The First Film Noir? John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941) Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton, ‘Towards a Definition of Film Noir The First Film Noir? John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941) 13th October, 2014

Série noir - New types of American films that share characteristics: style, atmosphere, subject matter. Film noir qualities simply: ‘nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent and cruel’ but other dominant qualities Reverie, eroticism, savagery, sadism, thrill

Common denominators of film noir: crimes – blackmail, accusation, theft, or drug trafficking – the stage for narrative. Death comes at the end – film of death

Crime documentaries and their differences from film noir Examination of a murder from within and from without; police file vs. confession of a murderer Emphasis on a criminal psychology

(2) No moral determinism such as good cop and evil criminal in film noir - Sympathetic law breakers and enforcers of law and order implied involving in wrong doings

Ambivalent characters in film noir: little personal or psychological integrity or consistency Sanctified killers, neurotic gangsters, megalomaniac crime bosses, and their perplexing or tainted croniess

Ambiguous and uncertain victims: they are not innocent or unassociated with crime or wrong doing

Ambiguous protagonists: often mature, almost old, and not too handsome Ambiguous protagonists: often mature, almost old, and not too handsome. Humphrey Bogart as its type Victim as well as hero, masochist, self-immolating, throwing himself into peril not for the sake of justice.

Ambiguous women, femmes fatale Deviant, half-predator, half-prey, detached yet ensnared woman fall victim to her own traps.

The nature of violence depicted was changed in film noir The nature of violence depicted was changed in film noir.　　Fair fighting gave way to sadistic beatings and callous murders

Anxiety – what film noir causes among the audience derives from its twisting and unexpected plot; Like a dream or nightmare it is incoherent, bizarre and mysterious

‘… resounding confusion is at the core of film noir’ ‘All the components of film noir yield the same result: disorienting the spectator …’

The Maltese Falcon (1941) Introduces a set of elements that later became hallmarks of film noir: ambiguous hero – middle-age and not too handsome protagonist who throws himself into a peril without clear explanation of his motives, maybe from curiosity – Humphrey Bogart

Private detective – a half-way between the police authority and the ordinary citizen. While cooperating with the police, he is sometimes in opposition to the police or is even wanted by it. Morally corruptible and tarnished hero.

As a noir hero Spade sometimes lack compassion and even show cruelty, but unlike a true noir hero, he does not lose control on himself, his destiny and his obsession.

Femme fatale – a mysterious and seductive character who ensnares a male character into compromising, dangerous and deadly situations. Mary Astor

Bridgid provides a model for femme fatale but she is not a true one as she in the end cannot control Spade and the manner of defeat separate her from the classic devouring woman of film noir – not full destruction but restoration of order

The film based on the eponymous novel by Dashiell Hammett, a writer of pulp fiction, detective stories. Along with James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, he was an author inspired makers of film noir.