Film Noir

Unit 1

Interactive Assignment 1: Reading Discussion

Definitions are as difficult as they are necessary. In the case of "film noir" we always begin with the question: What is it? But this is perhaps the wrong question. Perhaps we should ask a deeper question: Is it? In other words, is the word empty of meaning, that is, so general that in practice it is useless? Let us begin, then, not with what it is or even if it is, but trace its use. In the essay you have just read, you have discovered that the term was invented by French film critics to explain something they saw in American films after WW II. Whether Americans saw what the French saw-and they didn't-is an important cultural point. French thinkers have a long history of attempting to understand America, beginning with Alexis de Tocqueville, whose visit to the US in the early 19th century served as the basis of his interpretations of the American national spirit. His work is no less controversial than the French film critics who "discovered" film noir. What are the elements of film noir, as the French see it? Is film noir a genre? Is it a style? Do the observations in this essay conform to your own understanding? Is it possible that there were film noir movies before this essay was written? Also, since this course on film noir is part of the Film Genre Studies sequence, it is essential that you have a hard-and-fast definition of "genre." Just what is a "genre"? How is a genre determined? What is a "form" and how are the two different? What is "style"?

Interactive Assignment 2: Film Discussion

When comparing novel to film there are several questions that need be asked:

1. Is there loss or change of meaning in the translation? There is always some loss because you can't squeeze a 2, 3, or 4 hundred pages of text into a two-hour film. Characters and events have to be expurgated. So the question then becomes:

2. Is the film a good translation of the meaning of a novel or play? You have to discern what the meaning of each form is and compare them.

3. Many will insist that there is no need to make the film conform to the source. Film is a different aesthetic form with it's own separate intentions. In this case the novel is an excuse for the film. Furthermore, most audiences are unaware that the film is a translation. Watching a film is an entirely different experience than reading a novel.

4. But most often we are interested in seeing what gets translated, whether certain novelistic effects can be reproduced on screen, whether characters and dialogue are translatable or to put it more generally what changes and what remains the same.

In the case of Double Indemnity we have an example of a fine detective novelist (James N. Cain) who also wrote screenplays ( he was unavailable at the time for translating his own novel), a perhaps more famous detective novelist/screenwriter in Raymond Chandler and one of the greatest of the Hollywood directors in Billy Wilder. Wilder and Chandler wrote the screenplay together.

The first question to be answered then is:

1. What do you think of the narrative structures of the novel and the film?

2. What about the dialogue, especially the "snappy" dialogue that is such a prominent mark of film noir?

3. What about the characters? What do you think of Phyllis Dietrickson in the novel and in the film?

You needn't answer every question. You are free to pursue your own questions or any single question but keep it confined to the "meaning' of the questions.

Unit 2

Interactive Assignment 1: Reading Discussion

The fundamental question concerning "film noir" is one of sources. These sources are multiple. The US as well as international consumption of crime films remains unabated through the decades of the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries. One of the American sources is the crime films of the 1930s, especially those dealing with gangsters. What are the elements of these films in terms of plot and characterization? What effect did the Hayes Code have on these films in terms of content and portrayal? If the artificial "crime must pay" ending requirement of the Hayes office is removed, as it was with the onset of World War II, are we in fact looking at the prototype "film noir"? In what ways do the hard-boiled detectives of pulp fiction spill over into crime drama of the period?

Interactive Assignment 2

I have commented briefly on the textual character of film noir. The textual (meaning verbal in this case) is often contrasted with the visual. Film Noir is noted for it's dark wet urban streets and low angle shots. These visual notes are certainly present in Out of the Past but we haven't gotten to the really the full-blown version of this visual style as yet. Most of the night scenes are shot in a scheme called "Day for Night" (cf. the Francois Truffault film by this same name). In "Day for Night" the scene is shot during the day with a filter to darken the scene to resemble night. It's really just a convention because the viewer knows it's shot during the day and we have to imagine the light as moonlight. The point is that the film is not visually typical of film noir. Add to this the fact that the center section of the narrative is almost impossible to follow. The San Francisco scenes involving the accountant are confusing at first. It takes two or three viewings to sort it all out.

The film remains high on the list of the greatest Noir films even with it's narrative difficulties.. The film rates high praise for it's characterization of the male and female leads. Kathie is one of the great femme fatales and Jeff a prototypical noir hero. You will need to follow their language closely to understand their relationship. Who is Jeff in relation to women? Does Kathie have any redeeming traits? Who has power and who doesn't? What's the function of the Ann Miller character? What about obsessiveness and the ability or inability to escape one's fate? These can be difficult questions to answer because the film constantly (like much of film noir) calls our attention to the ambiguity of behavior. We perceive these characters having thoughts, feelings, and qualities that they hold in reserve. They appear undefined upon casual viewing.