Film Noir is a style of filmmaking, portrayed by elements such as skeptical heroes, blunt lighting effects, perpetual use of flashbacks, complex plot lines, and an underlying experimental philosophy. The genre was most popular in American crime dramas of the post-World War II era. It has become an iconic movement in the history of film-making working its way into our society by displaying the meaning of the darker side of the American dream. In 1941 ‘The Maltese Falcon’ was released and is considered the first dark film. It became an iconic movie for the Film Noir genre.The twists, turns and overall darkness of these movies excited viewers, demanding more of this kind. Therefore, in this paper I will prove my point that Film Noir is not a
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This accidental occurrence, leads him or her down an unforeseen path, inevitably to their downfall. Every attempt to fix this usually makes matters worse. The protagonist, usually a detective figure, is pushed in all the wrong directions, he or she is commonly beat up at least once throughout the film, and generally ends up losing everything. The Detective is the most iconic Noir hero. Due to these films showing a very different view on life, one that society was not used to seeing, directors and writers needed to come up with an utterly different hero to fit in with this world they were creating. These so called heroes were as ruthless, greedy and can show as much lack of compassion as the bad guy they are trying to take down. Their heroism is not intended for praise but for justice and integrity. An example of this character Humphrey Bogart, the man who personified the genre as private eye Sam Spade in ‘The Maltese Falcon, ' is emotionally aloof to the homicide of his partner and vindicates his death primarily because “when one of your organisation gets killed, it’s bad business to let the killer get away with it.” The Femme Fatale or Spider Woman is another character unique to the genre, she is commonly known for capitalising on mens weaknesses for her own advantage.These characters are sexy, manipulative, dark, unloving and mysterious, they will do whatever it …show more content…
It is a sub-genre of Film Noir that began in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. With the Hayes Code put to an end, this changed everything for film-makers, they were now able to play with ideas they never thought they could. Neo-Noir gave Film Noir the change it needed by simply updating the classic elements and visuals with its own attributes. This re-birth of Film Noir lead for more flexibility in terms of the style and ability to invent more real world based movies that could illustrate more vivid characters and acts that had previously been banned. Sex and profanity became more and more common. Neo-Noir is filled with false accusations, betrayals and double crossings. A twist on the classic noir is that the sub-genre looks at how a protagonist is accused of the crime or infringement. The audience is led to believe the accusations are false when in fact they are true. An example of this is “Sin City” (2005). Chiaroscuro Lighting was used quite frequently in Film Noir, it added contrast to the scene and helped highlight characters or parts of the scene. Due to the advance of cinematographic techniques this lighting effect is not used anymore. First person narrative doesn 't occur in Neo-Noir movies as much as it would in Noir films, although sometimes it can appear in order to pay homage. I believe Neo-Noir is a perfect example of how Film Noir is a genre. If Noir was only a style there would be no
This accidental occurrence, leads him or her down an unforeseen path, inevitably to their downfall. Every attempt to fix this usually makes matters worse. The protagonist, usually a detective figure, is pushed in all the wrong directions, he or she is commonly beat up at least once throughout the film, and generally ends up losing everything. The Detective is the most iconic Noir hero. Due to these films showing a very different view on life, one that society was not used to seeing, directors and writers needed to come up with an utterly different hero to fit in with this world they were creating. These so called heroes were as ruthless, greedy and can show as much lack of compassion as the bad guy they are trying to take down. Their heroism is not intended for praise but for justice and integrity. An example of this character Humphrey Bogart, the man who personified the genre as private eye Sam Spade in ‘The Maltese Falcon, ' is emotionally aloof to the homicide of his partner and vindicates his death primarily because “when one of your organisation gets killed, it’s bad business to let the killer get away with it.” The Femme Fatale or Spider Woman is another character unique to the genre, she is commonly known for capitalising on mens weaknesses for her own advantage.These characters are sexy, manipulative, dark, unloving and mysterious, they will do whatever it …show more content…
It is a sub-genre of Film Noir that began in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. With the Hayes Code put to an end, this changed everything for film-makers, they were now able to play with ideas they never thought they could. Neo-Noir gave Film Noir the change it needed by simply updating the classic elements and visuals with its own attributes. This re-birth of Film Noir lead for more flexibility in terms of the style and ability to invent more real world based movies that could illustrate more vivid characters and acts that had previously been banned. Sex and profanity became more and more common. Neo-Noir is filled with false accusations, betrayals and double crossings. A twist on the classic noir is that the sub-genre looks at how a protagonist is accused of the crime or infringement. The audience is led to believe the accusations are false when in fact they are true. An example of this is “Sin City” (2005). Chiaroscuro Lighting was used quite frequently in Film Noir, it added contrast to the scene and helped highlight characters or parts of the scene. Due to the advance of cinematographic techniques this lighting effect is not used anymore. First person narrative doesn 't occur in Neo-Noir movies as much as it would in Noir films, although sometimes it can appear in order to pay homage. I believe Neo-Noir is a perfect example of how Film Noir is a genre. If Noir was only a style there would be no