Film Noir Essays
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At the start of “Insomnia”, a crime/drama film, two detectives (Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart) are sent from Los Angeles to a quiet Alaskan town to solve the murder of a young girl. The sequence begins with an establishing shot of a police station with a sign to the left saying “City of Nightmute Alaska”, […]
The importance of both mystery and plot development in creating a successful crime fiction novel are evident. Additionally, the protagonist is a crucial element, especially in hard-boiled fiction where the investigator serves as the reader’s access to the unknown world of the novel. Dashiell Hammett skillfully crafted Sam Spade as a distinctive character that adds […]
In “Weimar Cinema and After”, Thomas Elsaesser explains expressionism as not only the style of films created in the early 1920s, but as a “generic term for most of the art cinema of the Weimar Republic in Germany, and beyond Germany, echoing down film history across the periods and genres, turning up in the description […]
American cinema in the 1970s was filled with movies that explored the risks stemming from scientific and technological advancements. The limited control that mankind had over nuclear power (“The Syndrome of China” 1979), bacteriological research (“The Last Man Alive” 1971), the environment (“Mysterious Ships” 1972), and the fusion of human souls with metal (“Souls of […]
In the film ‘Double Indemnity’-1944- Billy Wilder, lighting and mise-en-scene are very important in creating atmosphere and also affecting the audience.At the start of the extract under analysis we see Walter driving in his car on a bright, sunny day, he gets out of the car and rings the doorbell of the Dietrichson house. We […]
Orson Wells, an ideal filmmaker to conclude film noir in 1958, showcases his talent for surpassing the typical conventions of this genre. While watching this movie, it becomes apparent that film noir elements are present. However, what sets it apart is Wells’ ability to go beyond these norms. The film includes scenes that exhibit characteristics […]
Since its initial rise in popularity in the 1940’s, the notion of the “noir mediascape” has been established due to the characteristics attributed to noir infiltrating into other forms of the media. Characteristics such as noir iconography, themes, narratives and character representations have been adopted by various media ventures, and these characteristics will be explored […]
In this film I will be discussing how the above make Blade Runner’s narrative specific and unique. Blade Runner was made in 1982 and starred Harrison Ford in the role of Decker who is a cop and has to find and stop ‘replicants’ from taking over the world.The movie begins with a starry black background […]
It is claimed by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson in their book ‘The Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Style and the Mode of Production’ that the correlation between film style and mode of production are, “reciprocal and mutually influencing”. Attributable to such topics as politics, economics, and technology over time, they implied that between […]
When we go the cinema, we go for entertainment. But in order to enjoy the film we need to understand it. To do this an audience can look for the key concepts of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. During this essay it will be these subjects that I investigate in order to find out how […]
In 1944, shortly after the Second World War, a flood of American films could be found in France. The critics noticed many recurrent images throughout these B-movies, which were smaller films shown before the main feature. The films became known as a genre: film noir. Film noir is French for ‘black films’. We tend to […]
A narrative structure refers to the organization of a story, serving as the means by which the story is told. Various forms of narrative structures exist, such as chapters in novels, sequences in films, and acts and scenes in plays. Regardless of the specific structure used, they all encompass a beginning, middle, and end. Whether […]
In this essay I will compare the similarities and contrast the differences between two crime film openings. I will be comparing ‘Sin City’ and ‘The Bone Collector’. I will analyse the two film openings and see how they establish their own crime film genre. Genre is a way of categorising a film. From genre, producers […]
The Hays Code in Film Noir The Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code, was adopted in March 1930, though it was not truly enforced until four years later in 1934. This set of rules had tremendously influenced the way Hollywood movies were made for a number of years. This code was […]
Introduction The French New Wave is one of the key movements of post-war European cinematography in the late 1950s. The movement forever revolutionized the long-standing concept of cinema themes, narrative, style and audience. Known as the Nouvelle Vague, the movement showcased the vibrant realism of the streets of Paris and its inhabitants during a time […]
