Film Noir Research Paper

L.A Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997) is a neo-noir film about a shooting at an all night diner and the three Las Angeles policeman who investigate in their own unique ways. It is based on the book by James Ellroy and after a very well adapted screenplay, won nine academy awards. It starred actors with big names like Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Danny Devito, which made it a very high earning film.

Lewis uses lighting to dramatize the opening scene of the film and characterize the protagonist of the story. The most noticeable utilization of film noir lighting is in the beginning

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

They take up the entire screen, so for the first minute or so of the film, the audience does not realize that they are, in fact, photographs that detectives are examining. The darkness of the photographs also references the genre. It is as if Polanski is immediately trying to convey to the audience that regardless of the fact that it is a color film, it is still a 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.

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

The first one was the teen audience segment, which proved to have higher spending powers because of their disposable income that they used mainly on entertainment. Hollywood therefore produced films that fall under this segment such as The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and as Rebel without a Cause (1955). The second segment was immigrant and working- class audiences that had enough money to buy tickets for the theaters. The third segment was the films targeting anti-communist groups, whereby Hollywood produced more than 50 movies that were against the communist societies. The films intoxicated people that hate the communist societies, saying that these people were murderers, didn’t have children and also caused problems when arrested. Films such as, In Vittorio de Sica’s featuring the Bicycle Thief, was produced in 1950s.

Film noir is a genre of film that mainly revolves around mystery. Some characters in noir films secretly manipulate others for their own advantage which is also very common element in the genre of film noir. Films such as Murder, My Sweet, Scarlet Street, and Mildred Pierce heavily use the theme of manipulation. In all three of those films, the manipulators end up ultimately failing in their plot as the people they manipulate, their loved ones, or society betrays them. The message of these films is that if people manipulate others to their advantage, then people and/or society will end up turning against them.

Film noirs describe pessimistic films associated with black and white visual styles, crime fiction, and dark themes. Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film noir directed by Billy Wilder. Sunset Boulevard presents many themes that are common with the genre film noir, but also introduces some differences from the typical movie in that genre.

1. The Film Noir originated in the early 1940s. These films highlighted the dark side of human existence. These films focused on darkness, sorrow, depression, crime, and helplessness. One of the first stylistics Schrader discussed was the darkness.

Film noir is a style of filmmaking that began after World War 2, and it focused on darker themes and settings. Most commonly, this style of film is set in a city with rampant crime and corruption, with the characters and protagonist being morally ambiguous. Other important elements of movies made in this style are the unusual shot types, lighting, and framing which were designed to unsettle the viewer and give them a sense of instability. Other elements are also common between these films, such as general themes and character archetypes, but overall the message that these films were made to convey is one of cynicism and darkness in a setting familiar to many people.

audience) that he will wait in a café until he finds her. The café he

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

Film is a series of artistic moving images that make up a story. In every film, the director visually presents the storyline, different characters, the problems they encounter and how they were deal with. There is a wide range of ways to study films of various genres. We focus on film language, genre, mise-en-scene, representation, stereotypes, etc. In Black Girl, it was depicted as an allegory and had a lot of mise-en-scene.