Cinematography of Film Noir

Film Noir is also known for its cinematography

There was the use of High and Low camera angles, these helped display a characters power. A low angle camera would look up to the Femme Fatale, making the protagonist and the audience look up to her, this displays her higher power and control over situations. A high angled camera on the antagonist would make other characters and the audience look down

on

him and display his lack of power. This can be done with the protagonist standing an the bottom of the stairs and the femme fatale standing on the top of the stairs.

Film Noir is also known for it's used of the Dutch

tilt, this was useful because it made the audience uncomfortable and uneasy looking at the shot, and this one one of the main purposes if Film Noir.

Film Noir would also use Deep Focus shots, there we shots with a character or an objects at the frent but also a something significant in the background, this would create a more realistic effect.

Mise-En-Scene of Film Noir

Production Design

The set or location of a movie is very important, in Film Noir, it is usually located in urban areas, this means mainly the city, specificly dark streets in the puring rain, alleyways surrounded by garbage cans, bars full of people and cigarette smoke and detective's offices. This is all mainly at night.

Some of the props used are cars, cigarettes/cigars, drugs, money and weapons these are all necessary for the crime theme of the movies.

Costumes often showed the social class of the character such as long glittery dresses and fur coats for the Femme Fatale and trench coats with hats for men.

Lighting

Lighting was very important as they played with shadows for example the light outside coming inside through blinds and creating the strips of light and shadow in the room. Or the light could be quite dim or bright and this all adds to the atmosphere.

There was a use of low-key lighting, which created a lot of shadows to a character or a object, which created a lot of contrast between the black and the whites there were very few greys , they achieved this by using one small, intense light, this way the one light focuses on only one part of a object , leaving the rest in shadow, this added to the mystery and made the audience feel uncomfortable.

Sound

Sound was also very important as it provided the scene with a description along with diegetic sound, there also non-diegetic sound and this helps provide the mood, atmosphere and suspense. The music was jazz and piano music.

For example: As the hero of the story meets his enemy at a bar the music would be jazzy and low volume, yet it starts building up the scene, but when they draw their weapons and open fire the music become faster, louder, and more aggressive as does the scene.

There is also the very important use of voice overs, this is what allowed the audience to listen to people thoughts this allowed the audience to get to know the character, to hear their plans and solve the mystery with the character. The voice overs are usually used for the protagonist of the hero and they don't know what is going to happen. Throughout the film noir era as people played with voice overs the came across the idea to develop voice overs into things like hallucinations that show a characters psychological state.

Narratives

Narratives of Film Noir often involve some sort of downward spiral, that mainly focuses around the protagonist, theses were normally caused by a wrong decision by them and may have something to do with drugs, murder and money. Film Noir is often a whodunit type of narrative and are psychological.

Characters of Film Noir

Femme Fatale

The femme fatale is one of the main characters of Film Noir also usually the villain or the antagonist, this is a very seductive woman who had great power over the hero. She is often shot from lower angles which display power as other characters and the audience look up to her.She usually has a lot of experience and is very clever, she gets things done her way by manipulating the hero usually into doing her dirty work by making him believe that she is vulnerable and in love with him.She is often shot from lower angles which display power as other characters and the audience look up to her.

Hero

This is the main character who's troublesome story we follow, he is usually unaware of the situation and slowly comes to find out as does the audience. This character is normally pessimistic and lonely or a hard-boiled man.

Usually things happen to the hero due to a streak of bad luck which he cannot control, whilst trying to get out of trouble he ends up putting himself in more trouble by being around the wrong people and the wrong time and at the wrong place. They may have to go through bad experiences such as being attacked, interrogated and tested.

The hero is often swept off his feet by the femme fatale as she persuades him to do things he wouldn't normally do.

Other Characters

Due to the dark nature of Film Noir it is only natural that they would have gangsters which add the dangers to the story and millionaires who are usalylly behind the crime.

There is also a lot of crime so the police must be involved, even corrupt policemen and corrupt politicians, this adds to the braking of trust which is also a big element in Film Noir characteristics.

Often the Femme Fatale is not the only female involved in the plot. There is usually another woman who is the opposite of the the antagonist. This female wants the best for the protagonist.

Storylines Of Film Noir

Typical Film Noir storylines were often detective stories as the atmosphere was dark and frightening, smoke was often used to emphasise the atmosphere.

The prospect of having a woman villain was also common in film noir as she would have used clever, persuasive and manipulative ways to get what she desired; bringing danger and making especially the men around her ignore their values as she wraps them around her little finger. This type of character was named the Femme fatale; this also brought some change among the male and family roles. The Femme Fatale also often has a hatred for men, which is one of their reasons for committing their crimes. This character is usually shot with a low angle shot which means that the audience and the other characters are looking up to her, this gives her more power. While the hero who falls in love with her if shot from a high angle to show that she looks down on him and to portray his lack of power towards her.

Film Noir also plays with the orders of the storyline as it would often end with the same scene it started with such as in "Sunset Boulevard" This makes the audience confused but it also allows the character to take the audience on a journey.

“A woman with a past and a man with no future” Is a phrase that somehow sums up most of the plot of a typical Film Noir movie.

The narrative focuses on a downwards spiral, a streak of bad luck or a wrong decision made by the protagonist. This leads to conflict and getting involved with the wrong people like the femme fatale. This often has to do with murders, drugs and obssession.

Ideology of Film Noir

The message that film Noir put across was that the world isn’t all colorful and happy, that there are dark sides to people and that anyone can become a criminal, they can do this by making the audience wonder who the criminal is, and try to figure out how he crime was committed, in the end this would often lead to the person they least expected or making the culprit’s true self slowly appear.

What is Film Noir?

The words “Film Noir” means dark film, this term is originated from France, it refers to the 1940’s and 1950’s classic black and white Hollywood crime dramas. This started after the world war two , as people's views of their lives became grim and the idea of film noir portrayed the world through their eyes.

Film Noir wasn’t originally a film genre.

During the war shipments of movies form Hollywood to France stopped for about half a decade, after the war, the shipments begun again, but French movie critics notice a significant change and correlation between the movie content, they had become dark, menacing and pessimistic.

Film Noir was also inspired by the hard-boiled detective movies of that time which also showed a dark menacing look of society.

Another thing that influenced the dark film genre was the fact that east European film directors went to America to escape the war and their views the transferred throught their work.