Thursday 13 January 2011
WHAT IS NEO NOIR
TWO EXAMPLES OF FILM NOIR
Double Indemnity
double indemnity is an american film from 1944, it was directed by Billy Wilder and co written by billy wilder and raymond chandler. this film was based on the novel of the same title written by James M Caines.
the storyline of this film is of a classic film noir it begins with the character Walter Neff returns to his opffice building and seems to obviously be in pain and he begins to tell his story on a dictaphone which he means to leave for collegue Barton Keyes and in proper film n oir stylings the film is then made in flashbacks of the story he is telling into the dictaphone.
he tells of the story of how phyllis pursuades him to throw all caution to the wind and help her to kill her husband so that they can be together and resieve the insurance money from his life insurance policy they trick him into taking out before he died.
Then after killing off her husband Neff learns that Phyllis is seeing Lola her husbands daughter from another marrage's boyfriend Nino behind Lola's and Neffs back. Phyllis's unfaithfulness helps wake Neff from his romantic day dream and he wants to save himself from being charged for his involvement with her and with murder. He soon realises that the only way out is to make the police think Phyllis and Nino did the murder, which is what Keyes now believes anyway.
Neff then agrees to meet with Phyllis at her house and she tells him she has been seeing Nino only to try to get him to kill Lola . Neff is now disgusted and is about to kill Phyllis when she shoots him first. after being shot Neff moves towards her tellling her to shoot him again. She does not shoot and he takes the gun from her. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." Neff tells her he doesnt and he doesnt belive her anymore. ; she looks into his eyes and feels the gun pressed against her side. Neff says "Goodbye, baby," then shoots twice and kills her.
he then returns to his office where he is sitting talking into the dictaphone and is met by keyes.
The Maltese Falcon
The maltese Falcon is a waner brothers film from 1941 and was written and ditrected by John huston. The Maltese Falcon is based on the novel of the same name written by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name.
the main storyline of this film noir is that in 1941 a lady called miss ruth wonderly goes to see two private investigators sam spade and miles Archer , she tells them that she is looking for her missing sister who is seeing a man called Floyd Thursby. at an attept to get her sister back miss wonderly is to meet with Thursby and hopes her sister will be with him. the private investigator Archer goes with miss wonderly to try to help her get her sister back.
spade soon recieves newws that Archer has been killed, spade then meets with a police detective at the murdetr scene and is informed that they cant get hold of miss wonderly as she has checked out of her hotel and that thursby has also been killed and that the police detectivwe suspects spade as the killer as he had opportunity and motive to have comitted both crimes as he had been having an affair with Archers wife.
spade meets with miss wonderly who has now changed her name and she tells him that she thinks that thursby killed Archer but tells him she has no idea who killed thursby so spade agrees to look into the murders.
spade then meets a man named joel cairo pulls a gun on spade so he knocks cairo unconsious.
the then finds out that the former miss wonderly knows this mr cairo and is shocked when they meet and cairo is agitated when she tells him the fat man is in san fransisco.
spade is then taken to see gutman who offeres him 25 000 pounds for a black bird called the maltese falcon and tells him the history of the bird.
spade finds the bird and gutman fives him 10 000 for it but after close inspection finds out it is a fake he decides to go to istanbul to continue is search but spade calls the police and tells them where to pick up gutman.
Monday 4 October 2010
CHARACTERISTICS OF FILM NOIR
Storylines/Narrative
the general story line of a film noir is crime, it includes a detective who is normally either in trouble or gets caught up in some sort of trouble, it also includes a feme fetal and a hero which one of them normaly ends up dead and it has something to do with the other one,
film noirs are normally shot in a dark and depressing type location where there is very little light and normally someone is smoking.
Cinematography (shots)
in film noirs they use a number of different shots this is to keep the audience on edge and in suspense, these shots include a dutch tilt which is where the camera is tilted so that the horizon is not straight in the shot this makes the audience have to adjust their eyes as our eyes are not made to see a tilted horizon this makes an interesting and exciting shot which helps to make for a sinister shot, another shot used in film noir is a wide shot which zooms in this is where the camera focuses on a wide area and then zooms in on one person or a group of people to bring more emphasis to the group of people or the one person who the director wants us to focus on
Editing
film noirs where B movies which means they where made cheaply and using filters meant that they could film at any time of day and make it look like they where filming at night this made it easier and cheaper for them to make the films look dark and dreary without having to find a dreary location and having to shot at night time.
the normal editing for a film noir is to start at the end of the film and then to recall the action of what unfolded in flash backs through the film this is called non-linear.
Characters
the main characters in a film noir are the feme fetal who is usually a very attractive youngish female willing to do what ever she can to get her own way whether its the money or the good looking guy, the detective who normally gets caught up in trouble either helping the feme fatal or in interigating her and the hero who normally ends up dead.
film noirs represent these different characters by their costume for example the feme fetal usually wears casual but revealing clothes when talking to the detective and the detective wears smart clothes and normally a hat, in film noirs they also use music for the different characters to get the audiance to feel a certain way about each of the characters.
Wednesday 22 September 2010
HISTORY OF FILM NOIR
Although fiom noir was originally produced in America they are now produced all over the world, the 1940's and 1950's are generally regarded as being the classic period of film noir produced in America.
the story of a typical film noir tells a story of people trapped in unwanted situations, striving against uncaring fate, they tend to include crime flashbacks and usually murder this type of film came around at the time of world war 2.
some film noirs are based on the old gangster movies and to save money they often used the same crew and sets as the gangster movies of the time.
film noir was also heavily influenced by by the "hard boiled" crime books by pulp fiction authors.
the type of film called an aural film noir uses a different approach to showing the mood of the film and the characters, this film uses background music and soundtracks.
in the time when film noirs where first produced there where two different types of movies being made there where the A movies which where high budgetfilms including well known and well paid actors and actresses, and then there where the B movies of the time which where low budget and included unknown and up and coming actors and actresses, film noirs when they first appeared where more B movies using easy to find props and sets from other movies to save money on location costs.
film noirs are based on crime and murder this means that they are good films for an audience who love crime dramas.