Painting Light with Shadows and Making Film Noir

      After discussing the past four films: Fritz Lang’s M, The Maltase Falcon, The Third Man and Chinatown, I think it would be very beneficial to myself, and maybe my readers, if I discuss, my views at least, on film noir. Noir, which means “dark” stands alone from other films. I would like to start of with discussing if I think film noir is a genre or a mood/ sub genre and the I will continue with some of the elements that it contains. Lets walk through this dark ally together with my non dialect narration. 

A genre according to the authors of the book Film Experience, is “a category or classification of a group of movies in which the individual films share similar subject matter and is similar ways of organization the subject through narrative and stylistic patterns”(332). Even though film noir does have similar narrative, I feel that it is greater represented by the time that a majority of the films took place. A short essay by Paul Schrader, the noir period occurred during the second World War and the American films were held back from being given the French until after they were made. This is where I derive my answer from. I feel that film noir is more of a sub genre because the fact that a majority of the films that were made over a certain frame of time. I am not saying though that it is impossible to be able to make a film noir piece in today’s culture (for example, Chinatown and Sin City), but the impact that those films from that time had on their audience and the strong contrast to the films prior to them helps show this. In addition, the primarily section that I read on this genre (Film Experience and Paul Schrader’s Notes on Film Noir) strive to point out that it was American cinema that strongly stands with this sub genre. However, two of the three movies that I discussed were not American films. M was a German made movie that took place ten years before the popularity of film noir took place. The Third Man was made by a British film studio and is often regarded as the ending of the film noir period. 

I would also like to make the argument that film noir can be viewed as a subgenre to the crime drama because there is an over lap between the two, such as “characters that live on the edge of a mysterious or violent society, either criminals or individual dedicated to crime. Plots of crime, increasing mystery, and often ambiguous resolution. Urban, often dark shadowy setting where the stories take place (Film Experience 355).  Since there is such and overlap, I feel that it truly is a sub genre to the crime genre. For example, I would like to see an attempt of a remake or even a release of one of the films and to see what genre it would be placed in. (I was starting to get on my soap box, I will get off it it now :) ) 

Since it was a period in cinema history, I would like to agree with Schrader when he says that film noir is more of a set mood rather than genre. One of the first instances is the amount of German Expressionism that is present in these films. For example, noir is know for the smoky alleys and strong shadows of odd shapes. I would like to say that even though this is a movie of a horror genre, The Exorcist, it’s movie poster is a good example of the visual elements of film noir. Lighting tends to be a character of its own in this mood because a lot of the stories can be told by the shadows. For example, one of the first scenes where Harry Lime is seen by the audience is by his shadow. Lighting in general gave emphasis to certain objects or people in these films. 

In terms of narration, the stories often contain a pessimistic darker tone that was not seen to often. Due to the time that the movies were made (1940s-50s), the story lines reflected the society. There was three main types of story lines according to Schrader that would take place. The first was the detective that the audience would follow as they unraveled a mystery. However, after the war the moves became more crime and politic focused to reflect post war feelings. Lastly, the period of the “psychotic action and suicidal impulse”. I find it interesting that Fritz Lang’s M came out almost 20 years before this particular period occurred and there is a lot of overlaps since the man character killed to satisfy an urge. Women in these films where typically very sexual yet misleading, this could be seen by Evelyn in Chinatown and Brigid in the Maltese Falcon. These women character are a good example of Femme Fatale and can be found in a number of film noir films. 

A Whole Other World From My Knowledge of Film :)

       For A majority of my blogs, I have focused on the technical aspects of films ranging from muse-en-scene, cinematography, and editing. However, there is much more to films then the technical aspects. For example, who would pay to see a move that has no story, I most certainly would not. Today, I would like to take this time and talk a little bit of something that is a completely other world to me...Narratives. 

According to Film Experience by Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, a narrative is “the emotional, physical,  or intellectual perspective through which characters, events and actions” (228).  In film there are many different types of narrative. A narrative can be broken into sub categories: plot and story. A plot is “orders the events and actions of the story according to particular temporal and spatial patterns, selecting some actions, individuals, and events and omitting others” (234). This is very often compared to a story, which is “the subject matter or raw materials of a narration, with the actions and events” (234). In other words, I feel that in terms of music, a story is like the original composition and the plot is how one can chose to arrange it. 

One of the driving factors of a narrative is the characters. The character in a story is usually able to be broken down into three models: values, actions, and behaviors. I would like to use the character Rick from Casablanca to explain this. Rick is known for being selfless man in terms of his value of whom he is such as a “gin-joint” owner who is tough and can throw a good party. The actions of Rick is he is torn by Ilsa coming into his establishment and in the end wants the best for her, so he lets her fly away with Ilsa to America. The last is behavior, which is he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Going further, the change that this character undergoes shows that he is developed. For example Sam is consistent the entire film, Rick changed from whom he was in the beginning of the film. However, Rick is developed because he goes from this tight, not concerned about anyone man to a compassionate man. He is though able to keep some of the same traits though.

I would like to briefly talk about the structure of plots. One of the things that film goes are so accustomed to is  how the story progresses. One of the more traditional forms is the linear chronology, which is when events take place one after another. For example, the Godfather is able the events after the daughter’s wedding. Another type of structure is the deadline structure, where something has to occur at a very specific time. I like to think of the movie, even though it is very laughable, 12 Rounds because each of the steps much occur in order for a man to same his wife’s life. Casablanca is a good example of plot order because flashbacks and flash forwards take place with Rick and Ilsa. Lastly, I would like to mention the classic Hollywood narrative, which is the one that we are most familiar with it’s one or more character that lead the story that go to achieve something (263).  I will end there with my very brief attempt of narratives. 

What is Bollywood?

        I am writing this small blog entry because I am contemplating this term of “Bollywood”. I have heard of the term, but I never understood what it meant. I looked into term, “Bollywood”, a bit more. A Bollywood film is, according to Film Experience, as films from India that are “rootedness in Hindi culture and mythology, and elaborate song-and-dance numbers erupting in almost any genre” (415). A film that was told to me to be an example of this is Monsoon Wedding. This movie primarily is about the wedding that the father is trying to arrange a wedding and the events that occur around it. Because it discusses Hindi weddings, it touches base on the India’s culture. I have put a scene below to help demonstrate the music and dance that is scene in these types of films. In addition, traditions that revolves around a wedding. In the scene the women are singing and dancing about the desirable men they wish to wed. Like the definition that was said earlier in the blog, the scene along shows the impact that the hindi culture has.

At Least He Got Out Of China Town

it all comes back to Chinatown. I recently watched Chinatown for the second time and I still think its a movie that I still just can't get my finger. Released in the 1970s, much later film then most film noir films, Chinatown is a detective story starting Jack Nichalson as Gittes. A former police detective from Chinatown that started his own practice in Los Angeles. His work primarily is catching people who are having affairs. The film starts when Gittes comes in and a woman asks Gittes to watch over her husband, who she feels is having an affair. After a few times of following this man, the man is than murdered in a lake. The police feel that it was suicide while Nicholson's character feels it was murder. He then finds out that the woman that hired him is the sister of who she said she was. The next big question is who murder. While searching of this answer, he finds that the city is wasting water in the middle a drought. Does it match up with the murder? Dun dun dun...
I did enjoy this film only to a little degree because of the story and length of the film. I don't particularly like the story very much in the film Chinatown because I feel that is doesn't do enough to simply draw me into and care about the characters. For example, the story doesn’t give me just enough answers to get intrigued but not too much to make the story predictable. I feel that is what this film should have done. I also felt that the pace of the film was just so drawn out that I lost interest both times about part way through. I felt the ending was just ridiculous and not well written by the lines the characters were saying as well as how they were presenting them. I do however feel that Nichalson's character is very smart for he is cocky and arrogant but he can still get beat up and get his nose cut open. I still feel that there is some need to watch this film because it does show the audience what a femme fatale is capable of in film noir. I will explain what that is in my film noir blog entry I plan to write. The Evelyn character is a women that is able to lead Gittes with her mind and body but able to manipulate him from knowing other important parts of the story. She is a strong independent woman. I do feel that the lead characters, Gittes and Evelyn, were the only good concepts of the story for they kept everything moving.

The Third Man

Who was the man that was helping carry the body? I watch the movie The Third Man, it was much more entertaining then I expected. This film came out just past the point when film noir was slowly coming to an end. The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed was released in 1949. This movie tells the story of a crime novelist, Holly Martians, in post war Vienna that was looking for information about a friend of his that had died. The way that he knew the character, Harry Lime, was they were good only friends. The story about how Harry Lime was hit buy a truck and then rushed to the ambulance. The question that was raised was who was the third man that helped carry the body. As the story unfolds, there are many different versions to how Harry Lime died. Later it was revealed how Lime was involved with the black market with selling water with penicillin mixes while consumers thought that they were buying full penicillin. In addition, the man that Harry Lime worked with was missing. I really liked how the second half of this film had a lot of German expressionism while the earlier part of the movie had more of American Film Noir.
In the beginning of the film, the movie was a man searching for answers about Harry Lime. I did in fact feel a lot of connections to this film to Citizen Kane in terms of understanding and discovering the life of a recently dead man. The novelist, played by Joseph Coten, was a very interesting character for he would interview people to understand what really happened the day Harry Lime died. Later in the film, it seemed to grow darker both visually and in the story telling. The lead in to when Orson Wells character was amazing for it happened with very hard lighting and shadows. When he was revealed, he has a boyish charm to him but as the script later showed, he was a much darker individual. I felt that a perfect moment that the film was both noir and German expressionism was when he was discovered by the police when he was about to meet with Martins. The chase sequence was a beautiful displace of shadows.

The Maltese Falcon

So much for a piece of metal. Today, I watch the film The Maltese Falcon. This film, which is considered to be one of the first main stream film noir, was not the best movie that I have seen recently. The movie is about Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, has a woman come into his and his partner Acher’s office, The woman named Wonderly hired Sam to look for her missing sister who was last seen with a man named Flody Thursby. That evening, Sam’s partner is murdered. Sam was then placed under investigation for the murder because he is suspected to have disliked his partner and having an affair with Archer’s wife. In addition, the man that he was suppose to follow, also was murdered. After discovering this, he finds out that the woman gave him a false name. As the story progresses it seems that the focus is about this black silver falcon that is worth a large amount of money and all the characters, both good and bad, are searching for it. I honestly don’t know how I feel about this movie because the film didn’t seem to have the ending that was fulfilling.
After I watched this film, I felt as if I was let down. The main reason was that the entire time the character are chasing this very expensive piece of art, the one that is reveals is a fake. I also found it quite distracting that the female characters looked some what similar, which lead to a majority of the scenes being very hard to understand and let alone distracting. I did however, found that Peter Lorre gave a very wonderful performance, especially after after seeing him in M before watching this movie.

M Blog (will contain spoiliers)

German and black and white might not sound exciting. Recently, I watched the film titled M by the early director Fritz Lang. I truly enjoyed this film because it brought together the elements from silent cinema that I really enjoy (German expressionism and the more theatrical acting) and added german dialogue. Lang’s silent film directing techniques were very visible since this was his first film with sound. The very chilling introduction with the little children singing a song about getting kidnapped was a great lead into this film. The part that I liked the most about this movie is the story, use of sound, and German expressionism.
The story of this film is that a child killer was on the lose in a small German city. The killer caused a very large disturbance in the city. The faceless killer would lead the children to him by buying them something and then the scene would change. These events of killing led to raids on bar establishments by the police. These events would anger the owners of the bars and ruin businesses. In result, the owners felt that they needed to take maters into their own hands. The story then crafts into a story that leaves the audience wondering who is going to catch the killer: the police or the mob.
Since this was Fritz Lang’s first sound picture, he was able play with its elements. I felt that it was very clever the way he was able to have the audience be able to identify the murder was by how he whistled. Another example of this is that it is also the way that the character is able to be identified by a blind man. It seemed it was along the same lines as the Jaws theme, when the killer was approaching, the whistle would start up. It is also the way that the audience is able to understand when they are revealed the face of the killer because he is whistling the music while he looks into the mirror.
The German expressionism was very visible with this movie. Being made in 1931, it was right on the border of more films were able to contain sound. First, I would like to say that I really like the use of shadows. For example, there is a wanted ad for the child killer and then this large silhouette of a man in a hat appeared. This is able to inform the audience that this is an important person. I also just loved the use of lines. One of the first shots that got my attention was when the mother of one of the children in the beginning looks down into the stair case. It’s such a simple yet complex shot. Another example of German Expressionism is when the mobsters are going after the killer and the killer is locked in the attack of the building. The shadows of when the killer turns of the light gives off a very haunting effect and the wooden bars of the addict really adds the final touches to the scene.