Film Noir

This week marked the beginning of a series of weekly film-related topic. These topics will range from styles and genres, to production elements. The goal is to explore the vastness of film and get familiarized with the deeper nuts and bolts of the medium.

We start with Film Noir, one of the classic staples of cinema. As any other, I knew the basics of what film noir entailed; the lighting style, the old-school detective feel, the damsels in distress, and the common theme of betrayal. When I set out to do some more in depth research however, I was surprised to find out just how big film noir really is, and how it has forever impacted the cinematic world.
At first glance, it can be difficult to define what exactly a film noir is. Just because something is lit like a film noir, does not actually mean it is a film noir. Likewise, just because its a dark crime/mystery/detective piece, does not classify it as noir. Rather, it is the cultivation of visual elements combined with specific story arcs that truly narrow down the qualities of true film noir.

The emergence of the noir film came about from a series of hardboiled mystery books. These stories were pithy and dealt with sensational, sometimes lucid subjects (in those times anyways), and were printed on cheap paper made of wood pulp. These works stemmed a new form of literature that become known as "pulp fiction".
Visually, the style of noir began in Germany. This was soon brought to the US after the rise of the Nazi party. Realist Expressionism became the term referencing the specific vidual style of these films. It was ignored among the "a-listers" of Hollywood, but became an explosion among the b-list studios. German and French filmmakers were introducing a style that was new, and unfamiliar.
Film Noir was at first, not a conscious genre, but rather a seemingly coincidental mesh of style and theme. The gritty stories provided a lush landscape for the unique visual style. Most importantly all of these films had at least one, if not all, specific story arc reflective of four worldviews:
1. Human beings are often corrupt, and always fallible.
2. Human fate is fickle and can pick upon anywhere, anytime as it's victim.
3. The wage of even the slightest human sin is likeley to be death or at the very least social destruction.
4. The most the "good guys" could ever hope for was a temporary victory.

There you have it, the basics of what makes Film Noir.

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Some Classics include:
Sunset Boulevard dir. Billy Wilder
Citizen Kane dir. Orson Welles
The man who knew too much dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Strangers on a Train dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Chinatown dir. Roman Polanski.
The Maltese Falcon dir. John Huston
Detour dir. Edgar G. Ulmer

Neo-Noir:
Pulp Fiction dir. Quentin Tarantino
Collateral dir. Michael Mann
Taxi Driver dir. Martin Scorcese
The Usual Suspects dir. Bryan Singer
Fargo dir. Joel Coen
Memento dir. Christopher Nolan

Check out some of these films, you should not be disappointed! =)

Also...next week's film topic is Silent Film.

--Sam