3. Peering into Corners: Billy Wilder, John Seitz, and the Visual Style of Film Noir

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 65-84 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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).

Download Full-text

5. Styles of film noir

Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction ◽

10.1093/actrade/9780198791744.003.0005 ◽

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.

Download Full-text

Investigating Nordic Noir

10.26686/wgtn.17059997 ◽

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>

Download Full-text

Investigating Nordic Noir

10.26686/wgtn.17059997.v1 ◽

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>

Download Full-text

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

American British and Canadian Studies ◽

10.1515/abcsj-2015-0003 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 44-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

Download Full-text

Panel to the Screen

10.14325/mississippi/9781496809780.001.0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Drew Morton

Keyword(s):

Comic Books ◽

Formal Analysis ◽

Comic Book ◽

Film Noir ◽

Audience Reception ◽

Cultural Relevancy ◽

Box Office ◽

Art Form ◽

Visual Style ◽

Source Materials

Over the past forty years, American film has entered into a formal interaction with the comic book. Such comic book adaptations as Sin City, 300, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World have adopted components of their source materials' visual style. The screen has been fractured into panels, the photographic has given way to the graphic, and the steady rhythm of cinematic time has evolved into a far more malleable element. In other words, films have begun to look like comics. Yet, this interplay also occurs in the other direction. In order to retain cultural relevancy, comic books have begun to look like films. Frank Miller's original Sin City comics are indebted to film noir while Stephen King's The Dark Tower series could be a Sergio Leone spaghetti western translated onto paper. Film and comic books continuously lean on one another to reimagine their formal attributes and stylistic possibilities. This book examines this dialogue in its intersecting and rapidly changing cultural, technological, and industrial contexts. Early on, many questioned the prospect of a “low” art form suited for children translating into “high” art material capable of drawing colossal box office takes. Now the naysayers are as quiet as the queued crowds at Comic-Cons are massive. The book provides a nuanced account of this phenomenon by using formal analysis of the texts in a real-world context of studio budgets, grosses, and audience reception.

Download Full-text

“Emergent Noir”: Film Noir and the Great Depression in High Sierra (1941) and This Gun for Hire (1942)

Journal of American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0021875808005513 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 415-448 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

JOEL DINERSTEIN

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Great Depression ◽

Film Noir ◽

Trauma Theory ◽

Archival Research ◽

Moral Ambiguity ◽

The Great Depression ◽

Box Office ◽

Visual Style ◽

Citizen Kane

This article theorizes a new periodization for film noir through a prewar category of “emergent noir”: seven films released between 1940 and 1942 – including The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane – that defined the genre's thematics, aesthetics, visual style, and moral ambiguity. Using archival research and trauma theory, the article analyzes High Sierra and This Gun for Hire as case studies of “failure narratives”: each film resonated with American audiences by validating the recent suffering of the Great Depression, allowing for a vicarious sense of revenge, and creating new ideals of individuality and masculinity. Both films were surprise box-office hits and created new film icons for the 1940s: Humphrey Bogart, Alan Ladd, and Veronica Lake. All three were embodiments of “cool,” a concept herein theorized as a public mask of stoicism.

Download Full-text