A movie which at no time misleads you into thinking there is going to be a happy ending.

Intro

This is a blog created to study the history and development of Film Noir. Besides that, we will also study the characteristics commonly used in Film Noir's film.

History and development 

The end of World War II brought along a new style of American films into France after they lifted the ban on the importing of American films. Classic film noir was developed during and after World War II, taking advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism, and suspicion. Film Noir is a term used by french critics such as Nino Frank in 1946 to label black film or cinema because of the trend of using dark, downbeat and black themes. This is because many dark themed American crime and detective films that was released in France to theaters after the war. 

Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are found in noir, resembling the 'chilly' Cold War period. The criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were a resemblance of society's evils, with a strong influence of moral conflict, purposelessness and sense of injustice. There usually were unhappy endings in film noir.

Film Noir could not be considered as a genre as it is not stated with a specific setting or characters. It is similar to the German Expressionism or the French New Wave periods. It emphasizes the mood and tones of the film which enables it to be applicable to a variety of different genres of film. However, film noir could be categorized with a specific period, themes, and cinematic styles. The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

Characteristics commonly found in Film Noir.

1. The primary moods that are often found in classic film noir are melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

2. Heroes or anti-heroes, corrupt characters and villains, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain army. These protagonists are often from a world of criminals. Distinctively, they are bad, menacing, sinister, all trying to survive but losing in the end.

3. The storylines in the films are usually non-linear and twisting. 

4. Deception, treachery and murder is commonly found in film noir. The narratives are frequently complex and typically told with a scary background music or flashbacks.

5. Film noir films are known for their visually expressionistic lighting, deep focus depth of     field camera shots, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles, smoke and moody expressions. They emphasize on the lighting used on the characters and settings to give different meanings 

6. These settings or locations are shot at night with high contrast lighting or low key lighting with dimly lighted surroundings to show that the city is always close to danger and evil while moral and intellectual values are blurred in the badly lighted streets which creates a sad and hopeless mood in film noir.

7. Smoke and cigarettes are commonly found in Film Noir. It gives the effect of something is going to happen in the film.

8.  Women as Femme Fatale are commonly potrayed as bad and strong which will kill you as soon as they love you. They are also usually portrayed as seductive by using sexual attractions, sexy clothes or dresses, lots of make-ups, lipsticks and etc. Usually to appeal to guys or to seduce them for a hidden motive. 

9. Men that played the role as the investigator which is the anti-hero of the film are displayed as hard-boiled detectives and would usually seduced by the Femme Fatales for either love or lust. They are also used in the film by the Femme Fatales to do their dirty work or to get what she wants.

10. Black and white shots are usually used in Classic Noir and coloured shots usually used in Neo Noir

11.  Relationships in Film Noir are commonly used as a tool for the character to achieve their motives or goals. Therefore, commonly leading them to lose in the end.


There are a lot of famous film noir films produced such as, "The Maltese Falcon" by John Huston, "Double Indemnity" by Billy Wilder, "The Woman in the Window" by Fritz Lang and so on.

Based on the movie Maltese Falcon, we have watched and learnt the traits of film noir used in the film. For example, the femme fatale in the film was played by Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She's an expert at taking full advantage of her beauty and sex appeal to get men to do, well, whatever she wants. She is also an experienced liar, skilled at manipulating the truth and everyone around her. She controls all the rules in the film. In the film, Brigid O'Shaughnessy comes to find Sam Spade and lies to him with a phoney tale of searching for her sister. The way she lied to him with her fake innocence such as, talking softly making her seemed gentle. The cops were coming to find Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Sam Spade told her at her place. This part showed that she was begging and playing the pity card asking why can't Sam help her by not letting the cops know of her. She was trying to hide from the cops. Other than that, she cried in the film hoping Sam Spade will not put her behind bars for her crimes. Brigid O'Shaughnessy accused Sam Spade of not loving her because he was not going to help her get out of trouble. This shows she tried to play the sad and poor character in order to trick him into sympathizing her and set her free.

Brigid O'Shaughnessy begging for help

Next, Maltese Falcon uses black and white shots. It is considered as Classic Noir. Based on the film, it can be seen that it has used skewed camera angles, smoke and moody expressions. For instance, the part where Sam Spade, Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Joel Cairo was at Cairo's place having a talk. Skewed camera angles with low angle shot were depicted when it is a close-up shot of Joel Cairo's face. During this scene, smoke was included. Joel Cairo was smoking in the house. Smoke gives it a feel like there will be something going on later. Which in the film, after talking a while Joel Cairo wanted to insult Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She immediately stood up and slapped him in the face and this lead to a drama where he wanted to slap her back but luckily Sam defended her.

Joel Cairo having a talk

Moreover, the settings or locations in the film are shot at night with high contrast lighting or low key lighting. For example, Sam Spade in his office with Joel Cairo. From the window it can be seen that the buildings are blurred in the badly lighted streets which creates a melancholic and in despair effect. While in the office surrounding it is quite dark. This makes it feel that danger is near and evil is all around.

Joel Cairo at Sam Spade's office

In addition, the man that played the role as the investigator, Sam Spade is the anti-hero of the film. An anti-hero is someone that may be a hero as in, he could solve the mystery and bring justice but is a flawed person. For instance, Spade is a heavy smoker, rough and violent person. However, he is someone who will be able to solve the case and find the murderer. Another example is when he is faced with Brigid's tearful doe eyes pleading him to save her, he still turns her in, but his reasons for doing so are ambiguous. Though he shows a strong professional ethic by not letting Brigid get away with killing his partner, there is an element of self-interest in his decision because Spade knows it is bad for business to let a killer run loose. Other traits to show the role of the man in film noir films is the hard-boiled detective that was seduced by the Femme Fatale. For example, when Brigid walks into Spade's office, asking for his help, Sam Spade quickly becomes embroiled in a mad pursuit in aftering the Maltese Falcon. Besides that, before Joel Cairo could get a chance to slap Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Sam would defend her due to have fallen in love with her. He even told Joel Cairo to accept being slapped by the femme fatale. This let us see that the Femme Fatales got him to do her dirty work. Also, Sam Spade did not know Brigid O'Shaughnessy was working with Casper Gutman until later on. Then he realized he was pawned by her.

Sam Spade getting mad and rough

References

Dirks, T. (1996). Film Noir. T. Dirks. Retrieved April 4, 2016

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html


A Guide to Film Noir Genre. Roger Ebert's Journal. Ebert, R. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2016, from http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/a-guide-to-film-noir-genre

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008). The Maltese Falcon. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://www.shmoop.com/the-maltese-falcon/

Film Noir - Films. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2016, from http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

Video Tribute

Characters

Gloria Goh as Lily - Drug dealer. femme fatale
Cheok Pei Ying as Ying - Drug dealer
Tan Soo Ann as Evan - Criminal / murderer
Lim Jun Liang as Laurence- Investigator

Synopsis of Black Lily

Lily and Ying are drug dealers. One day, they have an argument for their drug business. Lily hires a hit-man, Evan to kill Ying. While, investigator Laurence found that this murder case is related to Lily. He finds Lily and interrogates her in his office. Lily tries to seduce Laurence in return to escape from being caught. Later, Lily meets Evan at a quiet street as she wants Laurence to help her to kill other drug dealers to ensure she can dominate the whole drug market. She does not realize that Laurence was following her all the while. When Laurence saw Lily and Evan together, he was going to arrest them. Evan tells Laurence that everything he did was under Lily's order. Lily was angered and stabbed Evan. Laurence shoots Lily right after she stabs Evan. Lastly, Evan and Lily were dead. Lily dies in Laurence's arms.


Characteristics found in the video

Semantics

The lighting for the film that were used was chiaroscuro. The low-key and high contrast lighting enables us to cast strong shadows and express different meanings in characters. The dark environment symbolises the evil in the film world of noir. Throughout the whole video it was darkly lighted, this helps show that it has no happiness, full of danger and evil.

Setting

The settings of most noir films are in the city such as alleyways, cramped corridors and so on. The part where Lily looks out of the window thinking about her crimes, the camera panned slightly to show the location. The shot shows dimly lighted buildings to show that the city is close to danger and evil. 

Syntactics

Laurence the anti-hero, received the case of the murder. Based on tip-off from strangers, he found Lily was with the victim before the crime happened.

The anti-hero, blurred moral

In film noir, it features a hard-boiled anti-hero whose morals are blurred. In our video, our protagonist is a flawed person. He drinks a lot but solves the murder case. Besides that, he is actually a womanizer. The scene where he got seduced and he then accepted her offer for sexual favour. Although, promising the femme fatale to let her off the crime, he was actually thinking of his own pleasure and manipulates her to get her sexual favour at the same time getting his job done. Therefore, breaking his promise in the end to get his case closed. He is not the good hero as described. 

The femme fatale, sexual dominance

After the world war II, femme fatale appeared in films due to the result of the role shift when women were shoved back into the domestic line from the industrial sphere. The femme fatale's role in film noir is to manipulate the anti-hero to do what she wants usually leading him into darkness. This causes the anti-hero to involve in deeper problems.In this video, the femme fatale, Lily, seduces the investigator, Laurence. To get what she wants. She is even willing to give anything to achieve her motives.