1. FILM NOIR

2. History:
-Comes from French: “dark film”
-Predominant between 1941 and 1955
-Combined German Expressionist aesthetics with American pulp fiction and crime novels
-Famous Film Noir movies like The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep all were based on novels or pulp stories
-Captured the seediness of post-WWII America: everything looked good on the surface, but for many life was still difficult

3. - Came out of German Expressionist film and the hard-boiled crime stories that were popular in the US during the Great Depression
- Lots of German filmmakers left Germany for the US during the rise of Nazism

4. Archetypes
Males -Anti-heroes
-Hard-scrabble detectives/private eyes, small time criminals, down-on-their-luck boxers
-“Consumed by the past and driven to repeat their mistakes, generally at the behest of a predatory femme fatale who attempts to drive them to extortion, murder, and ultimate ruin” (AllMovie)
-Easily identifiable: lots of drinking, lots of cigarettes, trench coats, fedoras
Females
-Strong, independent, often deadly -”Femme fatale” – woman of questionable morals/motives who would as soon kill you as kiss you

5. Tropes and motifs
-Dark atmosphere -Rain -Shadow/Light
-Skewed camera angles
-Unbalanced composition -Flashbacks
-Voiceover narration
-Fatalism

6. Film Clip: The Maltese Falcon

7. Notable Names:
Fritz Lang – German Expressionist director who emigrated to the USA Orson Wells – Famous filmmaker
Humphry Bogart – Actor famous for playing detective Philip Marlowe
Lauren Becall – Actress, often paired with Bogart John Houston – Famous director, did Chinatown
Raymond Chandler – Fiction writer, many of his books were turned into movies Dashiell Hammett - Fiction writer, many of his books were turned into movies Lana Turner – Actress in Film Noir movies
Ava Gardner – Actress in Film Noir movies
Notable Films:
The Big Sleep
Touch of Evil
The Maltese Falcon
Key Largo
Strangers on a Train
The Third Man

8. Film clip: What is Noir?

9. Neo-Noir & Post-Noir
-Resurgence in 1970s after Watergate scandal again displayed a seedy underbelly of American society (Chinatown)
-Focused on instability and social anxiety/alienation (Taxi Driver)
-Racial disparity (Shaft)
-Corrupt cops (LA Confidential)
-Even comedy (The Big Lebowski)
-Sci Fi (Blade Runner)

10. Modern Noir:
-LA Confidential -The Big Lebowski -Pulp Fiction -Reservoir Dogs -Jackie Brown
-Sin City -Brick -Momento

11. Film Clip: Sin City

12. Film Clip: Brick