Section C, US Film comparative study.

Focus on

•  Double Indemnity (1944).

•  The last seduction (1993)

-Focus on the MACRO elements: Narrative / genre, character types, themes and issues.
-Context - Social, political and historical.

Conventions of film noir. 

• Film noir deals with money, sex and murder.
• Black and white, small budget, often produced by small companies.
• Narrative: Often an innocent guy with a stable life (job, relationship) - something happens to get him caught up in a situation he has no control over 'WHY ME?' - gets caught with a 'femme fatal' who often uses men for sex and forces them to help her to kill. 
• It's full of innuendo. 
• Haze code (heavy censorship).
• Strong female character - sexually confident, not afraid to kill.
• Main protagonist is a man, innocent, empathy from the audience - film is told from protagonists POV.
• Male gaze.
• Femme fatal - long fingernails (which resemble claws), smokes, long hair and tight clothing.
• Urban settings, shows places never seen before in film; hard, low key lighting.
• Most important element of film noir is the strong / empowered women - (femme fatal).
• Love takes the form of possession / obsession. 
• Lighting techniques are used to alter psychological response. 
• Foreground and background actors can't see each other, the foreground actor faces away from the background actor as they look at the back of the foreground actor's head.
• Film noir is reality - filmed on location. 
• Budget often determined the look of the film - used natural lighting. 
• Contrast between black and white / good and evil. 
• Cinematography - shows realism, hand held cameras make it seem more real - deep focus (being able to see the full environment) allowed scenes to be filmed without cutting. 
• Settings - on location, urban areas.
• Shows a dark side of America.
• Deals with issues like Holocaust / nuclear. 
• 1948 - 1959 was the film noir period. 
• 70's / 80's - film noir re-interest - best example - the last seduction.
• Love, violence and murder.
• Mean streets (1973) - attempt of film noir but in colour.
• Showing change in society - war, fear, return of men from the war - psychologically affected.