the instant expert: film noir - the national
TRANSCRIPT
-
7/28/2019 The Instant Expert: Film Noir - The National
1/3
2/7/13 12:he instant expert: film noir - The National
Page ttp://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-instant-expert-film-noir
The instant expert: film noir
THE BASICS Film noir ("black film" in French) is the term for a genre of mainly Amer
can films of the 1940s and the 1950s that stylishly explore the dark underside of life. I
a world of tough guys and doomed heroes, of double-crossing dames and deadpan di
logue, of light and shadow and cigarette smoke, of high heels clicking along on wpavements, of hard-boiled private eyes in trench coats and fedoras. Get the idea, swee
heart?
THE FRENCH INFLUENCE They later inexplicably idolised the buffoonish America
comic actor Jerry Lewis, but French critics should be applauded for applying the ter
film noir to Hollywood films in the 1940s, though it wasn't until the 1970s that it becam
widely used. Most noir titles are so classified in retrospect; at the time they were l
belled melodramas.
A SEMINAL ANALYSIS In a 1946 essay, The Crime Adventure Story: A New Kind
Detective Film, the French critic Nino Frank wrote of dark new films that told "of certa
disagreeable realities that do in truth exist". In short, the French, suddenly viewing Ho
lywood films that had been unavailable during the Second World War, understandab
embraced stories about world-weary individuals in a hostile universe.
SOME COMMONALITIES If a Hollywood film from roughly 1940 through to 1958 hlow-key lighting, stark contrasts, dramatic patterning, skewed camera angles, a conv
luted story, flashbacks, voice-over narration, murder, greed, jealousy and an alienate
protagonist - well, sister, it's film noir.
SOME TITLESCriss Cross, Force of Evil, Touch of Evil, The Naked City, The Asphalt Jung
Gun Crazy, They Live by Night, The Lost Weekend, The Big Clock, The Big Heat, The Big Slee
The Killers, Kiss of Death, This Gun for Hire, The Woman in the Window and so many mo
similarly evocative titles - it ain't Busby Berkeley, baby, it's film noir.
SOME LEADING MEN Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, John Garfiel
Sterling Hayden, Burt Lancaster, Victor Mature, Robert Mitchum, Tyrone Power - ma
culine but vulnerable, laconic but passionate, dangerous but lovable, these tough guy
would put some lead in your guts and then dance with the devil.
-
7/28/2019 The Instant Expert: Film Noir - The National
2/3
2/7/13 12:he instant expert: film noir - The National
Page ttp://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-instant-expert-film-noir
SOME LEADING LADIES Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner, Gloria Gr
hame, Jane Greer, Rita Hayworth, Ida Lupino, Ann Savage (perfect name), Barbara Sta
wyck, Lana Turner - with curvy figures, sultry voices, eroticism and mystery, the
broads would cut out your heart, eat it for breakfast and not smudge their make-up.
SOME PROMINENT CHARACTER ACTORS If Elisha Cook Jr or Peter Lorre is in it's likely to be film noir. If they're both in it, as in The Maltese Falcon, there's no doub
doll face.
SOME LITERARY SOURCES James M Cain, Raymond Chandler - the pulp writer
formula of intricate schemes, wisecracks, private dicks, crooked cops and fake blond
with great gams translated perfectly to the screen.
OTHER NOIR Proto-noir, neo-noir, science fiction noir, stoner noir, psycho noir, horr
noir, superhero noir, noir westerns, noir comedies - there's seemingly a sub-genre f
every kind of film fan. Knock yourself out, angel puss.
The best noir
There are scores, perhaps hundreds of lists of film noir classics. One that seems to be i
cluded in everyone's Top 10 is Double Indemnity (1944). Here's why it's so good:
THE DIRECTOR Billy Wilder shows his legendary genius. The film's keen pacing, su
tle humour and crackling drama and tension are sublime.
THE SCREENWRITERS Wilder and Raymond Chandler make magic with a grippin
plot and smart, witty dialogue.
THE SOURCE MATERIAL The writers, shrewdly, were faithful to the brilliant Jam
M Cain's hard-boiled novel.
THE LEADING MAN Fred MacMurray, cast against type, excels as the insurance age
with a larcenous heart who is seduced by a sultry housewife into killing her husban
and making it look like suicide.
-
7/28/2019 The Instant Expert: Film Noir - The National
3/3
2/7/13 12:he instant expert: film noir - The National
Page ttp://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-instant-expert-film-noir
THE FEMME FATALE Barbara Stanwyck is icy, evil and irresistibly alluring.
THE TENACIOUS INVESTIGATOR Edward G Robinson is perfectly gruff, canny an
nobody's fool.
AND ALSO A jangling score by Miklos Rozsa, gritty cinematography by John Seit
costumes by Edith Head and seedy real-life Hollywood locales enhance the appeal.