Sunday, July 28, 2013
History and Development of Film Noir
Film noir, a term first coined by French film critics named Nino Frank in 1946 who notice the darkness, violence and downbeat in the Hollywood crime field (Langford, 2005) . Film noir is not a genre but it is a type of film that only defined by more subtle qualities of tone, style, mood, point of view from the film (Dirks, 1996) . Film noir released in many American crime and detective film such as The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944), Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944) and Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944). Film noir is a type of American film that invaded French cinemas after World War II Noir is seen as a trend in film production. Noir is almost entirely a creation of postmodern culture which is a belated reading of classic Hollywood that was popularized by cinéastes of the French New Wave (Naremore, 1998) . Among all these film, The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) will be a good example for further discussion in film noir. According to Thomas Schatz, he suggests that the dark visual of film noir reflected the darkness side of cultural attitudes during and after the World War II (Chopra-Gant, 2006) . Noir film reflects the resultant tensions and insecurity of the time period such as fear, loss of innocent, despair and paranoia. Women were attempting to gain more power within the workforce, and the previous patriarchal order was threatened. This led to the questioning of masculine identity versus national identity.
Rick Altman suggested two approaches which are semantic and syntactic whereby semantic approach provides visuals with the elements of mise-en-scene while syntactic approach provides the themes that are able to derive from the narrative of the film (Altman, 1984) . The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) has fully utilized the approaches of visual and theme that suggested by Rick Altman. Film noir visually provides dark with ominous shadows where rooms are always full of darkness, associate with low key lighting that has roots in German- expressionistic which oblique vertical and horizontal lines. Setting is usually city bound and always locates at dark alleyways, cramped corridors and low rent apartments which scenes are normally lit for night to show the visual contrast such as comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors. Moreover, thematically in film noir such as a cynical, hard-boiled antihero versus femme fatale, tales of criminal motives, corrupted characters, fatalistic theme, hopeless tones, blurred moral and intellect are shown in film noir to match with the semantic approach.
As the time flow, film noir evolved and developed. The films were ‘noired’ in the styles and tones. The movement has changed into a genre of late. In 1940s and 1950s, most of the films are generally regarded as “classic period” of American film noir. However, City Streets and other pre- World War II crime melodramas such as Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are categorized as full-fledged noir in Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward’s film noir encyclopedia, other critics tend to describe them as “proto-noir” or in similar term.
Film noir was in an embryo state in 60s and 70s. In this state, film noir is still not mature. In this decade, films began to appear that self-consciously acknowledged the conventions of classic film noir as historical archetypes to be revived, rejected or reimagined. These efforts typify what come to be known as neo-noir. Neo-noir film genre developed mid-way into Cold War. This cinematological trend reflected much of the cynicism and the possibility of nuclear annihilation of the era. This new genre introduced innovations that were not available with the earlier noir films. The violence was also more potent than in earlier noir films (Schwartz and Ronald, 2005). The first major film to apply this method was a director from French, Jean-Luc Godard's A bout de souffle (Breathless; 1960), which pays its literal respects to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a bold new style for a new day.
Film noir hatched in 80s and became maturity and blooming when came to 90s and onwards. From 1981, the popular Body Heat, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, invokes a different set of classic noir elements, this time in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting, its success confirmed the commercial viability of neo-noir, at a time when the major Hollywood studios were becoming increasingly risk averse. The film also demonstrates how neo-noir’s polychrome palette can reproduce many of the expressionistic effects of classic black-and-white noir. As the time passed, unlike the previous film noir, these neo noirs are shot in color and featured diversity in the handling of the femme fatale or shown nostalgic of the conventions.
Film noir had evolved and developed to neo noir. What are the factors that caused the evolution? The first reason is there are a lot of films featuring the similar conventions and codes with film noir. This caused audiences difficult to differentiate film noir with the other films. Therefore, film noir began to feature changing trends of the characters and treatments, incorporating more iconic and thematic development. For instance, addition of female anti-heroes and femme fatales lives on. Film noir also add on the changing social and cultural perspectives, women’s liberation, Vietnam War and etc.
After evolution, neo noirs are easier to understand for the audiences. Film noirs are realistic in portraying audiences’ desires and fears much better than any other genre because it reflects our suppressed impulse and fears, showcasing them as responses, instead if individual feelings. We can identify the issues of corruption, loyalty, lust, greed and redemption very easily.
Characteristic found in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
According to Belton (2005) a minority of scholars were treated film noir as a genre of the past. These minority scholars were discussing noir regarding to its iconography and some predictable narratives style such as thematic (p.228). They believed and relied on the well-defined of conventions and expectations which influences them to acknowledge film noir as a “dark” style.
First of all, film noir will mostly set at night time while location will mostly set at city-bound, forbidding and foreboding urban streets (Lewis, 2008, p203). It also reveals location such as alleyways, cramped corridors, comprising of rain-washed roads or dimly lit interiors. In The Maltese Falcon (1941), a criminal story happened in city San Francisco. We can see foreboding urban street with people and cars everywhere. This kind of setting gives us a kind of feeling that some troublesome or dangerous incidents such as crime are going to happen. For example, when Spade noticed that Wilmer is following him, the crowded street and the movement of people will make us feel that something is going to happen.
the urban city-bound
The foreboding, rain-washed road
Aesthetically, film noir used some aesthetic traits from German expressionistic such as oblique, vertical, horizontal compositional lines. In The Maltese Falcon, O'Shaughnessy calls to Spade’s office and she asks Spade to go to her apartment. When Spade reached O'Shaughnessy apartments, O'Shaughnessy is wearing a vertical line clothes, which helps to standup her specialty, thus, audiences will start to think about her characteristics or personalities. On the other hands, the oblique curtain’s shapes reflection caused the room looks very messy. In the meantime, the lines and the messiness of the room show that O’Shaughnessy is a complicated character and she tries to hide her real personality.
The vertical and horizontal lines that help to create the feelinf of messiness while the grey colour of O'shaughnessy 's clothes help to defines her complicated characteristic.
Next, people will acknowledge film noir as “dark” film because the visual is rely on the high contrast lighting which known as low-key lighting. Belton (2005) claimed that low-key lighting is used to indistinct the action, deglamorize the actors and also create the heavily shadow. In The Maltese Falcon, Miles Archer was killed by a gunshot and he falls on the ground, we can clearly see the high contrast lighting used in this scene. Miles Archer’ face and his white shirt are totally distinct from the full cover black background. Thus, the dark colour deglamorizes Miles’ face and obscures his action when he falls on the ground. Nevertheless, when Spade tries to escapes from Wilmer, he hides in an apartment and presses all the lift’s button. He plays a trick to get away from Wilmer. In this particular scene, it shows a dark and heavy shadow on the wall. The shadow can mean to blurred moral and unsure for Spade personal characteristic.
The high contrast lighting
The heavily shadow
Blurred moral in film noir is the difficulties in differentiate the truth (Stufflebean, 2000). The character’s personality is very unclear; we do not know their real side. Spade is a detective but he is concealing and hiding his dark side. He is a selfish and greedy person who also has the desire to get the Falcon. When Gutman, Cairo and he get the Falcon, he calls the cops to arrest all of them who involved in this criminal case although he is also the one who involved in this case. Another example is O’Shaughnessy always lies and acts innocent to hide her identity and to cover the truth that she is the one who kill Miles Archer. All these blurred moral drive the audiences to discover other thematic of film noir.
The “dark” in film noir is refers to the dark side, it is something negative. In film noir, there must have tales of criminal motives. Gutman, Cairo, Thursby and O’Shaughnessy commit crime because they are greedy. They intended to get the Falcon. Falcon is a valuable jewelry from the Island of Malta to the King of Spain a few hundred years ago and it is lost on ship in transit. They have the desire to get the Falcon in order to get a wealthy life and this is the motive which leads them to commit crime. The criminal motives always make the characters become cynical, pessimism and dark. Cynical means the character are motivated chiefly by selfish concern (Belton, 1999). In The Maltese Falcon, Spade is the cynical characters because he is framing people to save himself. After his partner, Miles Archer died, he asks his secretary, Effie to change the company’s name and move out all the Miles Acher’s belongings. Other than that, Gutman, O’Shaughnessy, and Cairo are also the cynical characters because they did a lot unethically things in orders to get the Falcon. O’Shaughnessy killed Miles Acher while Gutman and Cairo promise Sam to rogue Wilmer as the fall guy who kill Miles Acher in order to get the Falcon.
The falcon make Gutman, Cairo O'shaughnessy commit a crime. We see their greedy and dark side of people .
Pessimism in film noir is the belief that the world is bad, people will expect the worst things will happen in future. In the beginning scene of The Maltese Falcon, Iva Acher is a pessimism character because her husband, Miles Acher died and she thought that she can be together with Spade but Spade asks her to dismiss his office. In this particular scene, Iva Acher cries very badly because her husband is dead and she realize that Spade is not really love her as what she thinks. Soon, she is jealousy and paranoid when Spade and O’Shaughnessy are going to meet Cairo in an apartment together, she feels jealous and angry towards Spade. Hence, she sends cops to the apartment and she tries to hurt him. This particular scene shows us the dark moral in reality and the pessimism which is the belief that evil will always triumph over the good, people hurts each other madly because of the desires.
The pessimism characters in Maltese Falcon - Iva Acher
Thematically, the hard-boiled detective in film noir is a type of detective who very extreme in investigate crime cases and Antihero refers to flawed hero which is lack of the quality of hero. Hard-boiled antihero is the character who investigates crime cases in negative ways and lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure. Spade is the ultimate hard-boiled antihero because he is womanizer, ambitious but also a liar, selfish and deceitful person. He deceived Iva by getting relationship with her and he is always flirting with other woman such as Effie, O’Shaughnessy by calling them darling and dear. He is selfish because he asks Effie to move out Miles Archer’s name and all his belongings after Miles Archer is dead and Iva obstruction. In fact, we are connecting with antiheroes in reality because in our daily life, we are doing what antihero does although the culture and religious disagree.
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| Hard-boiled anti-hero - Sam Spade who a womaniser but selfish and deceitful. |
Additionally, we will see corrupted and intellect characters in film noir. In The Maltese Falcon, Cairo is the corrupted character where he finds Spade at Spade’s office, he pulls out a gun and menace Spade and he intend to search his office. Besides that, Gutman also a corrupted characters because when they meet Spade at Spade’s apartment for the deal, although he see Wilmer as his son, but in the end , the promises to rogue Wilmer as the fall guy who kill Miles Archer. Intellect means knowledgeable and talent. Spade is an intellect character because he uses intellect to obtain what he wants. When Spade follows Wilmer to meet Gutman at the corridor, he knows that Wilmer is holding two guns in his pocket, he snatch the guns in a short period. It shows that he is very intelligent and smart. Other than that, when Gutman and Cairo found out the Falcon is fake, they decide to leave San Francisco but unfortunately Spade reports to the cops that Gutman and Cairo is the criminal, here we see Spade use his intellectual to escape from the skeptic and to avoid committal.
Spade always a character who hardly to predict what the next he will do. He always careful for his decision and step that he going to walk
Last but not least, femme fatale placed important in film noir. Femme fatale is a beautiful, attractive, strong but deceitful woman who leads man into a dangerous situation. Eventually, she will tries to protect herself and tries not to lose her freedom (Lewis, 2008, p.204). In Maltese Falcon, O’Shaughnessy is the femme fatale. She is very beautiful and attractive but she is not a good character because she lies a lot. In the beginning scene, O’Shaughnessy called herself Miss Wonderly and when Spade asks her for the second time, she tells that her name is Le’Blanc. She keeps on lies and hiding her identity until Spade found out her real. She lies and hides her real identity and the truth that she is actually the one who killed Miles Archer
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Femme fatale in Maltese Falcon- O'Shaughnessy. She look beautiful and attractive and try get approach to Spade.
There is a particular scene where O’Shaughnessy asks Spade not to let the cops know about her. She intends to protect herself and try not committing to prison. In this scene, we can clearly understand that femme fatale is always manipulating the male protagonist, meantime to get what they want. In other hands, Hayward (2008) claimed that femme fatale is the central who caused the male starts to investigate, like Spade’s investigation is begin from the request of O’Shaughnessy, apparently he involves the crime and find out the truth with her. Despite femme fatale is a very privileges and central role in film noir, but at the end, she has to pays for it (Hayward, 2006, p.151). At the end, O’Shaughnessy arrested by the cop and she gets nothing in the end.
Female fatale in film noir will need to pay for her lie and committed crime, she will lost her freedom as well.
In conclusion, film noir is a specific period of film history which portrayed the fears, desires and anxious of people after the World War II. Rick Altman suggested semantic approach and syntax approach to enhance the visual and theme to make a better understanding about film noir. Film noir reflects the behavior, attitudes and realistic in the society after the WWII which is the dark side of human being. As the changing in social and cultural perspectives, films were ‘noired’ in different styles and tones. Audiences connect better with the issues that happen around.
References
1. Belton, J. (1999). Movies and Mass Cultture.
London: The Athlone Press.
2. Stufflebean, P. (2000). American Film Noir.
Retrieved from Film Noir Primer: http://americanfilmnoir.com/index.html
3. Altman, R. (1984). A
Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre. Society for Cinema & Media
Studies, 10-11.
4. Chopra-Gant, M. (2006). Hollywood
Genres And Postwar America. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
5. Dirks, T. (1996, May). AMC
Filmsite. Retrieved from Film Noir: http://www.filmsite.org
6. Langford, B. (2005). Film
Genre, Hollywood and Beyond. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
7. Naremore, J. (1998). More
than Night: Film Noir In Its Contexts. California: University of
California Press.
8. Belton, J. (2005). Film Noir:Somewhere in the night.
In J. Belton, American Cinema/American Culture Second Edition (pp.
227-233). Chris Freitag .
9. Lewis, J. (2008). Genre:Film Noir. In J. Lewis, American
Film (pp. 201-203).
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