SILOUHETTE SHOT FROM 'THE BIG COMBO'

This is one of the most famous film noir shots taken from 'The Big Combo' (1955). This image perfectly demonstrates the visual characteristics of film noir with black and white being positioned side by side to show nothing but the silouette of the man and the woman although the typical noir dress sense of a suit and top hat for the man and a dress for the woman can still be seen. The use of steam in this shot which is another common film noir feature tells you about the dark, damp setting they appear to be in and creates a sinister looking background to give the audience the sense of insecurity. Interestingly the wheelbarrow suggests a rural night setting which goes against the urban night that is traditionally used.

WALTER NEFF'S DICTAPHONIC CONFESSION, DOUBLE INDEMNITY

This image shows Walter Neff's confession for the murder of Phyllis Dietrichson's husband in Double Indemnity. The top hat and smart clothes reinforce the stereotype of the male character in this films. His facial expression looks realtively calm but also cold and very serious.

IMAGE OF PHYLLIS DIETRICHSON, FEMME FATALE FROM DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Here is Phyllis Dietrichson from Double indemnity, a stereotypical femme fatale. You can see her beauty but also the seriousness and coldness of her facial expression suggesting she is about to do something evil. Another familiar trait here is her dark clothes and lipstick.

2 EXAMPLES OF CLASSIC FILM NOIRS

One of the early film noir classics was ‘Double Indemnity’ produced in 1944 and directed by Billy Wilder. Many of the stereotypical noir characteristics are evident in this film with the main protagonist being an insurance salesman named Walter Neff and a beautiful but evil femme fatale named Phyllis Dietrichson. 

          The majority of the story is told as a flashback in first person narration by Neff who is confessing the murder of Phyllis over a Dictaphone in his empty office gravely wounded from a bullet. The confession book-ends the film giving it a dark non-linear storyline before he collapses and dies at the end. The story centres around Walter Neff who first meets Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine call to renew her husband’s car insurance. Neff is quickly attracted to this woman because of her beauty and flirty nature. It becomes apparent that Dietrichson wants her husband dead and asks to take out a policy on his life insurance. After originally being cautious Neff soon agrees to take part thus highlighting the Femme Fatale’s huge manipulative powers. Neff uses his knowledge of his business to come up with a plan for him to die by ‘accidently’ falling out of a moving train with a clause in the insurance policy meaning Mrs Dietrichson would be paid twice the normal amount for his death. After the plan is carried out the investigator Mr Keyes is suspicious of Phyllis but not so of Neff as he knows him. It also soon becomes apparent that Phyllis has been seeing the victims daughter, Lola’s boyfriend behind both his and Neff’s back showing another twist in the storyline and highlighting the Femme Fatale’s typically unfaithful and slutty nature. Lola is also suspicious that her step mother, Phyllis was behind her fathers death and maybe also her biological mother’s death. When Neff learns of Phyllis’ unfaithfulness he realises with horror what he has got himself involved in tries to remove himself. When Phyllis tells her side of the story which is that she is seeing Lola’s boyfriend because she wants him to kill Lola out of jealousy he is so disgusted he tries to shoot her only to be shot first. She is about to shoot again when Neff takes the gun from her, shoots her twice and kills her. Neff then drives to his office to confess over the Dictaphone when inspector Keyes arrives and hears the confession as it is being made. Neff tries to flee to avoid a death sentence but collapses and dies seconds later giving a typically depressing noir ending in which the two main protagonists are both killed by the same gun ending the film where it started giving an example of a classic non-linear storyline.

            As well as the narrative the visual and aural stylistics are also very recognisable with the majority of the films most important scenes being shot at night and often in poorly lit rooms. Venetian blinds are used regularly throughout in scenes such as the one in Phyllis Dietrichson's house where she tells Neff she wants him to kill her husband and the scene in the inquest room. Close-ups of Dietrichson and Neff are shown as the policy is signed but one of the most striking and threatening close-ups is of Phyllis Dietrichson's face as her husband is killed. What is notable in this scene is that the audience only gets to hear her husband being killed by Neff and all they can see is Phyllis' face appearing to show very little emotion and remorse. Dramatic but negative music is used in many of the scenes especially when important events happen. There is no music however in the scenes with Neff in his office recording the confession. He breathes heavily as he talks and this can clearly be heard because of the silent background, this helps give it a sinister atmosphere.

Another recognised classic film noir was ‘Kiss me Deadly’ produced in 1955 and directed by Robert Aldrich. The main protagonist in this film is a character named Mike Hammer played by Ralph Meeker.

           The story begins when hammer picks up a hitchhiker named Christina. The opening scene takes place on a rural road in near pitch darkness until the car and headlights appear giving it a very recognisable film noir visual style with bright lights on a dark background, as they are driving very little other than their faces are visible. On their journey they are intercepted by thugs who torture Christina to death and push the car off a cliff. Hammer immediately becomes suspicious that Christina must be connected with something and decides to pursue the case. This leads him to the apartment of the films Femme Fatale Lily Carver (played by Gaby Rogers) posing as Christina’s ex room-mate. It becomes apparent that she is in hiding and is after a mysterious box that she believes contains a fortune and wants Hammer to protect her. The ending takes place in a beach house with Lily and her boss Dr.Soberin both fighting for the contents of the box, Lily then shoots Soberin believing she can keep the contents of the box. What she is unaware of however is that the box contains stolen radioactive material which when opened results in an extraordinarily violent ending when the material explodes killing everybody in the house including Hammer and his lover, Velda. The final scene relied heavily on the use of bright and at times flashing light aswell as fast paced music to accompany the explosion, of course this was filmed at night to allow for the film noir lighting techniques. Although this was less stereotypical of film noirs in terms of characteristics it did contain many familiar elements such as a private eye as one of the main characters, guns and a typically explosive ending with all of the main protagonists dead. The inclusion of nuclear material in this film also captured the fear that was felt across America at that time shortly after the Second World War about the cold war and fear of a possible nuclear attack.

          

CODES & CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR

The name ‘Film Noir’ (literally meaning ‘black film’) relates heavily to the general tone and mood with which these films were made in terms of characters, settings, storylines and lighting techniques. These films were recognisable for their generally downbeat tone as well as the cold, cynical characters and rather complex non-linear storylines.         

         

One of the typical stock characters in a film noir would be a female character known as a femme fatale and a storyline would often be centred around her and a male character who would often be a seedy, hard boiled detective or private eye, cop or gangster. Femme Fatales (meaning deadly woman) were represented as beautiful, seductive but also cold, manipulative and often quite slutty. In many of these films the woman would use her power given to her by her attractiveness to take a hold on the man who would find himself unable to resist and manipulate him into doing things which would lead to an inevitable downfall. These things could include killing someone (Double Indemnity) or getting involved in a chase to find an object (Kiss Me Deadly). Male characters are often flawed fall guys who are heavily influenced by their past. ‘Choose a dame with a past and a hero with no future’ is a well known quote related to the conventions of a typical film noir. The femme fatale became common in these films because of the greater power given to women as a result of the war effort. Men felt threatened by this and the femme fatales capture the new found power and independence of women at the time. A distinctive feature of some film noir storylines was that they were non-linear meaning they would start and end at the same place with the story being told in the middle.

          

A common feature of film noir was 1^st person narration by the main protagonist. The voice would be cold, serious and reflective but also sharp and witty. The way characters talked in the films was similar and reflected their personalities with a serious and threatening tone but in a quiet way as shouting was not especially common. Flashbacks from the point of view of one of the main characters were also used regularly as amnesia was common amongst characters. The background music would be foreboding and go well with the voiceovers to add to the negative tone and always give the audience the feel bad things were happening. Often when there was no music heavy breathing could be heard from the characters to show their insecurity and transfer it to the audience. Titles of famous film noirs include ‘Out of the past’ ‘Kiss me deadly’ and ‘Touch of evil’ which all make reference to either death, evil, doomed romances or being unable to run away from the past which immediately give the audience an idea of the dark tone and themes of the films.

         

The style of film noir was heavily influenced by German expressionism which. relied heavily on the use of shadows and minimal light to create the visual style that is associated with classic film noir. The dark shots and settings that were used were designed to give a sense of claustrophobia and oppression to the audience as well as the darkness and gloom that these films were known for. Especially recognisable was the contrast in the shades with light and dark often appearing next to each other.  Examples of the low key lighting used include having half a person’s face being obscured by darkness or a whole person being shown up in silhouette to make them look more threatening. Similarly the use of venetian blinds with light shining through against a dark background would also be used to partially obscure a characters face and emphasise the contrast between the dark and light shots as well as add to the sense of insecurity felt by the audience. Other examples of the cinematography designed to make the audience feel ill at ease included the use of extreme close-ups and dutch tilts which gave the setting or shot an unnatural look.  A typical setting for a film noir was a dark back alley at night in a large American city such as New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. These streets would often be damp and poorly lit with very little except shadows visible and steam from sewers giving them an insecure feel to the audience as dark urban back alleys are often associated with crime. The interiors were similarly poorly lit and cigarettes and smoke was a common part of the mise-en-scene. The way the characters dressed tended to be similar with men typically dressed smartly in a dark suit and tie with top hat to give him the stereotypical image of a detective or gangster. Femme fatales similarly tended to be dressed in dark shades but generally looked glamorous often with lipstick. One of the most well known parts of film noir iconography were cigarettes which every character seemed to smoke and provided the common swirling smoke background. Guns were another object that were also quite specific to film noir with its roots lying in the Crime & Gangster genre.

           

Overall the ideology of film noir was to mirror what American society was like at the time with the femme fatales capturing the new found independence of women and the storylines and characteristics capturing the general insecurity that was felt at the time.