Film Noir or How the Heroes lost their Innocence

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Film NoirorHow the Heroes lost their Innocence
Dennis Kogel
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(No Transcript)
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Outline

• Introduction
• Short History
• Influences
• Noir/Hard-Boiled Style
• The Hard-Boiled Hero
• Film Noir Today
• In other Media
• Reasons?

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Whats that thing anyway?

• Genre/style developed in the early 40s
• Influenced by
• Hard-boiled fiction
• German expressionism
• War / post-war disillusionment
• Start of a more realistic, gritty film
• Beginning of the ambiguous mainstream hero

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A Short History

• 3 major periods
• Classical Period
• Wartime Romanticism (1941 1946)
• The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon
• Post-War Realism (1945 1949)
• The House on 92nd Street
• Obsessive Noir (1949 1953)
• Kiss Me Deadly
• New Hollywood (1960 1977)
• Taxi Driver, Raging Bull
• Neo-Noir (since 1980)
• Pulp Fiction, Memento

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The Big Sleep (1946)
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The Big Sleep (1946)
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Hard-Boiled Fiction

• Start in pulp novels
• Depicts crime scenes and violence
• Thriller character
• Self-centered
• No logical development
• Cheap metaphors

Raymond Chandler
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The Noir Style
Plot

• Situated in crime milieu
• Identification with criminals
• Nostalgia
• Fear of the future
• Convoluted plots

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The Noir Style

• Low key lighting
• Oblique / vertical lines
• Shadows
• Complex chronological order
• Water imagery (rain, glistening streets)
• Dark Romanticism

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Taxi Driver (1976)
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Real World Influence

• Paul Schrader (1972)
• War and Post-War Disillusionment
• Post War Realism
• German Influence
• Hard Boiled Tradition

• Cultural changes
• Tensions of the Depression
• Returning war-veterans
• Consumerism
• Shift to subjective point of view

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The Hard-Boiled Hero
A new breed of men rose up before us Borde /
Chaumeton (1955)

• Ambiguous protagonist
• Above morals
• Godlike
• Isolated
• Masochistic
• Morbid curiosity
• Man without memory
• Hidden vulnerability

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Neo-Noir

• Rise of Noir influenced films since end of 70s
• Film Noir tropes in modern version
• Mix of genres (gangster film, SF, comedy...)
• Critically acclaimed

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Blade Runner (1982)
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Film Noir as Mainstream Phenomenon

• Ambiguous / Anti-Hero becomes accepted
• Cynical Noir style fits postmodern/bleak mood
• Classical hero dubbed as unrealistic
• Noir self-awareness fits audiences expectations
• The troubled hero becomes stereotype

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Noir Comics

• Noir themes often featured in comics
• Comic heroes since Modern Age mostly dark /
  troubled
• Deconstruction of the hero archetype

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(No Transcript)
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The Dark Knight (2008)
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The Comic Hype

• Flawed Superheroes preferred over clean, classic
  types
• Spiderman, Batman, Watchmen, Sin City
  anti-heroes
• Leap into other genres
• Compare Steve Jacksons Aragorn / Tolkiens
  Aragorn (LotR)

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In Other Media
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Conclusion

• Film Noir is a style of film used since the 40s
• Common features are
• ambiguous protagonists
• expressionistic use of light and shadows
• crime centered plots
• Critics argue constantly over the term
• By the end of the 70s Film Noir became popular
  again
• Today Film Noir is one of the most often quoted
  genre influences
• Modern films often draw inspiration from Noir
  classics

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Discussion
So...whats the deal with this whole Noir
hype? Why has the classical hero almost vanished
from screen?
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Thank you for your attention