic plots that characterise the form.
In the first type, a detective, or representative of the law, descends into an unstable unpredictable corrupt universe as he searches for the truth. In the second, a decent "Everyman" gets drawn into a corrupt environment which poisons him until he, too, ends up corrupt (e.g.: Quinlan in Touch of Evil).
The visual style of a classic Noir film, emphasises a dark and hostile universe. The hero's moral confusion is usually externalized in the use of low-key lighting and extreme, nightmarish shadows. Harsh lighting contrasts, jagged shapes, weird camera angles, all contribute to the unease and sense of threat. Often there are scenes at night in which pools of darkness are broken up by pockets of light. Dark streets, alleys, tunnels, subways, elevators, and train cars (which function as motifs of entrapment) create alien and often claustrophobic environments, depersonalised by flashing neon signs and dense fog. Clouds of cigarette smoke swirling in dimly lit cocktail lounges mix with symbols of fragility, such as window panes, sheer clothing, glasses and mirrors.
Noir characters are invariably "imprisoned" behind ornate lattices, grillwork, drifting fog and smoke.
There is also a sense of temporariness - as if the entire world is in flux, moving towards an uncertain future - hence, the use of transient settings : grubby rented rooms, bus terminals, piers, railroad yards, and the like.
The tone is usually paranoid and fatalistic. The focus, on human depravity, violence, lust, greed and betrayal.
Some Examples of Film Noir
Detectives searching for the truth in an alien, corrupt universe
• John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, 1941
• Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet, 1944
• Otto Preminger's Laura, 1944
• Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, 1958
A decent man is slowly poisoned by a corrupt environment films include:
• Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, 1944
• Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street, 1945
• Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour, 1945
• Jacques Tourneur's Out Of The Past, 1947
• Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai, 1948