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).
