Film Noir

“How important is it to understand the context in which Film and Neo Noir films are produced in order to fully appreciate their style and themes?”

In order to understand the context in which Film and Neo Noir Films are produced, I shall be analysing and evaluating the styles and themes of three movies. The films I will be looking at will be Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder – 1944), Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich – 1955) and Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne – 1987).

Film Noir has often been discussed whether it is a genre or a style. For a film to be categorised into a genre it must differentiate in its codes and conventions from other films. For example, Sci-Fi films will be set on planets in other parts of the universe and Western movies will often be set in the desert and mountainous terrain of the Wild West and will have numerous iconography such as cowboys and Indians (native Americans), horses and the generic Wild West town consisting of a salon bar, funeral parlour, grocery store and a jail. Film Noir will often be set in cities and this setting is very similar to crime movies. Other iconography that feature in Film Noir movies are cigarettes and smoking amongst the characters particularly between the protagonist and the femme fatale, silhouettes and chiaroscuro lighting, a black car with a shiny body with white tyres. The headlights of the car often beam into the mist during the night time. Guns, black hats worn by the protagonist and the bars of light created by venetian blinds are used to identity Film Noir movies. For this reason I feel that Film Noir is a sub-genre of the crime genre and therefore making Film Noir a style. By using lighting effectively, which Film Noir does so well, the movie is played out in the highlights and shadows of the lighting. This is a very stylistic approach to film making and therefore reinforces my opinion that it is a style rather than a genre.

That being said, the reason that whether Film Noir is a genre or style, which is still being disputed by Film Noir analysts to which they are still yet to come to a mutual agreement, is because of the numerous codes, conventions and iconographies that feature in vast amounts of Film Noir movies. As previously mentioned, Film Noir movies are set in cities and more often than not the cities streets are made wet with heavy downpours of rain. City streets and rainy days are all too familiar with audiences and this would make them seem more real for the viewer to relate to. This is a representation of the mood and tone of the movie and the characters that feature in it. The city streets are dirty and dark places fraught with danger giving the sense that there is no safe place to turn. The city streets that cross-over one another and entwine in a labyrinthine manner symbolise the perplexity and uncertainty of the story and characters respectively. In places like this it is best if you have someone at your side and in Film Noir there are always two people side-by-side as they go through the story. This is another convention in which we see the male protagonist and the femme fatale.

The male protagonists in Film Noir are often single men that have a cynical out-look on the world around them. The male protagonist in Film Noir is often socially alienated and this causes them to be disillusioned with their surroundings. The male protagonist will live in the dark and miserable cities and work in office blocks. These concrete jungles make people feel miserable and downbeat and adding unhappiness to the world. This is the sort of effect that the producers of Film Noir want to have in the production of their movies as it adds to the narrative of the story whilst setting the tone. This represents his lonely and depressing world in which he lives. He will also have great wit within his dialogue with tough-talking hard-boiled language mixed with poetic romanticised metaphors. By speaking in this manner he gives us the stereotypical male expressionism while at the same time showing a slightly softer and feminine side that at the time of when Film Noir was produced, American culture would have been disapproving of. Male characters in Film Noir represent the stereotypical male role, to work, provide and protect again this is reflective of American social culture of the time. The protagonist in Film Noir will always seek the woman that he comes into contact with which is usually through chance or through the job. In Double Indemnity, Walter is an insurance salesman and when he knocks on the door to the Spanish villa, unbeknown to him at that time he is going to meet Phyllis, the femme fatale. In Kiss Me Deadly the private investigator come first meets his femme fatale when he almost runs her over as she is running down the road and then tells her to get into the car. The male protagonists, who lust after these women, get entangled into their web of lies and deceit to carry out their immoral and illegal acts.

Many women in Film Noir are represented as the wife providing stability and normality with the patriarchal system and a family home life. This conventional and boring representation of the world is a stark contrast of what the femme fatale can offer the male protagonist. The self-assured confidence and the independent ambitions of the femme fatale make the protagonist attracted to her and she will lure him in further with her promiscuous, exciting and intelligent demur. The femme fatale will use her sexual power to achieve what she sets out to do and this again makes the male protagonist seemingly fall under her spell. An example of this is in the film Double Indemnity where the femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson, appears on the balcony of her home as Walter Neff looks up at her. This represents her as dominant woman and when she later appears, the camera is drawn to her as if it is his eyes and we, along with Walter, get drawn to her curvy figure in tight fitting attire and a bracelet around her ankle, which at the time this film was set would have been very seductive. By doing this Phyllis sexually objectifies herself knowing that men, and in this case Walter, will find her sexually irresistible and therefore easy to control as men are deemed to only have one thing on their mind and are only too happy to help, who may appear at the time, a damsel in distress.

But, in Film Noir, the strong sexual female who is ambitious is a threat to the male dominated world and therefore she must be killed, or destroyed, to restore balance in the patriarchal system. What this represents is that the male protagonist is actually week and vulnerable and is in danger of losing his place in society and unable to fit in with convention and fulfil the stereotypical male role within society. This example can be seen in Kiss Me Deadly towards the end of the movie where the femme fatale, Christina Baily, opens the mysterious box and is overcome by flames from the evil contained inside the box.

The mise-en-scene in Film Noir is extremely distinctive by the use of its iconography. Film Noir is set in cities and therefore apartments and offices feature regularly. In Double Indemnity and Kiss Me Deadly the apartment is used as one of the many settings of the film. For Double Indemnity, Walter is visited by Phyllis Dietrichson, the husband of Mr. Dietrichson who they plan to kill, in his apartment. Mike Hammer, the protagonist in Kiss Me Deadly, also uses his apartment as an office for his private investigative duties. The apartments are minimalistic and this is in reflection of the times. During the war and the proceeding years, people would have been unable to afford items to furnish their properties and would have to make-do or repair. This may also be true of the cost of film making is, and at the time of these movies being made, are expensive and by using locations and setting that need minimalistic dressing save on the cost of production. The office, such as the one in Double Indemnity, had the usual office paraphernalia, if one could see through the darkness – which is another factor of Film Noir.

The stylised lighting plays a significant role in Film Noir. Unlike most Hollywood movies where everything in the scene is lit, the producers of Film Noir use the highlights and dark shadows to help create the atmosphere to tell the story. What is not lit is as important as what is lit. Low-key lighting features heavily in Film Noir with the use of high contrast in deep blacks and pure whites. This style of lighting is known as chiaroscuro lighting. The whites represent the innocent world that the bad things are taking place in whereas the characters will be silhouetted and appearing in black telling the audience of the dark and sinister actions. This also keeps the audience distant from the characters through their lack of understanding of them. The venetian blinds are also a feature as this makes the characters appear trapped in their settings and surroundings as if they are imprisoned through their thoughts and actions.

Film Noir uses distorted and skewed low and high camera angles to give an uncomfortable appearance often using close-ups and deep focus shots. This tells the audience that there is something not-quite-right which mirrors the tone of Film Noir. This is evident in the scene in Double Indemnity where Phyllis and Walter are in the supermarket after they have killed and dumped Phyllis’ husband’s body and Walter is discussing with Phyllis that they should keep a low profile and stop seeing each other for a while.

The settings within in Film Noir are everyday inner-city urban locations. Offices and office blocks feature as shown in the Double Indemnity where the insurance company is located, which is the primary location of the movie as the protagonist, Walter, records his confession of the murder of Mr. Dietrichson. The offices are situated in the city where at that time many people would have travelled into the city to find work after World War 2. These streets are often featured in Film Noir as dark and dangerous locations. The uncertainty and lack of safety of city streets mirror the narrative of the story. The streets would always bet wet by the heavy rain that pours throughout Film Noir movies giving the audience a sense of gloominess and depression.

The sounds in Film Noir add to the pessimistic and nullifying tone of the movie. The sounds of downbeat jazz music are often pessimistic and foreboding giving the audience a depressive and melancholy feel. Heavy breathing as featured in the opening of Kiss Me Deadly give the sense of urgency and fear to the story. Often the sounds will move to quiet and silence to create a suspenseful atmosphere with sudden noises to create shock. However, the most prominent sounds in Film Noir are the voice over of the protagonist who starts the story as we get an insight of what happens and from there we follow the journey. Also the ambient sounds of the city street settings are heard during Film Noir adding to the disorientation, claustrophobia and confusion of the journey of the protagonist. All these sounds compliment the narrative and tone of Film Noir. 

Double Indemnity was made during the war and it reflects social changes that were happening around that time. The femme fatale is a representation of the new independent woman that many men had come back home to find after fighting in combat around the world. Women had become independent and strong being capable of carrying out takes and duties those men had previously held for many, many years. Women had successfully broken down social stereotypical opinion that they couldn’t be as strong or as good as men but this was proved wrong by the breakout of war.

In the book An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture by Dominic Strinati he writes that Film Noir was ‘the disillusionment many soldiers, small business men and housewife/factory employees felt in returning to a peacetime economy was directly mirrored in the sordidness of the urban crime film’. These words were not his, Strinati was referencing to the words of Schrader. Film Noir was a reflection of the post war gloom and disillusionment and reflects the unhappiness of people in society of that time. The popularity of Film Noir declined in the 1950’s due to the American public taking a more positive and self-important view of themselves. Film Noir was not only about the gloom and despair reflecting American social culture it can be argued that noir films were a bricolage of other popular arts from hard-boiled novels and other genres that made profits at the box office.

Film Noir is often a criticism of the American dream and of the capitalist society. Many of the films see the protagonist and the femme fatale chasing money and the materialistic lifestyles that come with it. The movies portray the pursuit of financial benefit as evil and sinister and to obtain money immoral and illegal acts must be carried out for the producers to justify their ideology. Many of the film makers of Film Noir had come to Hollywood after escaping political and racial persecution in Germany and in Central and Eastern Europe and therefore their films would contain either socialist or communist views.

Neo Noir films such as Fatal Attraction borrow conventions to that used in Film Noir. There is the city settings and the homes of the protagonist and femme fatale. The femme fatale plays a huge role in this movie as she uses her status as a successful independent woman. In the era that this movie was produced women were once again finding independence in the world.

Women were now able to compete with men in the work place and succeed surpassing their male counterparts. In Fatal Attraction the femme fatale, Alex Forrest, represents successful women. In the scene of the book launch she wears a black suit giving connotations of a dark personality and evil. The big shoulder pads of the suit make her look dominant and powerful and also in control.

However, despite this Alex’s world at home is more depressing and has a clinical look similar to how a mental asylum would appear. Alex’s flat is also set in the back streets of the dark and gloomy inner city giving connotation of the tone of the narrative that the viewer is going to have agency with. Along with this outside the flat there is an abattoir where large animal carcasses and meat is being carried by the abattoir employees. This whole setting gives connotations of Alex’s lifestyle and personality. She is represented as a dark person with psychological problems and also as a piece of meat. Once again, staying true to Classic Noir films, the femme fatale has been represented regressively.

Beth Gallagher, the wife of the promiscuous protagonist Dan Gallagher, initially is represented regressively in the sense that she is wearing black at the start of the movie. The producers of this movie have also used low-key lighting to represent the dull married lifestyle. In the scene when Dan is in the bedroom with his wife he attempts to get intimate with his wife but his subtle advances are spurned when he is made to take the dog out for a walk and when he gets back his daughter is in the marital bed too diminishing any chance of intimacy. Later in the film after Dan has confessed to his wife about his affair with Alex the colour of the two women’s clothing change as the tone of the story changes to make the audience engage and sympathise with Beth and to make Alex appear sinister and evil. It is now Beth that is wearing white representing purity and innocence and Alex wearing black giving connotations to dark, evil and wrong-doing. This is evident in the bathroom scene at the end of the movie where the femme fatale is shot dead by Beth, again staying true to Classic Noir, where the femme fatale needs to be killed to restore the patriarchal system.

Fatal Attraction uses numerous metaphoric images. When Dan Gallagher meets with Alex Forrest in the restaurant before they begin their illicit affair Dan lights a cigarette for Alex. As he puts the match out he flicks his wrist to extinguish the flame that could have connotations of subconscious masturbation. One could wonder if the cigarette was being lit by Alex for Dan would she have blown out the match? Before he starts his affair his attire is a professional look although his shirts are of pale, light and pastel colours. At this time in the movie he wears a light blue shirt that symbolises calm and femininity. However, after his affair Dan is often seen in dark shirts, predominantly black and at one point a very tight top that has connotations to his wrong-doing and personal and emotional entrapment. At the end of the movie after the femme fatale is killed and harmony is resorted in the social acceptant nuclear family lifestyle he again is seen in a light blue top representing tranquillity. Another example of metaphoric imagery is the scene where the bunny is boiled in the pot. In the previous scenes the white bunny connotes purity and innocence denoting a happy family life due to the relationship between the animal and the child and the child’s positive relationship with her parents. With Alex boiling the bunny it signifies a critique of the social acceptant home life and marriage.

However, unlike Film Noir, Neo Noir uses a different narrative. Whereas Double Indemnity was cynical about money and Kiss Me Deadly about the end of the world, Fatal Attraction was more about morality in terms maintaining traditional family values. Dan Gallagher, the protagonist of Fatal Attraction commits adultery and is then pursued by the ‘bunny boiler’ femme fatale.

In the time Fatal Attraction was produced during, the 1980’s, there was a socially promiscuous attitude which was having a detrimental effect on the social patriarchal system. At that time there was an AIDS epidemic, in which gay men were deemed to be responsible of due to the new emerging social acceptance of homosexual relationships and liberal social attitudes, many of these were casual and was seen by the media as an opportunity to make the gay community a scapegoat. However, at that time producers of films were still reluctant to portray gay relationships and have used adultery in Fatal Attraction as their representation of promiscuity in married men. By using the femme fatale who becomes the crazy, obsessed maniac; or, and this movie gave birth to the common phrase, “bunny boiler”. This tells the audience that being promiscuous whilst married will get you into trouble and disrupt the socially expected married life.

It is important to understand the context in which these films are produced because at the time they were made they were social propaganda and looking back on them now they can be viewed as a social commentary. During the Second World War in which the time Double Indemnity was made people would go to the cinema for news and information on the progress of the war. During the show reel the audience would also be watching propaganda films before watching a film for entertainment and escapism from the atrocities that were happening in the world at that time. Audiences also sought adult stories with mystery and romance and Film Noir gave the audiences just that. However, and in the case of Double Indemnity, there was an underlining message not to pursue the American dream of materialism and money but also about the battle between good and evil where the good wins.

Fatal Attraction was about having it all and living the American dream and by being promiscuous you risk losing it all. This portrayal of married life and the traditional nuclear family is important to the American ideology of its citizens and this film readdresses this. For these reasons, not understanding the contexts of Film Noir and Neo Noir, these movies cannot be fully appreciated.