Neo Noir - Continuing the noir sensibility

What is neo noir?

It's a term (meaning, literally, "recent black") used to describe a body of films that carry on the stylistic and thematic traditions of the American noir films of the 1940s and 1950s. It's not really a genre (in the way, say, comedy or horror is), more a movement with certain conventions. Elements of noir can be found often in crime films, horror, science fiction, even romance.

We can split neo noir into two fairly distinct categories:

1) Modern films set in  the 1930s to 1950s which continue the noir sensibility by using and subverting plot, character and theme, as well as using stylistic conventions of camera, lighting, etc.

(In Chinatown (Polanski, 1974) darkness gives way to light in the 1930s LA desert setting. Notive how Jack Nicholson, the hard-boiled hero, is made to look vulnerable, even ridiculouswith his wounded nose.)



2) Modern films set in the modern/timeless world, which use and subvert themes, character types and conventions from the original noir films.

(Note the use of dutch angle in The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008), a super hero film with a distinctly noir feel. Note also the bare, urban, industrial looking set).



In which category does Seven fit?

 Ideology of Neo-noir films
Neo-noir films address questions about guilt, redemption, the essence of human nature, and problems of knowledge, memory and identity. In the neo-noir universe, the lines between right and wrong and good and evil are blurred, and the detective and the criminal frequently mirror each other's most damaging personality traits. The neo-noir detective — more antihero than hero — is frequently a morally compromised and spiritually shaken individual whose pursuit of a criminal hides the search for lost or unattainable aspects of the self.  Neo-noir conveys ambiguity, disillusionment, and disorientation more effectively than even the most iconic films of the classic noir era. Able to self-consciously draw upon noir conventions and simultaneously subvert them, neo-noir directors push beyond the earlier genre's limitation.

Conventions of noir used/updated in Neo-noir (you highlighted manyof these last lesson when watching the opening of Seven):

• wide angles and deep focus (note in this shot from Act Of Violence (Zimmerman, 1948) how both the foreground of the man and pole, and the background of the station building are sharply outlined. What effect does this have?

• chiaroscuro: low-key lighting producing dramatic contrasts with light and dark and heavy shadows (note in the shot from Bladerunner (Scott, 1982), a science fiction noir thriller how both the hero and heroine are partly obscured by the shadows from the blinds. An excellent visual technique to show how trapped or enclosed the characters are.

• cold bluish colours reflecting alienation and technology  (notice in the shot from Seven how cold and clinical the feel is)
• dutch angles, low angles to show a distorted, chaotic world lacking moral clarity
• decaying, rundown urban city settings which seem like mazes or labyrinths
• downbeat atmosphere, reflected in the weather, or time of day
• closed framing
• complex storylines or narrative structures (eg. using flashbacks)
• voice-over narrations
• plots involving crime or investigations of crime (often murder)
• human nature at its most passionate, corrupt and destructive - crime motivated by greed, jealousy, etc
• flawed, alienated heroes and heroines
• archetypal characters—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands
• ambivalent or bleak endings
• people striving against random, uncaring fate
• a sense of doom, a hopelessness in tone
• steadfast virtue ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished in orginal noir (often subverted in neo-noir).

Task today:
As we continue our screening of Seven, add to your notes evidence from the film which shows any of the conventions mentioned above. (You will publish a full document, including appropriate screen shots when we have completed our viewing next week).

Film Noir - Monday 26th September, 2011

Following on from our study of Pulp Fiction, we will be moving both SIDEWAYS and BACKWARDS into the world of film noir, which Ramiro is something of an expert on given his presentation back in Trimester One on cinema in the 1940s.

We will be studying a modern noir film - Seven (David Fincher, 1995), in its entirety, from which at the end of the trimester

1) you will all choose your own five minute sequence and provide an ORAL textual analysis lasting seven to ten minutes
2) you will write, design and film a typical film noir scene, using the conventions we have studied in class both in terms of style and mood (lighting, angles, sound, etc), and content (character, dialogue, plot)

Before we begin our study of Seven, you need to brush up on the history of film noir...

A still shot from The Killers (Siodmak, 1946)

What is film noir?
It's a french label for a largely American film phenomenon arising in 1940s. Postwar France got to watch a lot of american films, and noticed similarities between the tone and content of these films and their own roman noir (dark edgy literature). noir means "black". And these films being made were pretty dark, in more ways than one...




Why did America start to make these films?
As we have discovered in previous classes, film movements come into being depending on attitudes/influences in culture, and depending on the economic and social situation of the countries making them.

• There was a growing sense of unease in USA in the 1940s - World War II (1939-1945) had shown americans the horror of violence, the evil of man, and the corruption of power. USA had gone through an economic depression in the 1930s that had ravaged the country. But, USA emerged from the war a stronger, more powerful country. The economy was now booming. However, the rise of materialism and a consumer society worried many - were American citizens too obsessed with wealth and material goods ? Were citizens conforming to readily to this consumer society? Was USA losing its sense of right and wrong in the quest for more wealth? Was the strong sense of national unity stimulated by the common goal of victory in WWII becoming lost in peacetime as individual gain became more important? Was it right that the country should be able to benefit economically from the war? Was it right that USA's new found power was built on their military might and nuclear weaponry?

• In 1930s a literary tradition of crime novels, the "hard-boiled" or "pulp" fiction (where have we seen that term before???) was very popular. Novels that depicted a different kind of detective hero to the traditional detective - the detectives in pulp fiction were anti-heroes, morally ambiguous characters who find themselves apart from the society they live in, on the edge of the law, often committing crimes as well as solving them. The books were violent, the dialogue gritty and real, action was on the streets, America was portrayed as an industrial, urban wasteland full of morally corrupt people, slaves to their desires and passions. The noir films of the 1940s have similar characters, plots and settings.

still shot from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
(Weine, 1919)

• Viveka can tell us all about German Expressionism in the 1920s. This film movement, with its distorted and exaggerated camera work and set designs influenced the style of film noir. This can be traced to many European immigrants settling in USA, including people in the film industry, during the prewar years, who would go on to take jobs in Hollywood as film technicians and directors.

So, we're looking at films that through content and style reflect a mood of uneasiness, alienation and loneliness.

A still shot from Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992),
a neo noir thriller

What now?

Watch the opening of Seven. Its a descendent of the movement of film noir, often called neo (as in "new") noir - modern films that have updated the original movement.

Today's question - what elements of the film seem to belong to film noir? 

Discuss in pairs. Note down your responses ready to feedback.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - PULP FICTION (Tarantino, 1994)

What's On?

We will plan a written textual analysis of an extract from Pulp Fiction.

You will need to do some RESEARCH to help you produce a 1000 word analysis, which you will hand in on Wednesday 28th September, after the EXEAT.


Task 1
Watch the extract again. As you watch, create a blog of notes where you can jot down your thoughts on any or all of the following:

• narrative
• genre
• presentation of characters
• camera angles, shots and movement
• editing and sequencing
• lighting, shade and colour
• sound
• location and set design
• genre conventions
• target audience of the film

Discuss as a class your initial ideas, and be prepared to add to your notes.

Task 2 -

• In order to understand more about the crime genre in film, read the following information.
• On your blog of notes, jot down  the conventions (or rules) of the crime film that Pulp Fiction follows, and jot down the conventions it subverts (or breaks).
• Discuss as a class.

eg. one convention of the typical crime film is that the living quarters of the criminal will be seedy, dirty, poor. However, in Pulp Fiction, Lance's house seems rather mundane and normal, a regular middle-class house on a regular street.

Final task:

• Watch the extract again. This time, take more focused notes using the handout provided in class.
• Discuss ideas as a class.
• H/W - write a 1000 word textual analysis to be handed in on Wednesday 28th September.

Pulp Fiction - Narrative Structure

Today

We will explore the rather unusual narrative structure of Pulp Fiction, and see what effects Tarantino creates by subverting the linear chrononlogical order we expect in a film.

How?

Go the Tarantino folder, found in IB Film folder in the college folder.
Access the "Pulp Fiction narrative structure document". Read the instructions.
Open the "timeline template" document. Use this to create a linear chronological timeline of pulp fiction.
Send me the completed timeline by mail.

Feedback
After playing around with the narrative structure, discuss the choices Tarantino made. What effects were created by playing with the natural order of time in his film? Think especially about the opening and ending of the film.