Films are products of their time and evolve as American culture evolves. As such, directorial use of existing technology, and the cultural desire for improved movie-making have led to the development of the motion picture industry. “To most people, a movie is popular entertainment, a product to be produced and marketed by a large commercial studio. Regardless of the subject matter, this movie is pretty to look at – every image is well polished by an army of skilled artists and technicians” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.3). As such, the director, in charge of that army of “skilled artists and technicians,” must make narrative choices in how best to shoot the script and tell the story to an audience. “The primary relationship of narrative
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The Maltese Falcon (1941) is an example of where “we can compare cinema to another related medium: live theater” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.4). Movies of the twentieth century, particularly earlier in the century, did have a “live theater” feel to them, and Falcon in particular, certainly did as a slice-of-life piece. The nitty-gritty streets, the dialog, the guns, the costuming, and even some use of medium and long shots, does feel like a theater play. It is easy to get swept up by the narrative away from the battlefield, away from the war production factories, away from day-to-day life, to a detective agency in San Francisco. Film noir was often set in large cities like San Francisco, “New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.95). Add to that a dead partner, a mysterious woman, some over-the-top bad guys, and you come up with a formula that would be used again and …show more content…
Use of black and white during the scenes as Lenny told his story over the telephone (a device he did not like) was another narrative choice that brought me into the story. We come to find that Lenny is, in fact, an anti-hero, operating “midway between lawful society and the criminal underworld” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.95) as a woefully manipulated assassin who makes a conscious choice to assassinate his manipulator – even if he does not remember it. How did I not get that Memento was film noir? The dark shadows across the face of Sam Spade wearing a suit and hat gave way to the shadows of a motel where Lenny was telling his story and reviewing his numerous tattoos in a mirror. Both are works of film noir and both have some similar narrative choices and some drastically different ones. Most importantly, each tells its story to the intended audience of its era, and together they show just how far both the motion picture industry has evolved, as well as their affects on the American culture. Not as individual films, but as representatives of a
The Maltese Falcon (1941) is an example of where “we can compare cinema to another related medium: live theater” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.4). Movies of the twentieth century, particularly earlier in the century, did have a “live theater” feel to them, and Falcon in particular, certainly did as a slice-of-life piece. The nitty-gritty streets, the dialog, the guns, the costuming, and even some use of medium and long shots, does feel like a theater play. It is easy to get swept up by the narrative away from the battlefield, away from the war production factories, away from day-to-day life, to a detective agency in San Francisco. Film noir was often set in large cities like San Francisco, “New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.95). Add to that a dead partner, a mysterious woman, some over-the-top bad guys, and you come up with a formula that would be used again and …show more content…
Use of black and white during the scenes as Lenny told his story over the telephone (a device he did not like) was another narrative choice that brought me into the story. We come to find that Lenny is, in fact, an anti-hero, operating “midway between lawful society and the criminal underworld” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p.95) as a woefully manipulated assassin who makes a conscious choice to assassinate his manipulator – even if he does not remember it. How did I not get that Memento was film noir? The dark shadows across the face of Sam Spade wearing a suit and hat gave way to the shadows of a motel where Lenny was telling his story and reviewing his numerous tattoos in a mirror. Both are works of film noir and both have some similar narrative choices and some drastically different ones. Most importantly, each tells its story to the intended audience of its era, and together they show just how far both the motion picture industry has evolved, as well as their affects on the American culture. Not as individual films, but as representatives of a