Analysis: Shining A Light On The Dark Corners Of Film Noir

This is commonly done in Edward Scissorhands. As Peg ventures further into the mansion, low key lighting is applied when Edward comes forth from out of the shadows. As soon as the audience discovers Edward shadowed in darkness, with his sharp blades for hands, they begin to believe that he is a harmful character. It is only when Peg offers to take him home that the audience realizes that he is not the menacing man they had previously thought he was. Through the use of low key lighting along with his dark image, the audience must get to know Edward for who he truly is in order for them to be capable of understanding that he is not an evil character.

The drama in Casablanca comes from the use of low-key lighting. The lighting is used to capture the essence of the drama. The filmmaker uses light or the absence of light to mirror the emotional response of the character for the viewer. The filmmaker uses three different types of lighting key-light, backlight, and fill light.

Putting the use of lighting to present certain mood to the audience can be traced back to early expressionistic movies from early 20’s and 30’s. Horror movie such as “Nosferatu”, “M”, and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary”. While this movie preceded “Citizen Kane” in term of using lighting and shadow to give an atmospheric feel to the viewers “Citizen Kane” was the very first movie that use mise-en-scene in the same expressionistic way that did not involve any creature, murderers, and movie

Tim Burton done this to help the movie have a dark twist or to help the movie take a serious turn. In the movie Edward Scissorhands you see low key lighting when they show the castle. Nightmare Before Christmas shows a lot of low key lighting too. When Jack sings his song about taking Christmas away. They use low key lighting to show his song is dark and scary.

During the 1940’s the lighting created a documentary/realistic look. Touch of Evil 1958 brought along the inspiration of filming many scenes with a hand help camera allowing it to be brought in new settings for scenes which led to the lighting to be used differently. In the clips from Touch of Evil the lighting changes from light to dark drastically but never leads on an unclear story behind what is going on. Throughout the 1960’s brought out fresh new filming because of the advanced new ways to film. For example the way the light flared into the camera lens, this created an effect considered a mistake by many but a new effect to many more. Taxi Driver (1976) was shot with many different dolly shots with clear lighting, the colors were bright and bold. As the many years passed cinematographers were able to learn new ways of bettering film as technology was also becoming

Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.

In ES he uses low key lighting Edward in the Big dark castle when the lady first encounters him. This shows how isolated and lonely he was. And him coming away from that darkness signified him trying to really come out. In CACF he uses low key lighting to a similar effect. He uses this on Willy Wonka. When he puts the low key lighting on Willy’s face this shows how in his factory he was very alone and had a troubled past. Which caused him to be more distant when the time came to actually socialize with the kids that came to the factory. In the Corpse Bride he uses this as well. When Victor sits down and plays this piano we get a shot of him and the piano surrounded by low key lighting. This shows how isolated and lonely Victor was. That when he plays his music or paint his painting that he actually comes out of his shell. This shows that lighting that he uses really has a effect on his

expressions. Lighting was used in the film to portray this. Dim lighting was used whenever

Lighting and filming through the movie is applied creatively causing people to be interested in not only the plot but the aesthetic . Lighting gave the movie a mysterious ambiance. They also use the lighting to create a contrast of characters, they manipulate the lighting in a scene with Harvey Dent to show the dark side Of himself. Doing these

Film Noir tags: High contrast filming, low-key lighting provides a sense of underlying evil/undercurrent of malevolence in society.

Burton uses low key lighting to input a spooky, dark mood to his films.  For example in Alice In Wonderland, Burton uses low key lighting when Alice is trapped in the room full of doors. The low key lighting creates a dark, trapped mood in the scene.  Burton uses low key lighting very well in this film to maintain his interesting style.  Another example of Burton using  low key lighting comes in the film  Edward Scissorhands.  Edward’s friends force him to break into a house, inside the house it is extremely dark and spooky.  This has the effect of making Edward look suspicious and trapped.  Burton’s use of low key lighting makes his unique, and different style very spooky and sinister.

Most of the actors are wearing darker clothing as well which makes their faces stand out even more. This lighting style also adds to the tension and the mystery of the scene. It makes the audience on edge. The contrast filled lighting of film noir is also effective at bringing out the extremes of emotions and thought. The darkness of the genre makes anything that goes wrong seem less taboo, because the lighting of the genre sets up the norms for the world that the film lives in—and in that world, bad things happen. The lighting of the film helps the audience understand the world that the characters are in.

The purpose of this element is to show suspense, danger, evil, innocence, or goodness. With lowkey lighting, it is suspenseful. With bottom or side lighting, it makes the subject appear evil or dangerous. Lastly, with front/ back lighting it makes the subject look innocent or good. At the beginning of this film, Edward’s mansion is on a dark and creepy hill.

Lighting was a key cinematic technique that Well's used to project a character's persona in the film. He used shadows to hide or mask the faces of the seemingly corrupt characters, like the reporters who are trying to find the meaning of rosebud. He also used backlighting, when light is cast onto the characters from the opposite side of the camera, to create silhouette's .Single source lighting was another technique used to focus the viewers attention on a important prop or action that was taking place. For example, when the reporter is allowed to see the book of Kane there is one window through which all it's light is focused on the book emphasizing its importance.

The film is about a group of 5 people fighting to find and keep the