What is Neo-noir? (contemporary film noir)

Neo-noir is a term used to describe a genre that spawned from the traditional film noir genre, whereby the elements of the old genre is used but combined with modern visuals, effects, styles and themes. In contrast to the original noir films, the audience is being reminded that they are only watching a film by the use of unconventional camera movements and plot progression. In traditional noirs, the audience is encouraged to form bonds with the lead character, making them feel what is happening to that particular character and making them feel more involved. Some notable examples of neo-noir from 1970-present mite include:

Body Heat (1981)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
Bladerunner (1982)
Against All Odds (1984)
The Grifters (1990)
Deep Cover (1992)
Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)
Kiss Of Death (1995)
Fargo (1996)
L.A confidential (1997)
Twilight (1998)
Wild Things (1998)
Momento (2000)
Sin City (2005)
Hollywoodland (2006)
The Black Dahlia (2006)

Examples and synopsis of Classic Film Noirs

Director: Billy Wilder

Double Indemnity - 1944

Walter Neff is a successful insurance sales man who works for pacific all risk. He goes back to his office late at night and tells his story into a dictaphone. He meets the femme fetale of the story, Phyllis Dietrichson when he goes to renew her husbands insurance policy. During their conversation, it becomes very flirtatious with provocative phrases and sexual inuendo. He learns that she can take an insurance policy out without her husband knowing and wants to murder him to make a claim and tells her he wants no part of it. She visits him at his home and tells him that together they should kill her husband. Being in the business himself, he knows about all the rules etc, therefore he came up with a plan so that she would receive twice the insurance pay out using the "double indemnity" clause, whereby the husband dies an unlikely death. Phyllis wants Lola, her husband's daughter, killed because Lola suspects her of killing her parents. Walter finds out that Phyllis is also seeing Lola's boyfriend and decides to blame them for the murder. Phyllis tells him that she was seeing Lola's boyfriend so that he would kill Lola however, he attempts to shoot her but she shot him first. Phyllis hugs him and he shoots her. He confesses to the detective and says hes going to mexico instead of serving a death sentence but collapses when walking to the elevator.

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Ace in the hole       -  1951

Chuck Tatem is a news reporter who is short tempered and this has caused him to be fired from Americas best newspapers. He finds himself in Albuquerque, trying to get a job from Jacob Boot. He wants the job to save up the money to go back to New York or Chicago. He gets hired by him but he complains about the lack of news in the area. He gets sent with the photographer to cover the rattlesnake roundup but on the way he discovers that Leo Minosa is stuck in a cave in an old indian burial location. The local indians and Leo say that the spirits might have caused the cave-in as he's been stealing religious relics from the cave. he writes a story and to ensure he keeps the rights he makes a deal with the crooked sheriff for keeping Leo's location secret.  Chuck finds out that the rescuers can get him out in 12 hours so he decides to persuade them to drill from above allowing him more time to write his story as instead of 12 hours, it will take 6 days. The New York newspaper hires Chuck back and pays him a large amount for the story. Leo becomes ill as the time passes and changes the lives of those who made profit from his suffering.

Evidence of some of the noir elements would be: the venetian blind effect, when Walter goes to confront Lola just before she shoots him, her face is covered in the blind pattern using contrasting shadows across her face with minimal light peering through the gaps. The use of contasting shadows in ace in the hole when he goes into the cave, bright light with dark black shadows.

Codes and Conventions of Film Noir

Codes and Conventions of Film Noir.

There are many things that define the film noir genre. Different codes and characteristics are used to give a distinctive look about film noir which separates them from the other genres for example lighting, shadows, cinematography and ideology.

Storylines and Narrative

Typical storyline would be: A depressed man who is often a detective,  gets manipulated by a beautiful and promiscuous femme fatale. She usually gets him to something for her such as murder someone or take the blame etc. In the end their actions would lead them both to fall, often after a betrayal where the detectives life is taken. Often at the beginning of the film is shows the ending and leaves the viewer wondering what's happened and show the story through flashbacks. It's common for film noir to be narrated throughout the story by the main character.

Characters and Representation

There are generally two main characters in a film noir: the detective and the femme fatale.
The dectective is never much of a hero, he is usually a depressed man who walks aimlessly through dark allies and bars at night and never has anything good happen to him in his life. He is usually entranced by the femme fatale allowing her to control him and gets him into trouble.
The femme fetale is a promiscuous woman, she manipulates men into getting what she wants, often through the use of her beauty, provocative language and suggestion. The femme fatale is normally the detective's love interest and in the end betrays him and gets him killed. These noirs were made during the war with the women now being able to work, this meant the females in these films were a representation of the working women being empowered and being equal to or better than the males being shown how they are easily controlled.
Editing
Directors of film noir would use various techniques to distort and make the film uncomfortable for the viewer to watch such as: lighting. Film noirs have different uses of lighting to change how the viewer feels. They usually have low key lighting, involving stark light and contrasting dark shadows (also known as chiaroscuro) which partially covers characters faces or venetian blinds creating patterns, adding suspense and texture to the scene.

Cinematography

The use of cinematography in film noir is to make the viewer feel discomfort and the imagery distorted to make it unusual for the eye to watch. Various shots are used to produce this effect such as: dutch/skewed angle, low angle and wide angle.

Mise-En-Scene

Noirs have common locations and settings such as bars, dark alleys and are often set in the same scene. They are often in a large city such as New york or Los Angeles. Directors would normally re-use sets from other noirs as they are already there so the same set maybe seen in different films as it was cheaper than making a new set. The scene would usually be dark with only hints of contrasting light coming through barely open windows or light across the characters face. Typically rainy or wet weather.

Sound

As film noir is usually set in a bar or alley etc, there is minimal background noise to keep the quiet atmosphere and keep the viewer focused on the characters and what they are doing or thinking.

Ideology

The messages and values that film noir often gives is that doing bad things gets you nowhere, both the detective and the femme fetale get what they deserve in the end.