Noir StyleNoir Vision

1
Noir Style/Noir Vision
2
Quiz 2

• Several characters in Graham Greene's work,
  including Raven, are described as "angelic
  killers." Briefly, what is meant by this term?
  
• Film noir written by G. Greene, set in Vienna
  starring Orson Welles as an "angelic killer."
  
• Schrader calls this 1955 film, with its Mike
  Hammer detective character, "the masterpiece of
  film noir," even though it was a "straggler."
  
• Schrader sees 3 historical phases in film noir.
  Which of these does he consider "the cream of the
  film noir period"?
  
• Aside from lighting-related elements, name one
  stylistic element prominently discussed by Place
  Peterson in "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir."

3
This Gun For Hire (1942) Directed Frank Tuttle

• Ladd and Lake will go on to co-star in noirs The
  Glass Key (1942), from Hammett novel, and The
  Blue Dahlia (1946) script written by Chandler.
  
• Tuttle longtime successful studio director,
  1920s to 1950s.
  
• Proves film noir is not just "auteur" cinema.
• Schrader's point on creativity of film noir high
  "median level of artistry." Made possible by
  noir style/vision.

4
(1942) Directed Frank Tuttle

• From Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale (1936)
• Like Hammett, Greene aspires to be artist draws
  from great modernist writers, but is deeply
  critical of modern society, much like modernist
  poet T. S. Eliot.
• Complex, conflicted characters morally
  ambiguous, at odds with normal society and
  usually doomed.
  
• Similar to films of French "Poetic Realism."
• Raven as "Angelic killer"--cold-blooded,
  "contract" killer, who becomes "agent of social
  justice."
  
• Yet, Raven, with his personal "code," appears
  more moral than the big-business, "capitalist"
  characters.

5
Morality and Moral Ambiguity

• Raven vs. Michael
• What values does each represent?
• Michael Law, Justice, but also Marriage
  Family, Middle-class life, conventional moral
  values
  
• Raven Vengeance ("I'm my own police"),
  Outsider, Loner, Amoral, antithesis of bourgeois
  family life

6
Morality and Moral Ambiguity

• At one level, Raven is killed and thus punished
  morality triumphs.
  
• But does it?
• Why does Raven seem more interesting than
  Michael?
  
• So, at another level, film undercuts its explicit
  message or theme about morality middle-class
  values.
  
• What is this other level?

7
Noir Style and Theme

• Paul Schrader suggests an answer
• Schrader argues that for U.S. critics
  audiences, "if a film goes awry it is often
  because the theme has been somehow 'violated' by
  the style."
• But in film noir, "the theme is hidden in the
  style, and bogus themes are often flaunted
  ("middle-class values are best") which contradict
  the style."
• In This Gun for Hire, the explicit theme or moral
  is bogus, contradicts what the film conveys.
  
• Real theme--film's noir attitudes and view of the
  world (represented by Raven)-- lies in its style,
  not in its story or "message."

8
Style in Noir

• U.S. films ( society?) style secondary to
  content or "theme" style is supposed to follow
  or "match" theme.
  
• Schrader "film noir is more interested in style
  than in theme."
  
• Place Peterson "The characteristic film noir
  moods of claustrophobia, paranoia, despair, and
  nihilism constitute a world view that is not
  expressed through the films' terse, elliptical
  dialogue, nor through their confusing, often
  insoluble plots, but ultimately through their
  remarkable style."

9
Style Noir

• Schrader Film noir "tried to make America
  accept a moral vision of life based on style."
  
• Noir (like Raven) anti-middle-class values
  Sees those values and morality as a deception,
  which hides the fact that society ( capitalism?)
  is corrupt, brutal, unjust, etc.
• This dark vision is not conveyed through story,
  dialogue, themes, etc., but through a style that
  is dark, unsettling, claustrophobic, etc.

10
Noir Stylistic Traits

• Lighting Low-key lighting harsh, hard light
  strange lighting angles and patterns opposition
  of light dark "lit for night" interiors
  "night-for-night" exteriors.
• Schrader the "splintering of a scene" by light
  makes it "restless and unstable. . . . No
  character can speak authoritatively from a space
  which is being continually cut into ribbons of
  light."
• Compositional tension unbalanced/oppressive
  composition, claustrophobic framing devices,
  off-angle shots (high-angle, low-angle,
  oblique/canted framing, etc.)
• Place Peterson "create a world that is never
  stable or safe"

11
Noir Stylistic Traits

• Setting or environment dominates actors
• Schrader "When the environment is given an
  equal or greater weight than the actor, it, of
  course, creates a fatalistic, hopeless mood.
  There is nothing the protagonist can do, the city
  will outlast and negate even his best efforts."

12
Other Noir Stylistic Traitsmentioned by Schrader
or Place Peterson

• Greater depth of field (relation to low light)
• Unsettling shot distance, "screen size"
  juxtaposing CU's to Long Shots
  
• Lack of camera movement (Note this is a highly
  suspect assertion)
  
• Use of Narration (voiceover)
• Complex chronology and/or confusing plot
• Water wet streets, fog, steam
• Mirrors/mirror shots

13
Noir Style

• Place Peterson Film Noir presents "a visually
  unstable environment in which no character has a
  firm moral base from which he can confidently
  operate."

14
T-Men

• 1947, dir. Anthony Mann
• Cine. John Alton
• Low-budget, high-style.
• Schrader mentions prominently.
• T-Men Treasury Men