Elements of Film Noir

This is not complete, and probably never will be, but feel free to read it anyway.

Introduction

The classic Film Noir period began in American cinema during the 1940's with films such as "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and it ended in the late 1950's with films like "A Touch of Evil" (1958). The characteristics of a Noir film are very distinctive, they can be split into different elements that all factor into the overall style of the genre.

Cinematography

The first thing you notice about early Film Noir pictures is that they were all in black and white. This gave the genre a certain distinctiveness while at the same time reflecting the dark subject matter within the films. However, the thing that sets Noir apart from other black and white films is the lighting. The lighting increased the contrast and added drama in a way that other black and white films did not have. John Alton, the Director of Photography for the famous Film Noir picture "The Big Combo", reveals his thought process behind his lighting techniques:

   "The other cameramen illuminated for exposure. They'd put a lot of light in it so the audience could see everything. I used light for mood. All my pictures looked different. That's what made my name, that's what set me apart. People asked for me. I gambled. In most cases, the studios objected. They had the idea that the audience should be able to see everything. But when I started making dark pictures, the audience saw there was a purpose to it"
  
 "For some years Alton had been trying to persuade the directors he worked with that a cinematographer didn't simply "pump light into a scene. The light has to tell something. There's a meaning, and it establishes a mood."  (http://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/alton.htm)

It has also been argued that the production studios may have had an impact on lighting. Film noir pictures were generally considered "B" movies by the studios; cheap movies that were produced "for use as a supporting feature in a cinema programme". 'B' movies usually lacked the appeal of big names and high quality production that 'A' films had, they were considered inferior in quality but also in importance. This attitude toward film noirs meant they were often treated poorly in terms of budget and therefore the quality, choice of actors, equipment and sets were extremely limited. The lack of budget affected the lighting equipment  and as a result may have forced cinematographers to adapt and light the scene in a different and more creative way in order compensate for the lack of budget and hide the low quality sets.

Characters

The characters in Film Noir pictures often fit into certain categories that are typical to the genre. Common characters in film noir include the following:

The Anti-hero

This character is usually the main protagonist. Generally, the anti-hero is a male character that lacks the attributes of a conventional hero. A disillusioned man who is "conflicted with ambiguous morals, or character defects and eccentricities, and lacks courage, honesty, or grace. The anti-hero can be tough yet sympathetic, or display vulnerable and weak traits. Specifically, the anti-hero often functions outside the mainstream and challenges it.". (http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/glossary/index.asp) 
Despite all these negative traits, the anti-hero is often the character that the audience identifies with. The reason for this may lie in the social circumstances surrounding Film Noir. 

In the 1930's, America struggled with the Great Depression. With a devastated economy, high rates of unemployment, and countless bankrupt individuals, many people began to lose their belief in the the land of opportunity and the American dream. The place of freedom and prosperity was quickly plunged into a depression. The anti hero could be seen as a embodiment of the pessimistic attitude that surrounded America during the 30's; something that many people could relate with.     

    
Then the 1940's saw the end of the war and men coming back home in hope of a hero's welcome. However, the reality for many was that they returned home with no jobs, and to wives who had been working and were now discontent with staying at home while their husbands went out to earn money. Not only this but "The excitement of families being reunited with fathers and sons was often offset by more disruption as family members found themselves struggling to get to know each other again after years apart." (http://www.cindytsutsumi.com/wpcontent/downloads/words/Film_Hist_40s_FilmNoir/)
As a result of this, the male population were left disillusioned, confused and unsure of their future. The deterioration of the conventional social rules and the ever changing gender roles changed everything that people thought they knew.

male anxiety, fear of failure, the pressure to be a hero.

 ?Clearly the social environment surrounding Film Noir was confusing. It can be argued that maybe people no longer wanted to see a perfect, charming hero. It is possible that they wanted a real story that reflected the hopeless and pessimistic feeling of the times and not a film that pretended that nothing was wrong and that it was all fine. The anti-hero, whilst not the conventional hero, possesses very human qualities that are largely imperfect, but it is these very imperfections that causes us to relate the character.?

The Femme Fatale
This is a strong female character who is often an insatiable, "irresistibly attractive woman who leads men to destruction.". (http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/glossary/index.asp). The name is a French term that literally means "fatal woman” and her traits include being manipulative as she uses her femininity to exploit the male protagonist. Typically identifiable through the use of a lit cigarette and red lipstick as her motifs. Usually, by the end of the film the Femme Fatale character is either is reformed or is punished. This character arc can be contributed to the attitude towards women during the 1940's as well as the introduction of the "Hays code".
As mentioned before, women of the 1940's were reluctant to give up their well earned jobs. Being discontent as stay at home housewives was seen as a threat to the status quo and the Femme Fatale was/is the embodiment of this threat. "Of the three types of noir women, the femme fatale represents the most direct attack on traditional womanhood and the nuclear family. She refuses to play the role of devoted wife and loving mother that mainstream society prescribes for women. She finds marriage to be confining, loveless, sexless, and dull, and she uses all of her cunning and sexual attractiveness to gain her independence."(http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/no_place5.asp)
 One possible reason that the Femme Fatale was always either killed, punished, or reformed, has to do with the fact that many males wanted to make an example of females who threatened the norms. It was a way of "putting women in their place". The other reason concerns the Motion Picture Production Code, a set of regulations that governed the production of films during the 30's up until the 60's.(see: regulations - Motion Picture Production Code)
Despite their unfortunate ends, the femme fatale character still lives clearly in the audiences mind. It is almost as if any attempts to discipline this strong, independent and rebellious character has failed. One possible explanation for this may be because the femme fatale depicted a character who rejected conventional ideals and as a result, was free. Being presented with the character was all it took, the femme fatale's demise is insignificant. The death/repression does not change the fact that she existed and simply showing this character to the audience was enough to make her unforgettable. "Noir films create this image of the strong, unrepressed woman, then attempt to contain it by destroying the femme fatale or converting her to traditional womanhood. But the femme fatale cannot be made to serve the status quo so easily — even if that is the film's intention.... the femme fatale effectively undermines the supremacy of the traditional family and its values in spite of her final punishment or conversion. Harvey argues that the femme fatale's transgressions against the traditional family constitute a far more enduring image than her final punishment:

"Despite the ritual punishment of acts of transgression, the vitality with which these acts are endowed produces an excess of meaning which cannot finally be contained. Narrative resolutions cannot recuperate their subversive significance." 

Place agrees, asserting that the audience remembers the nontraditional female as free and powerful, not punished and neutralized:

"It is not their inevitable demise we remember but rather their strong, dangerous, and above all exciting sexuality. . . . [T]he final "lesson" of the myth often fades into the background and we retain the image of the erotic, strong, unrepressed (if destructive) woman. The style of these films thus overwhelms their conventional narrative content, or interacts with it to produce a remarkably potent image of woman." "(http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/no_place5.asp)

The Nurturing Woman
This character is the contrasting counterpart to the femme fatale. She represents the traditional idea of womanhood and family and she accepts her place in a patriarchal society. Content with being a devoted housewife and loving mother, the nurturing woman is generally portrayed and as attractive but 'pretty' rather than sexy. Unlike the femme fatale, the "good" woman usually survives at the end of the film but with a broken heart as she is rejected by the male protagonist for the much more alluring and dangerous femme fatale. The character herself does not belong in the dark world of film noir, she is out of place. She embodies the traditional family values and represents wholesomeness and purity.  However, whilst a good devoted woman would be the the love interest in a conventional Hollywood film, in the world of film noir it is "as if the cultural ideal of family life.... is a mere fantasy for the noir characters. In film noir, the American dream is indeed a dream. The good woman often lives in an idealized country setting or in a well- kept apartment, outside of the dark, rain-soaked urban streets associated with the noir world. She is filmed using the visual techniques of classical Hollywood cinema: high-key lighting, eye-level camera angles, and open spaces — free of the disturbing mise-en-scène that surrounds the femme fatale. And she remains passive, nurturing, and nonthreatening — a redeeming angel for a hero hopelessly tempted by the active, independent, and dangerous femme fatale." (http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/no_place6.asp)
add a bit more?

Narrative, Subject Matter and Influences

The world of film noir is a dark place, a place "where the sun has died and people get by with neon, where the only pleasure to be had is from bourbon and the satisfaction of knowing that life is a cheap little game where everybody plays dirty." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_wWc99g88)

 What influenced film noir to be the way it is? In many cases, art is a product of the period in which it was produced and the environment that surrounded it at the time and because of this we must look into what happened in America before the birth of film noir.  It can be argued that the narrative and subject matter of film noir reflected many of the issues, values and ideals from the 1930 through to the 50's. The problems changed as the years progressed, they range from the fear during the cold war, post-war america, changing gender roles, disillusionment with the american dream etc. However, one of the first significant events that impacted film noir is the Great Depression.

 During the 1930's America faced the Depression. On October 29th, 1929, the American stock market crashed. "As stock prices plummeted with no hope of recovery, panic struck. Masses of people tried to sell their stock, but no one was buying. The stock market, which had appeared to be the surest way to become rich, quickly became the path to bankruptcy." (http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm).
 This incident marked the start of the Great Depression, however, the stock market crash was just the tip of the iceberg. 
//Many banks were forced to close after investing large portions of their clients' savings into the stock market. "Afraid they would lose their own savings, people rushed to banks that were still open to withdraw their money. This massive withdrawal of cash caused additional banks to close." (http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm)
//Businesses began to limit their worker's hours and wages and as a result people had less expendable income. "Consumers began to curb their spending...This lack of consumer spending caused additional businesses to cut back wages or [even] lay off some of their workers. Some businesses couldn't stay open...and soon closed their doors, leaving all their workers unemployed" (http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm)
//Farmers, who "were usually safe from the severe effects of a depression", were hit by devastating droughts and dust storms. The combination of droughts, years of over-grazing and incorrect farming techniques caused the grass to wither away, exposing the dry soil. Strong winds picked up these unanchored soil particles and whisked them into vast, choking clouds of dust that often blackened the sky. The following period dust storms that ensued forced many people to migrate west, these storms are now collectively known as The Dust Bowl.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dust_Bowl)

The Great depression was an immensely tragic time in American history, a time where individuals and families were forced to leave their home states and migrate else where in hopes of a better life. The unstable economic circumstances left people in a negative mind state; cynical and disillusioned with the American dream. The freedom, opportunity and equality that America had once promised seemed lost. A decade would pass before people would see any indication of improvement.

The Great Depression is significant because it changed many people's views about America. The characters in film noir can be seen as embodiment's of the cynical disillusionment caused by the depression; a product of the times.

the war, the economic recovery, the establishment of suburban communities, religious communities, consumerism, disillusionment with consumerism.

The film noir style was not born out of nothing, it was influenced by many pre-existing movements, one of which was German expressionism. These films were popular in Germany during the 1920's and are "characterised by dramatic lighting, distorted sets, and symbolic action and character."(http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/glossary/index.asp#G)

 "The story lines of German expressionist films matched the visuals in terms of darkness and disillusionment. Often sombre in mood and featuring characters from a corrupt underworld of crime, the films' dramatic effects produced motifs of claustrophobia and paranoia."(https://suite101.com/a/info-on-german-expressionist-films-a55137) As you can see German expressionism had a important role in the development of film noir. Film noir shares countless similarities with German expressionism, not only in style but also in narrative, cinematography and characters.

Apart from the stylistic impacts from German expressionism, there was a literary influence from pulp magazines. Pulp magazines, so called because of the cheap wood pulp paper from which they were produced, were popular during the first half of the 20th century. They depicted similar subject matters and the same disillusioned characters and you can find film noir pictures. The strong influence from these magazines are clear and was made evident when The Maltese Falcon (1941) was made. Originally a novel published by "Black Mask" pulp magazine in 1929, the 1941 film adaptation is now considered one of the first film noir picture ever made.
(http://www.poetsforum.com/papers/261_1.html)


Post-WWII America may have had an influence on the genre. 

many conflicting issues such as politics, traumatised soldiers
 anti-communism, cold war, HUAC, nuclear threats)
Kiss me deadly is an example of America's concerns during the cold war.

controlled/influenced by the motion picture production code.
not really a detective crime story, as the audience usually already knows who committed the crime, but rather was an examination of human behaviour.
subverted the classic narrative structure of the golden period of Hollywood. for example sunset boulevard begins with the dead man found in a pool and we follow the story through flashbacks and voice overs.

Regulations and Guidelines

Hays Code (Motion Picture Production Code)
The Motion Picture Production Code was introduced in 1930 but officially came into effect in 1934.
Also known as the "Hays Code" after Will H. Hays, the first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the Hays code governed what was allowed to happened in motion pictures between 1934 and 1968. After many scandals in Hollywood, there was a big urge from the public for some kind regulation to control what filmmakers and writers could do.

This is relevant to film noir because the Hays Code was in place during the noir period. As a result of the Hays code, all motion pictures produced between 1934 and 1968 were under the same regulations. Writers were restricted in what they could put in their scripts and therefore what they could include in the films.

These restrictions could have played a part in developing the traditional film noir conventions. For example, under the rules of the Hay's code, crimes "must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation". This meant many film noir movies had to punish any crimes that had taken place in the story line. These restrictions forced many writers to find new ways to tell a story that would not violate the code. Film noir pictures made in the Hays code period had no nudity etc all of which developed into a style that we are familiar with blahblahblahthat film noir often had  Although the restrictions were inconvienient to the writers, the hays code had shaped film noir into what it is today. Without these restrictions, film noir could have become a very different genre.
http://asu.edu/courses/fms200s/total-readings/MotionPictureProductionCode.pdf





Representation
In the medium of film, we see scenes involving certain places and characters. As an audience, it is very easy not to question whether what we see is an accurate portrayal of real life. It can be misunderstood that what we are shown is reality, where in fact it is really a reconstruction of reality that presents the world to us in a particular way.
For example, if we are looking into gender roles in film noir, the typical protagonist is a male character. The representation of males in film noir presents us with a world where men are white, masculine and heterosexual, middle-class individuals who posses "ambiguous morals, or character defects". However, this is not reality. this representation of males does not concern men of different races and sexualities. representation should not be judged on accuracy but rather how it socially impacts the audience.