Film Fil Film Noir: A Semiotic Analysis Of Film Noir

When discussing American culture, the influence and interplay of film cannot be understated. We are a nation consumed with the media. Today, the movie business is one of the highest grossing businesses there is. We hold movie stars up as though they are super human. We closely watch their style, their dating lives, their party habits, and even their favorite restaurants, among many other things. We rely on movies to lift us up, teach us about other cultures and time periods, and even to teach us about our own culture. Often, movies reflect the time period they are filmed in and directly reflect the social tensions of that time and the film noir genre is no different. One of the most famous film noir movies out there, The Maltese Falcon,

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.

Among the common peculiarities of film noir, the distinct division between the male characters and the different representations of women reinforce notions of masculinity and gender roles. Furthermore, in the 1940’s film noir was Hollywood’s way to illustrate a world in where pessimism and suspicion dictated people’s lives. Mostly presented as detectives or a lone wolf, the men are portrayed as cold-hearted, disconnected, and cynical to show their hopelessness and disillusionment of the society they lived in. Along this depiction, multiple women are placed into different roles, to either play the seductress and/or a menace to the male protagonist. In the The Maltese Falcon film noir, the male protagonist is characterized as a typical male

Film Noir, a term coined by the French to describe a style of film characterized by dark themes, storylines, and visuals, has been influencing cinematic industries since the 1940’s. With roots in German expressionistic films and Italian postwar documentaries, film noir has made its way into American film as well, particularly identified in mob and crime pictures. However, such settings are not exclusive to American film noir. One noteworthy example is Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard, which follows the foreboding tale of Joe Gillis, the desperate-for-success protagonist, who finds himself in the fatal grips of the disillusioned femme fatale Norma Desmond. Not only does the storyline’s heavy subject matter and typical character

Film Noir was a result of it's time - The war had just ended and It was time where prohibition had influenced an abundance in crime and corruption. Film noir serves to highlight the darkest aspects of human beings. ‘Society is making the machinery of it's own destruction.

There have been several debates over a long period of time concerning the validity of film noir as a distinct genre. Essays and books have debated the term for years using various criteria and rubrics to back up their respective positions on the subject. As the 21st century brings new and creative trends from screenwriting to post-production and everything in between, the boundaries of noir become even less certain. One may even find a fitting parallel between the noir protagonist’s ambiguous and perilous quest with that of the hapless and naïve academic in search of an unequivocal definition of noir itself. This essay aims at summarizing the evolution of American film noir to present day, by using seminal works to determine how these films have become influenced by American cinematic trends of postmodern narrative structures and subjectivity.

If I were to write my essay over film, I would like to explore what inspired the Film Noir period’s cynicism. The Film Noir period was a film movement in the 40’s and 50’s best characterized by its cynical plotlines and overall dark themes. I believe that it is the product of societal traumatization from the Great Depression and would like to investigate what circumstances led to such a pessimistic movement. An example of a criterion for writing my essay over film is to include the historical, social, and cultural context of the film(s) that are being analyzed. Another example of a criterion that differs from the other criteria

The genre of film noir was first acknowledged in France for its distinguishable darkness and its critic of social norms through nontraditional narratives. In Chinatown, Roman Polanski effectively utilizes many of the thematic and stylistic devices commonly associated with the neo-noir film genre. The objective of this essay is to critically discuss these devices employed by Polanski in order to reveal some of the subtle complexities that are embedded within the cinematic fabric of the film, Chinatown, that makes it undoubtedly apart of the neo-noir film genre.

Throughout American history, film and filmmakers have turned to society for insight to new ideas on films. Huge movements and monumental points in history, such as The Great Depression, race movements, women’s rights and other points in time are often portrayed through creative films and cinematography. The gangster film was deeply embraced at a time in history where capitalism appeared to be failing, and the traditional concept of the “American Dream” appeared to be far out of reach. Throughout the great depression era, the gangster film genre was heavily relied upon by studios in the 1930’s, as profits slid and it became increasingly difficult to convince moviegoers to spend their hard-earned nickels on a trip to the theater ( ). The fact that the movie industry intended to rely upon increased sex and violence in its features is a striking example of just how perverted the “American Dream” had become.

The film noir genre first appeared in the early 1940s and has grown since their first appearance on screen. While there are various definitions and aspects that can define this genre, it is usual depicted as having an anti-hero set in a realistic setting while trying to fight inner demons and the outer world surrounding problems simultaneously. As any genre, it has noticeable tropes that can place it within this spectrum. Over the years, since the first decade of film noir, society has changed, causing the genre to adapt. The changes are not limited to being on film, but also to those within other forms of media, such as television and literature. Rather than focusing upon one area, it is better to look on it as a whole. Headhunters is a more

This essay aims to discuss the origins and traits of film-noir. The characteristics of film noir will be developed through methods of questioning, debating and arguing, in order to gain an understanding and knowledge of the characteristics of film noir. “We could make the case, as many critics have done, that film noir is, in fact, not a genre at all but merely a particular stylistic inflection of a crime drama.” (Nelmes, 2012.194) Film noir is not easily defined.

The term “film noir” was coined in the mid 1940’s when American films started emerging in Europe, post Nazi occupation. The new Hollywood films were not available in France during Nazi occupation, so in 1946, the films began

American film noir didn’t start as a genre but a visual style of film as depicted in 1940s American films like This Gun for Hire, but following the coining of the term by post world war II french scholars film noir especially from the 70s to the present day through films like LA Confidential has evolved to a very recognizable and full featured genre . We are able to recognize films within the noir genre as with any genre films for their distinct syntactic and semantic qualities, the same theories/concepts Rick Altman uses to define the difficult concept of genre remain very similar between the 1940s noir and today’s contemporary neo noir. In talking about the syntactic and semantic list of film noir its pretty helpful to know and understand what these elements are. It’s difficult to say that there is a sole formula for every noir film, but there are many recognizable commonly occuring traits that remain constant from the genre’s inception over 70 years ago going forward into contemporary neo noir. In terms of syntactic elements as identified in the Belton text’s noir chapter the most universal elements would be the complex narrative structure, the violent nature and involvement with crime, fem fatales, arbitration of justice, tough guys, and loneliness. These are really what drive the film non visually whereas the semantics contribute to the visual stylings of the film. Noir films share the common semantic elements of low key lighting, dark and rainy nights, sequencing,

It’s a dark and rainy night. Our hero is hiding behind a wall with a revolver in hand. A crack of light, illuminates half of his face. He’s shaking nervously because he only has one bullet left. He turns the corner, and a sudden gunshot hits our hero. Who shot him? None other than his partner, who’s secretly in love with the very same dame that our hero fell for. You can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now?

Maltese Falcon, L.A. Confidential, and Chinatown are all considered a classic for noir films. Even though these films are not actually "black film" they are a Hollywood crime drama. Not all of them are in the Hollywood's classical film noir period from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. The Maltese Falcon is more like a classical noir film than the other two movies. Maltese falcon has all the traits a noir film should have. Like fatalism, the femme fatale, the male protagonists, shadows, gloomy, urban, corrupt, etc. Maltese Falcon is a story about a detective Spade whose night changed rapidly when a gorgeous women by the name of Miss Wanderly walks into his office. Spades partner, Miles and a man named Floyd Thursby are dead. Brigid represents the femme fatale as an independent, sexual, and destructive women. Brigid was in a romantic relationship with Thursby, who before his death was married to Miss Wanderly. Spades blamed for the death of Miles so he could be with Archers wife whom he had been having an affair with. That is when Joel Cairo comes into play, he offers spade $5000 for the falcon, which he doesn't have but plays along with to go deeper into this investigation. Through out this entire film Spade plays all parts, and every angle. Which is easy for spade being the anti-hero he is. playing by his own rules, but also seeming as if he knows everything that's going to happen. In the end we find out the corrupt truth that Brigid killed Archer and Thursby killed