established
narrative structures
stereotypical
characters
iconography
This
creates a shorthand, compressing information about the story, characters,
and the them into conventional actions and objects
Builds
upon preexistent audience expectations -- previous knowledge of a particular
genre's formulas, conventions, iconography
A
particular genre will have similar:
subject
matter
thematic
concerns
characterizations
plot
formulas
visual
settings
Basic
conflicts
of stories = familiar, know how story will be resolved.So
why watch?Why are these stories
commercially successful?
All
genre melodramas end with reaffirming the status quo and predominant
social order.Yet two film genres
deemphasize the group and/or community needs (until the end) to focus on
individual who opposes the values of society: crime film (inc. film noir)
and the family melodrama.
Film
noir:(Definition
from James Monaco's Film Glossary) "Originally a French term (literally
"black film"), now in common usage, to indicate a film with a gritty,
urbn setting that deals mainly with dark or violent passions in a downbeat
way.Especially common in American
cinema during the late forties and early fifties, its themes of
existential alienation and paranoia have often been read as signs
of postwar malaise and Cold War anxiety "(emphasis
mine).See also discussion of feminist
movement and World War II
Private
eye or detective film --> the
protagonist is just on the right side of the law, hides social morality
till the last instant when social responsibility overcomes personal desire.He
is caught between the id and the ego
[id:In
Freudian theory, the division of the psyche that is totally unconscious
and serves as the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate
satisfaction of primitive needs.
eAgo:In
psychoanalysis, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately
controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality.]
American
Cinema on Film Noir
(Compare
Caligari's
principles to film noir.Distorted
perspective, sets, use of light)
Martin
Scorsese -- "film noir is city poetry"
Another
director -- "film noir is reality"
Visuals:
Important
to represent real cities.Look
of city is part of the web.Use
of underground spaces -- visual hell
World
heading for chaos.
Development
in film --> ability to use light in controlled ways.Cinematographers
could go out to film at night as a result.No
light, no release, no escape -- how noir works on the unconscious.Venetian
blinds --> new effects in lighting.Sparse
production design.Light changed
space psychologically.Dramatic isolation
and alienation.Later revisionings
of film noir -- color film but using style of black and white (see Chinatown)
Deep
focus -- gave sense of environment.Wide
angle lenses.Foreground actor looking
toward front, background actor talking to back of his (foreground actor's)
head.Cheap to shoot -- scene in
one shot/take.Most were low budget.1st
use of button mikes -- so could be in car.
Historical/social
aspects:
Insecurity
of modern man in experience of war.Domestic
situation with continuing trauma of war.Don't
know what to fight.(Again,
as further reference see Elaine May's Homeward Bound for discussion
of social history surrounding the development of the bomb.)
Prohibition
-- line between legal and illegal became hazy.Nightlife
went underground and became more seductive.
Detective
-- has access to almost any level of society, gets out alive no matter
what.
Censors
--> couldn't show certain things.Part
of success is the mystery/what's not shown in the film.
The
Maltese FalconJohn
Huston, 1941/ Novel by Dashiell Hammett
Pauline
Kael:Bogart -- "played Spade as
written by Hammet, and Hammet was not sentimental about detectives:they
were cops who were going it alone, i.e., who had smartened up and become
more openly mercenary and crooked.Bogart's
Spade is a loner who uses nice, simple people.He's
a man who's constantly testing himself, who doesn't want to be touched,
who's obsessively anti-homosexual -- he enjoys hitting Joel Cairo and humiliating
Wilmer. ...Huston shoots material from Spade's pointof view, makes it possible
for the audience to enjy Spade's petty, sadistic victories and his sense
of triumph as he proves he's tougher than anybody."
Sets
-- claustorophobic, ceilings suggest confinement -- suggests Spade's investigation
is extremely limited.Camera angles
emphasize the natures of characters.Ex.
Scene in which Gutman drugs Spade.Use
of stripes/bars to visually suggest imprisonment in Brigid's scenes.
3.Social
responsibility(How is the law
represented?Again, how are interpersonal
relationships carried out?Spade,
re: partner: "When your partner's killed 'ya gotta do something) and ethics
4.Cinematography
use
of extended image
lighting
low
angle shots
use
of shadows/bars
subjective
camera (see scene with Spade sloshed)