24/01/12

Genre - Film Noir

Film Noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hard-boiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the depression.

Definitive List of Film Noir Genre Conventions

• Cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character
• Black & white
• Mystery/crime
• 1940s/50s
• 'Film Noir' - French for 'Black Film'. First applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946.
• Melodramas
• Anxiety, pessimism, suspicion - post war ambience
• Paranoia, disenchantment, melancholy
• Storylines - elliptical, non-linear and twisting
• Narratives - frequently complexed and maze-like. Often told with background music, flashbacks or confessional first person voice-over or narration.

Film Noir - Films

La Confidential

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 neo-noir film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the year 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The film adaptation was produced and directed by Curtis Hanson and co-written by Hanson and Brian Helgeland.

At the time, Australian actors Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe were relatively unknown in North America, and one of the film's backers, Peter Dennett, was worried about the lack of established stars in the lead roles. However, he supported Hanson's casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito.

Critically acclaimed, the film holds a 99% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 85 out of 86 reviews positive and average rating of 8.6 out of 10, as well as an aggregated rating of 90% based on 28 reviews on Metacritic. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two, Basinger for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Hanson and Helgeland for Best Screenplay - Adapted.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

The story is narrated in the first person by Frank Chambers, a young drifter who stops at a rural California diner for a meal, and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a young, beautiful woman, Cora, and her much older husband, Nick Papadakis, sometimes called "the Greek"

There is an immediate attraction between Frank and Cora, and they begin a passionate affair with sadomasochistic qualities (when they first embrace, Cora commands Frank to bite her lip, and Frank does so hard enough to draw blood).

Cora, a femme fatale figure, is tired of her situation, married to a man she does not love, and working at a diner that she wishes to own and improve. Frank and Cora scheme to murder the Greek in order to start a new life together without Cora losing the diner.

They plan on striking Nick's head and making it seem he fell and drowned in the bathtub. Cora fells Nick with a solid blow, but, due to a sudden power outage and the appearance of a policeman, the scheme fails. Nick recovers and because of retrograde amnesia does not suspect that he narrowly avoided being killed.

Determined to kill Nick, Frank and Cora fake a car accident. 

They play Nick with wine, strike him on the head, and crash the car. Frank and Cora are injured. The local prosecutor suspects what has actually occurred, but doesn't have enough evidence to prove it. As a tactic intended to get Cora and Frank to turn on one another, he charges only Cora with the crime of Nick's murder. They do turn against each other, with Cora, not wanting to take all the blame, insisting upon offering a full confession detailing both their roles. Her lawyer tricks her into dictating that confession to a member of his own staff, however, which prevents its reaching the prosecutor. With the prosecutor thus having failed to acquire any new evidence, he is forced to grant Cora a plea agreement, under which she is given a suspended sentence and no jail time.

Frank and Cora patch things up and plan a happy-family future. Then Cora is killed in a car accident while Frank is driving. The book ends with Frank, from death row, summarizing the events that followed, explaining that he was wrongly convicted of having murdered Cora. The text, he hopes, will be published after his execution.