Introduction to Modern Cinema Assignment #2: Film Noir

I’ve seen my fair share of both classic noir and neo-noir so I’d say that my understanding of the genre is fairly well rounded and decently informed. Beginning in the early 1940s with films like Stranger on the Third Floor, the Maltese Falcon and They Drive by Night noir surfaced in response to America’s increasing paranoia in regards to the threat of Communism (and foreign invasion in general) and also the underlying tensions found in most male/female relationships, with the fight for women’s rights slowly beginning to increase in strength. Fully employing all of the stylistic possibilities of black and white film noir is home to some of the most iconic images in classic Hollywood cinema (see: Carol Reed’s the Third Man). The use of light and dark, the utilizing of shadows as some sort of ever looming implication of the fatally unknown, along with the femme fatale (the regularly occurring malicious intentions of the female sex is hard proof for borderline misogyny in the genre), are all quintessential staples in film noir.

            Orson Welles’ 1958 film Touch of Evil is considered by most one of the most masterfully crafted in the genre (evidenced in the opening shot; done in one 3 minute tracking shot.) That Welles would try his hand at noir is no surprise as the man’s ability to compose memorable shots through his utilization of shadows was evident in his directorial debut Citizen Kane. (He’d also helmed three noirs prior to Touch of Evil: 1946’s the Stranger, 1947’s the Lady From Shanghai, & 1955’s Mr. Arkadin.) The film is as stated previously brilliantly crafted even after having suffered various botch jobs from the studio; not to mention the fact that Charlton Heston plays a Mexican. There are few characters in the film that don’t appear to have hidden, possibly detrimental, intentions. Welles plays a crooked cop, more interested in vanity and glory than any sense of actual justice. There are some stellar uses of shadow and some marvelous moments of nerve wracking tension, but the one key element seemingly missing form Touch of Evil is the femme fatale; perhaps Marlene Dietrich’s character could be seen as one, but she seems more like the worn and jaded character found in the genre.

            When science fiction meets noir Blade Runner is born. Using all the key elements of the film noir genre (relying on shadows, light and dark and rain to create an atmosphere; femme fatales; a down and out detective.) Ridley Scott created one of the most brilliant of the neo-noir films of the last 30 years. Some neo-noirs, since they’re in color, seem more like crime or gangster films and that is where I think the use of color is somewhat of a deterrent in regards to noir. It’s possible to recognize elements of noir in something like Pulp Fiction with Blade Runner you get the idea right away that this is a sci-fi film noir.