Light and Noir

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Light and Noir
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T-Men

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

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Quiz 3

• Naremore questions Place Peterson's assertion
  about film noir and camera movement. What was
  Place Peterson's assertion?
• Naremore talks at some length about John Alton
  and his book ___________.
• Naremore also discusses at length a particular
  film noir and its lighting. Name the film.
• Describe any one (hopefully major) point that you
  recall from his discussion of that film.

4
Noir Style

• Centrality of Style to Film Noir
• Can't talk about Noir without talking about
  style.
• But also, can't separate "noir style" from "noir
  attitudes"
• Style matches/conveys those "darker" attitudes,
  which see world/society as gritty, violent,
  corrupt, ugly, or even evil.

5
Noir and "Realism"

• This "darker" view is often described as a more
  truthful or authentic representation (the "ugly
  truth").
• Thus, on the one hand, film noir has often been
  described as presenting a more "realistic" view
  of world.
• Can see aspects of "realism" in many noir films
  on-location shooting violent and/or sexual "true
  crime" depictions documentary-style narration
  (as in T-Men).
• Low-key lighting often seen as "realistic"
  compared to high-key, diffused lighting of studio
  films.
• Even black-and-white photography of classic noir
  can, and has, been seen as more "realistic" than
  the bright hues of color and Technicolor
  photography.

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Realism or Aesthetics?

• But, on the other hand, noir style and lighting
  is also highly stylized, highly aestheticized.
• Borrows from German expressionism, and other
  artistic "modern" movements, many of which were
  explicitly "non-representational."
• As Naremore points out, film noir and modernist
  art share tendency to foreground or highlight
  "style" highlight look or aesthetic.

7
Painting with Light

• Even as he argues for more realistic
  cinematography in post-War films, the title of
  John Alton's book Painting with Light implies the
  "aesthetic" tendency of noir cinematography and
  lighting.

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John Alton, A.S.C.

• Born in Hungary.
• Famous noirs T-Men Raw Deal He Walked by
  Night The Big Combo.
• Also worked on many less noir films.
• But often brought noir elements to them, as in
  the ballet sequence in An American in Paris
  (left).

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Realism or Aesthetics?

• Alton's lighting/ cinematography for T-Men
  produces a visual style that often seems governed
  more by aesthetic concerns than by realism.

10
Visual Impact

• Contrast between dark and light, underneath
  lighting, foreground and background lighting, odd
  angles and compositions, wide-angle lens, the use
  of fog/steam, glistening sweat, etc.
• Visually stunning

11
Normal World/Underworld

• Note, however, how different the early scenes
  are, before the agents enter the "underworld,"
  from rest of film.
• Brighter "normal" world. Stresses "real case."
• "The underworld" (world of noir) seems less a
  "realistic" space than an imaginary "other" world
  (dream/nightmare world?).
• Grittiness, crime, cheap hotels turned into an
  aesthetic, a visual look or style. Or, what
  Naremore calls "visual iconography."

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Defining Noir Style--or Not

• As Naremore points out, it is very difficult to
  make generalizations about noir style, beyond the
  fact that it involves some degree of low-key
  lighting.
• For ex, Place Peterson's assertion that films
  noir don't move the camera much. Welles?
• Or that noir films often juxtapose CU's and long
  shots, high and low angles.
• Some noirs (The Big Sleep) don't use extreme
  angles, or even much deep focus.
• Quite a few noirs don't use voiceover narration,
  or on-location shooting, or even night-for-night
  shooting.

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Defining Noir Style--or Not

• Yet, despite this, we can nevertheless usually
  identify a noir film. How?
• Naremore argues that noir involves a broader,
  overall visual look or aesthetic visual
  iconography that includes set design, fashion,
  locations (usually urban), as well as lighting.
  
• Not to say that camera techniques don't
  contribute to the look of noir films, but
  impossible to identify any particular technique
  with noir in any hard and fast way.
• What makes noir hard to define, but malleable
  enough to evolve and be used in many different
  ways, is that it involves an overall look or
  style or vision of world, rather than any
  specific technique.