Wednesday, 9 October 2013

09/10/13 RESEARCH: FILM NOIR BOOKS


We skimmed through these books to give us inspiration about what we would do.

  • Low key, black and white visual style
  • roots in German expressionist cinematography 
  • derives from crime fiction of United States during the Great Depression.
  • central figure is often a private eye (The Big Sleep 1946)
  • a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat)
  • an aging boxer (The Set Up)
  • a hapless grifter (Night and the City)
  • a law abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy)
  • simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A)
  • gives pleasure by making us uncomfortable: anxiety, vulnerability and fright are all part of the thill
  • women are all usually virgins or vamps
  • film noir is a cultural phenomenon
  • strong female characters who disturb the men's world
  • has evolved in to Neo-Noir (Memento)
  • characters faces often partly shadowed to create hidden threatening spaces
  • often sleazy milieu of claustrophobic alleyways or deserted spaces alternating with gaudy nightclubs and swank apartments
  • high contrast lighting

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