5. Styles of film noir

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-101
Author(s):  
James Naremore
Keyword(s):  
Film Noir ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Visual Style

Contrary to what has sometimes been said, there never was a single narrative or visual style of film noir, even in the 1940s. The major directors played the movie game in slightly different ways and each of the studios also had something of their own style because of the photographers, designers, and musical composers they employed. ‘Styles of film noir’ explains that classic film noirs were as stylistically heterogeneous as any other kind of picture, but they were governed by a generally agreed upon ‘mysterious’ look. Film noir has persisted, but it doesn’t look the same in different periods. The shift from black and white to color is discussed along with parody, pastiche, and postmodern noir.

Costume on film: How the femme fatale’s wardrobe scripted the pictorial style of 1940s film noir

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Colpaert
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
The Body ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Star Image ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Double Indemnity ◽  
Mode Of Production

The character of the femme fatale and the visual style of film noir are vital elements in our understanding of that genre. Film costumes worn by the femme fatale are crucial, and are defining elements in genre recognition precisely because of their explicit cinematic visualization, rather than functioning as unequivocal signs. This article proposes a methodology for film costume researchers to conduct a pictorial analysis, without necessarily analysing film costume in terms of a meaning-making repertoire adhering to our understanding of film as a ‘language’. In the proposition of a framework for the close textual analysis of film costumes, the methodology is based on the triangulation of a shot-by-shot description, a wardrobe breakdown and an examination of production stills. This triangulation is crucial to understand the complexity of film costumes, which are defined by a wide-ranging set of factors such as: the film industry’s mode of production, the film costume’s relation to the fashion of its time, the body and star image of the actor, the work of the costume designer and his/her department, and the film-specificity. The ways in which a film costume functions in a specific shot will prove to be an important tool to analyse the pictorial characteristics of film noir and the femme fatale. To exemplify to methodology, this article proposes a close reading of an iconic film costume designed for one of the best-known performances of such a character, i.e. the white jumpsuit designed by Edith Head for Barbara Stanwyck in the closing scene of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944).

scholarly journals A Changing Visual Landscape: British Cinematography in the 1960s

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-227
Author(s):  
Duncan Petrie
Keyword(s):  
High Contrast ◽  
Cinema Studies ◽  
Black And White ◽  
International Recognition ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Visual Landscape ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Gradual Transformation ◽  
Made In

British cinema of the 1960s offers a productive terrain for the consideration of the significance and contribution of the cinematographer, a rather neglected and marginalised figure in British cinema studies. The work of British practitioners certainly achieved new levels of international recognition during this period, with the award of five Oscars for Best Cinematography between 1960 and 1969, equalling the total from the previous twenty years. A survey of the films made in Britain during the decade also reveals a gradual transformation in visual style: from a predominance of black and white to the ubiquity of colour; from hard-edged, high-contrast lighting to a softer, more diffused use of illumination; from carefully composed images and minimal camera movement to a much freer, more mobile and spontaneous visual register; from the aesthetics of classicism to a much more self-conscious use of form appropriate to a decade associated with a new emphasis on spectacle and sensation. This article will examine major achievements in 1960s British cinematography, focusing on the factors noted above and giving particular consideration to the contribution of a small number of key practitioners including Walter Lassally, David Watkin, Nicolas Roeg and Freddie Young, who individually and collectively helped to affirm the 1960s as a particularly creative period in British cinema.

scholarly journals Investigating Nordic Noir

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sofia Alexi
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Crime Films ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
The City

<p>Scandinavian crime films and television series have become popular in recent years. This thesis explores some of the key texts in ‘Nordic noir’ through a discussion of detectives, the environment, and visual style. The emphasis in the project is on textual analysis. The first chapter examines the figures of Wallander and Lund in Wallander and Forbrydelsen respectively. I argue that the conflicts Nordic detectives often have between work and the domestic sphere are an indication of how gender stereotypes are challenged in the Scandinavian crime genre. The second chapter considers the role of the natural and built environments in Nordic noir. Features such as forests and water play a crucial role in Forbrydelsen because of the ways in which they create uncertainty, anticipation, and suspense. The urban spaces of Bron/Broen develop a sense of anonymity that recalls the function of the city in classic film noir. Rather than developing links between Sweden and Denmark, the series suggests that the Øresund bridge that spans the two countries is ultimately a disconnecting, centrifugal force that functions as what Marc Augé would call a ‘non-place’. The final chapter considers the role of colour and light in the films Insomnia and Jar City. My analysis demonstrates that Nordic noir encompasses more than naturalism and realism. Like classic and neo-noir, it includes a range of expressive aesthetic strategies that serve both narrative and thematic functions.</p>

scholarly journals Investigating Nordic Noir

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sofia Alexi
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Crime Films ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
The City

<p>Scandinavian crime films and television series have become popular in recent years. This thesis explores some of the key texts in ‘Nordic noir’ through a discussion of detectives, the environment, and visual style. The emphasis in the project is on textual analysis. The first chapter examines the figures of Wallander and Lund in Wallander and Forbrydelsen respectively. I argue that the conflicts Nordic detectives often have between work and the domestic sphere are an indication of how gender stereotypes are challenged in the Scandinavian crime genre. The second chapter considers the role of the natural and built environments in Nordic noir. Features such as forests and water play a crucial role in Forbrydelsen because of the ways in which they create uncertainty, anticipation, and suspense. The urban spaces of Bron/Broen develop a sense of anonymity that recalls the function of the city in classic film noir. Rather than developing links between Sweden and Denmark, the series suggests that the Øresund bridge that spans the two countries is ultimately a disconnecting, centrifugal force that functions as what Marc Augé would call a ‘non-place’. The final chapter considers the role of colour and light in the films Insomnia and Jar City. My analysis demonstrates that Nordic noir encompasses more than naturalism and realism. Like classic and neo-noir, it includes a range of expressive aesthetic strategies that serve both narrative and thematic functions.</p>

The Crimson Kimono

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Miklitsch
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Black Film ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Interracial Romance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Police Detective ◽  
American Police

Samuel Fuller’s Crimson Kimono (1959) is, like Odds against Tomorrow (1959), a paradigmatic late ‘50s American noir. Part policier, part melodrama, part “art” film, part “B” or exploitation picture, The Crimson Kimono deploys the sort of self-reflexive devices associated with Douglas Sirk’s ‘50s melodramas in order to “estrange” or “alienate” the dark crime film. For example, by portraying an interracial romance and commenting on the cliché of Oriental inscrutability, The Crimson Kimono foregrounds the black-and-white moral calculus of melodrama even as italicizes the racial difference, not to say racism, that has been a part, however occluded, of the history of “black film.” Equally importantly, by refiguring the film’s Asian-American police detective as the “hero” of the narrative who solves the case and “gets the girl,” Fuller’s film refashions one of the constitutive tropes of the genre, the “Shanghai gesture,” a trope that can itself be traced back to The Maltese Falcon (1941) and the origins of classic American film noir.

Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Naremore
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Video Streaming ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Literary Sources

Film noir is usually associated with a series of darkly seductive Hollywood thrillers from the 1940s and 1950s—shadowy, black-and-white pictures about private eyes, femme fatales, outlaw lovers, criminal heists, corrupt police, and doomed or endangered outsiders. But Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction demonstrates that the genre has much earlier origins and is more international in scope. The key themes and styles of film noir are discussed along with some of the most iconic film noirs, exploring important aspects of their history and ongoing influence: their critical reception, major literary sources, methods of dealing with censorship and budgets, social and cultural politics, variety of styles, and future in a world of digital media and video streaming.

scholarly journals “That Show You Like Might Be Coming Back in Style”: How Twin Peaks Changed the Face of Contemporary Television

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raluca Moldovan
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
David Lynch ◽  
American Film ◽  
Twin Peaks ◽  
The Face ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Small Screen ◽  
Detective Series

Abstract The present study revisits one of American television’s most famous and influential shows, Twin Peaks, which ran on ABC between 1990 and 1991. Its unique visual style, its haunting music, the idiosyncratic characters and the mix of mythical and supernatural elements made it the most talked-about TV series of the 1990s and generated numerous parodies and imitations. Twin Peaks was the brainchild of America’s probably least mainstream director, David Lynch, and Mark Frost, who was known to television audiences as one of the scriptwriters of the highly popular detective series Hill Street Blues. When Twin Peaks ended in 1991, the show’s severely diminished audience were left with one of most puzzling cliffhangers ever seen on television, but the announcement made by Lynch and Frost in October 2014, that the show would return with nine fresh episodes premiering on Showtime in 2016, quickly went viral and revived interest in Twin Peaks’ distinctive world. In what follows, I intend to discuss the reasons why Twin Peaks was considered a highly original work, well ahead of its time, and how much the show was indebted to the legacy of classic American film noir; finally, I advance a few speculations about the possible plotlines the series might explore upon its return to the small screen.

Disorienting the Past, Cripping the Future in Adam Elliot’s Claymation

Animation ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Slava Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Home Videos ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Definition Of

Acclaimed Australian animator Adam Elliot dedicated his career to illustrating the experiences of people with disabilities. Elliot’s first trilogy – Uncle (1996), Cousin (1999) and Brother (2000) – is a black and white claymation accompanied by narration reminiscing beloved family members with disabilities. The article intersects disability studies, phenomenology and film studies in an analysis of the disabled body in Elliot’s claymations and the crip ethics they may evoke in spectators. The author argues that Elliot’s clayographies disorient the past by yearning for it and crip the future by criticizing the marginalization of people with disabilities, and focusing on the desire for life ‘out-of-line’. The hybridity of the trilogy is an infusion of documentary ‘domestic ethnography’ or home videos, centering familial ‘others’ with fictional film-noir that allows entrance into the dark realm of recollection. The viewers are offered bodily experiences that emphasize the body’s vulnerability and perishability, presented not in a tragic or inspirational fashion, but as inseparable from human existence. By conjuring these oppositional cinematic styles and genres in clay, disability is represented as the definition of the human experience through an ethical remembrance.

I Died a Million Times

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Miklitsch
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Left Handed ◽  
Human Endeavor ◽  
Rearview Mirror ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Private Eye

The Age of Affluence. Ike and Mamie. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. In the United States, the 1950s have been memorialized as the Pax Americana. A similar stereotypical view has characterized the 1950s crime film. While the big-shot gangster dominated the headlines in the 1930s and the private eye graced the 1940s, both the gangster picture and film noir were declared DOA in the 1950s. There is, of course, another, less than perfect picture of the ’50s in which the tropes associated with the decade are rather darker. Commies. Aliens from outer space. The bomb. I Died a Million Times argues that the crime film is alive and well in the 1950s in the generic guise of gangster noir. The corpus delicti is a trio of subgenres that crystallized in the period and that correlates with the above symptomatic events: the syndicate picture, the rogue cop film, and the heist movie. These subgenres and the issues associated with them--the “combo” as capitalism incarnate, the letter of the law versus the lure of vigilantism, and the heist as a “left-handed form of human endeavor”--may appear black and white in the rearview mirror of history, but from another perspective, one that’s attentive to issues such as race (The Phenix City Story), class (The Prowler), gender (The Big Heat), sexuality (The Big Combo), the nation (The Asphalt Jungle), and the border (Touch of Evil), these signal, not-so-generic films are as vibrant and colorful as the decade itself.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document