Characteristics of Film noir

Many storylines have an emphasis of moral ambiguity and sexual motivation such as a strong dominant but seductive woman and makes the man do what she wants.
You have the typical strong dominant but beautiful seductive woman. The men are normally ordinary people who get wrapped in with the woman’s evilness and he eventually ends up to his downfall.
They are set in locations such as dark streets, hotel rooms of big cities or abandoned warehouses.
They focus on expressionistic lighting and circling cigarette smoke.
The actors seem mysterious you have to pick up what job they have or anything else as most likely it will be used later in the film.
You would have voiceovers of what the man/woman would be thinking of a person or their confessions. They have loud mysteries music to keep you knowing that something bad will happen and keep you paying attention to the film.

The shadows of Venetian blinds cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are a typical visual in film noir. Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch Angle, and low angle shots and lenses.
They have jarring editing as well as flashbacks to remind were the person is.
Also they a lot of the movies start the movie at the end instead of the begin and then you hear the story from the person who telling point of view of what happened.

Three Classic Film noir's

Touch of Evil, 1958, Orson Welles.
A car blows up as it crosses the Mexican border into the USA. A high ranking Chief Officer is with his wife and he is brought into this investigation as a Mexican resident is been accused. The Chief Officer has to blame a drug lord who has already been tracking him and is trying to scare his wife and the Officer off the case.
In this film noir they use the Venetian blinds affect for lighting. As it is set in Mexico we assume it’s in a city were a lot of crime happens and because someone is following them no one(the police) would really care as it happens all the time in the city. So it shows in this film that you’re always on your own.

Strangers on a Train, 1951, Alfred Hitchcock.
A tennis Star meets a stranger on a train who offers a deal with him if the stranger kills the tennis stars wife if the tennis star kills the stranger’s father. The tennis star doesn’t take him seriously but his wife ends up dead and the tennis star become the main suspect and this effectively ruins his tennis career and his life.
Many noirs are like this one as it shows a man has got everything has dreamed of but does one accidentally thing wrong and ends up as a suspect even though he is innocent and his whole life is doomed.
The fact they are on a train as well is kind of film noir as there are dark bit to a train as when you go through a tunnel and the fact that they are alone and secluded so no one else can know what they are talking about so no one can pass the blame to this stranger.

Kiss of Death, 1947, Henry Hathaway
A crook gets caught in a jewel heist and he refuses to rat on his partners and goes to jail, assured that his wife and children will be taken care of. But his wife has killed herself. Then he tells the police on his ex-pals and is paroled. Remarries gets a job and begins leading a happy life when he learns one of the men he informed on, killer has been released from custody and is out for revenge against the crook and his family.
Many noir movies have people who are trying to run or hide from someone like this movie. I think that the music in this would be very dramatic because this movie is trying to keep you watching as it doesn’t start from the end so they have to put something to catch your attention.

Three examples Contemporary film noirs

Sin City, 2005, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.
Different stories that are based in Basin City which is heavily invested with crime. A man is seeking the murderer of a beautiful woman who was asleep in bed with. Also another man accidentally kills a hero cop and tries to cover it up.
And a man who is a policeman but is about to retire is committing a crime he didn’t commit.
Many noirs happen in big cities that are with crime like this neo noir. Also some noirs have men who have not committed a crime but happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time like this neo-noir.

Momento, 2000, Christopher Nolan
A man who is suffering from short term memory loss is out to avenge his wife’s murder. But because he has sort term memory loss it’s hard for him to remember so in this movie it shows flashbacks of what has happened to him.
Just like film noir this movie offers flashbacks so you have to keep wondering what he did in the past that had to affect him in the future.

The last seduction, 1994, John Dahl
A woman who is a seductive and beautiful persuades her husband to sell medicinal cocaine to some drug dealers. She then leaves him with the money then her husband has to pay off debts so he keeps sending detectives to go and find her.
This is a perfect example of the women in film noir’s they persuade the men to do anything and then they leave and leave them man in ruins.

Film Noir History

Film noir was made by the Americans but because it was during the war Europe never got any of American’s film so when it first came to France the First critic Nino Frank coined the term.
It became more prominent in the 1940s which was the post-war era it became like this because in many noir films it showed strong dominant females and that was happening in real life as many men were in the war so women had to take over on jobs such as factory workers.
The depression in the USA influenced film noir because in film noir the amount of crime fiction that was used.
Film noir is not a genre but it is closely referred to a crime/thriller genre.
In the USA they didn’t have enough money to use a lot of special effects in movies because of the war so they trued to use little thing that wouldn’t cost them money, for instance not a lot of lighting.This is how film noir came.

Brief of Film noir

We are going to produce a film noir opening and the theme is contemporary film noir thrillers. This exercise should include the values,traditions,narrative,mood and conventions of film noir.

We are in groups no bigger than four and produce a 2 min opening sequence for a film noir/thriller for the age 15-18 but mainly for certification 15.Title and music should also be included which should reflect the genre,pace,and mood of the film.