CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR

Main character types in Film noir

The main character types in classic Film noir have moods and personas of a negative nature and very dark like Film noir settings many of the characters in film noir may seem very alienated from society and from the normal individual. Characters in film noir are characters who are normal people in society but with a deep dark hidden secret. Characters such as femme fatale, corrupt cops and even average joes. Film noir character moods are pessimistic, morally corrupt, guilty, desperate and paranoid.

The male character types in film noir are mainly corrupt and have a dark element about them they could be seen as heroes or anti heroes. the characters are corrupt even though their job title is in the public sector such as detectives, politicians, cops or even just plain average joes. The types of characters used in film noir are villans, conflicted hard boiled detectives or private eyes, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks,war veterans, petty criminals and murderers. These leading male characters were often morally ambigious low lives from the dark and gloomy place of violent crime

and corruption often set in cities such as Los angeles and San francissco.

Distinctively they were tarnished menacing sinster members of society struggling to survive and in the end, ultimately losing.

A quote from a film noir which is an example of this:

"when a man's partner is killed, he's suppossed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well,, when one of your organisation gets killed its bad business to let the killer get away with it. Bad all around. Bad for every detective, everywhere".

Female characters                                                                                                

The females in film noir were either the perfect woman (often as an icon for family life), dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women. Or FEMMES FATALES mysterious women with a cheating nature, con artists, gorgeous, unloving, iressponsible women a women looking for a challenge taking full control of the challenge and getting the male to do all the dirty work, almost as if roles have reversed a woman who really knows what she wants and answers to no man infact nobody. Usually a very sexy character dressed in a sexy manner not your typical housewife style of clothing. The main male character would take the wrong path and may meet a feeme fatale on the way which can lead to a tragic or  fatal ending. He would become embroiled and trapped in the black widdows(femme fatale) webb and also trapped in crime which would lead to an ultimate loss down to iressistable love and corruption.

Ideology of film noir                                                                                                   

The ideology of film noir is not a typical hero narrative like superman or the good cop saves the day. But that of a normal person from society who is not a good role model in society and some may say is an anti hero opposed to hero. So the whole ideology of the good cop saving the day and a happy ending is not used in film noir but instead is the opposite as the main character who is the anti hero ultimately loses at the end and is not a hero but instead epically fails.

Target audiences                                                                                                        

Film noirs are dark and heavy crime based dramas which contain violence and corruption. They are also seen as gangster films containing murders etc. The target audience for the film noir Genre would be prodominately a male audience from teenagers onwards and also people who love classic films.

                                                   

ORIGINS OF FILM NOIR

Origins of film noir

“When I think of film noir, I think of stillness and silence. I think of a pure black screen with tiny pinpricks of white trying to break through. The image is of the central character thinking. He is thinking about all the bad things that are about to happen to him. He is not happy. He knows that shit happens but why does it have to happen to him? Film noir gives him the answer why not?”

                                                                                       

                                                            Paul Duncan

Film noir was discovered by French cineaste Nino Frank in 1946 film noir meaning “black film”. It was the name he gave to all the American crime and detective hard boiled films from the early 1940’s which had just been released in France. The heyday years of film noir began just after world war two and ran to around 1959. The first viewings of these black films in English were in Hollywood in the forties.

Film noir is pessimistic in tone and reflective in mood often presented with a voice over and a series of flashbacks. The visual image is often made up of layers of black and grey. Film noir are films of trust and betrayal and are dark films hence the name ‘noir’ which is black in French.

The social political factors of the film were the immigration of Germans to America as well as French due to the rise in Nazism, now being free in Hollywood to produce what ever they wanted and to broadcast their disappointment on Germany. Very often a film noir story was developed around a cynical, hard hearted, disillusioned male character who encountered a beautiful but promiscuous, unprincipled, cheating and seductive femme fatale. She would use her feminine charms to manipulate him into becoming the easy victim often following a murder. After a betrayal or deceitfulness she was frequently destroyed in the process often at the cost of the hero’s life.

A clip from youtube a prime example of a femme fatale

              B- MOVIES           

When hollywood first started there would be two films your "A" or main picture with a famous cast and known director with a extravagant budget and a "B" picture which was much the opposite.

Film noir was classed as a B-movie picture as Film noir sets where reused sets and the actors in Film noirs were more cost effective as they were not well known actors Film noirs were a chance to give small time actors a break. Directors were also able to make much darker films with stronger messages as the studios were pre-occupied by the "A" pictures. Directors made some of the messages known but some were stronger hidden messages.

PULP FICTION

Film noir was influenced by pulp fiction authors, as pulp fiction is all about gangster type characters such as private eyes, gangsters and criminals from a seedy background. Because there were not many stories around about dark characters such as femme fatales, anti heros, cold case murderers and criminals. Film noir was adapted from pulp fiction authors such as James M cain, Raymond Chandler 

                                and Robert A Heinlein.

More history of Film noir

World War II

Due to the rise in nazism in Europe during ww2 it made people feel dark, depressed, anxious and viewed life very negatively. This is showed in Film noir, Because of the effect of the war, how people felt about it and social/politcal factors Film noir got its characteristics.

German expressionism

 German experssionism brought dark, cold feeling that the germans had experienced from nazism. German expression was reflected in Film noir as film noir is heavily shadow based and uses very dark settings such as the film nosferatu.

Many eastern europeans fled to hollywood where they were free to make any film without the supervision of the nazis and they were also not pressured in what they could make. In film noir eastern europeans who went to hollywood really set the tone of darkness in film noirs and the dark german expressionist settings and the feelings of how they felt in nazi germany.



WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

As all the men were away in the war, women became the sole providers in the family and many jobs what would have been done by men, who were in the war the women took the roles whilst they were away.

This gave women a stand in society as they were so use to being housewives tending to their families and being under the thumb by their husbands.

Women felt liberated this mood was captivated in film noir women had a new found confidence and were more dominant they they had ever been. Men were intimidated by this. This new strong confident type of woman strongly represented femme fatale in film noir an the mood of these dominant women reflected in film noir giving femme fatale its characteristics.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I'm Briony Ryan-Stanley and i have picked AS media studies and i will be updating you every so often on my coursework throughout the year on Film noir. So far i have been set the task of researching the history of Film noir and also the codes and conventions of film noir such as mise en scene, characters, setting etc.

I will also have to make and edit a modern/contempory opening sequence of a noir piece in a group. Each member of the group will have a role and will also have to do a bit of everything such as filming or editing the opening sequence. So by the end result of making it everybody in the group should of participated in all aspects in the making of it. Along with that i will be updating my blog.