Retrofitting is when a new film uses aesthetics and tropes that are associated with an earlier era – it is often used to pay homage to films of a certain era. A prime example of retrofitting is the neo – noir movement of the 1970’s and 1980’s because these films were often set during the 70’s and 80’s but they often had an unmistakable 1940’s aesthetic despite being set in later time periods.

Blade Runner was released at the height of the popularity of film noir – it is a prime example of how filmmakers have appropriated the style of the 40’s and used them in other contexts – the film is set in 2019 but the style of the mise en scene is directly inspired by the classic noir films of the 40’s and it can be argued that even the basic plot outline of the film was taken directly from films like The Maltese Falcon , which involved hardboiled detectives solving various crimes , all while their fundamental moral values are thrown into disarray due to the presence of beautiful women who are often duplicitous and they have an underlying reason for the pursuit of the male lead. In Blade Runner , all of the retrofitting is a deliberate homage to the classic noir films of the 1940’s.

There are certain narrative techniques which are common across both the film noir and neo noir movements and these traits have not changed across history – one of he best examples of these techniques is the use of voice over by the main character , this is a trope within itself and it is similar to the archetypal characters that are used within the genre in the sense that they are expected as part of the genre. Voice overs are often used while the main character is speaking to another character and this gives us a unique insight into what the characters are actually thinking – for example , at the beginning of Blade runner , Bryant recruits Deckard to hunt down the rouge replicants and while Bryant is talking Deckard is holding a neutral expression and his interior monologue tells us that Deckard dislikes Bryant and this is not something that would have been immediately evident by just his facial expression alone.

Voice over is only one technique that is a hallmark of the style of film noir and it helps to create a casual tone and it makes the audience think that they personally know the protagonist. Additionally , the intimacy that is created between the main character and the audience serves to raise the stakes of the action due to the fact that a personal dialogue has been created between the main character and the audience , who come to like the main character because they are afforded a unique insight into the minds of the characters and their thoughts and feelings.

The voice over technique also serves a symbolic purpose due to the fact that one of the main themes in film noir is the duplicity of individuals and this is literally reflected in the way that the voice over technique is used to create a disconnect between what the main characters thoughts and their words and actions and this helps to create a sense of moral ambiguity because the audience doesn’t know if the main characters are reliable narrators because the aforementioned disconnect between the characters thoughts and actions sows seeds of doubt in the minds of the audience because it creates uncertainty as to weather the protagonist is good or evil.

Auteur theory is the idea that the director is the major creative force in creating a film and this means that any film bears the unmistakable stamp of its director.

The Maltese Falcon would not be considered to be an auteur film by the standards of the 1940’s due to the fact that it was produced by a major studio (Warner Bros) and that it conforms to all of the cliches that are typical of the genre – the filmmakers were also working within the constraints of the Hays Code which was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968 , and this meant that the filmmakers could not show certain subjects within their films and this links to the way that the filmmakers only hint at Joel Cairo’s sexuality.

However , Blade Runner is not an entirely an Auteur film due to the fact that it is not entirely Ridley Scott’s original vision , as there were multiple directors and writers who were attached to the project before Scott took control of the project – but the sci – fi hallmarks that are typical of Scott’s work are present in Blade Runner so this film is immediately identifiable as one of Scott’s films , so it could be argued that Blade Runner is an Auteur film – Blade Runner is more of an auteur film than the Maltese Falcon because at the time of its release , it presented an original vision of the world to the audience while the Maltese Falcon was unoriginal at the time due to the fact that film noir was already a popular genre.

1. How do the specific historical contexts of the Second World War and the Cold War inform the narrative conventions of Film noir and Neo noir ?
2. How does Blade Runner and the Maltese Falcon present masculinity? and how do those portrayals differ from each other ?
3. How did the portrayal of women of women in these two films draw from the social context of the time?
4. How does Blade Runner achieve genre hybridity and how many elements of classic noir does the film contain when it is compared from the Maltese Falcon ?
5. How do the male and female characters portray the gender norms of the time and how are they reinforced ?

Film comparative study research  

The Maltese Falcon was released in 1941 during the second world war and it is part of the original film noir movement which became popular due to the pessimism and darkness of the war years. The film contains many narrative devices that would later become hallmarks of the film noir movement, like the private eye protagonist having voiceovers and the presence of a woman who tries to lead him down the path of crime.  

This film fits into the stereotype of film noir because it contains most of the established tropes that the movement is known for, like the femme fatale. The film taps into the anxiety that many Americans would have been feeling during the war and Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) represents the ideal of masculinity at the time – he is smart, strong and independent and this is the ideal that men at the time strove for. The film is concerned with themes of morality and many of the characters are morally ambiguous, and this is a trait that it shares with Blade Runner. The mise en scene in classic film noir is high contrast due to the black and white cinematography. 

One of the things that film noir and neo – noir is known for is the sharp, no – nonsense dialogue and this is a feature that both films share and this links to the themes of cynicism and bitterness that are typically associated with the genre of film noir. 

Blade runner was released in 1982, 41 years after The Maltese Falcon, and it blends elements of film noir with elements of sci – fi and the film was released during the Cold War , there is a subtext that links to the anxiety about nuclear annihilation which was not present in The Maltese Falcon and the film is a lot more explicit because it talked about the disastrous effects of environmental destruction.  

Despite this film’s genre hybridity, it contains many of the classic stock characters of film noir, like the private eye protagonist and the femme fatal – the inclusion of these characters is intended to be a reference to the classic film noir of the 1940’s and 50’s and much of the film’s aesthetic is derived from the films of this era and it is combined with futuristic visuals. Blade Runner is not part of the classic noir movement and many of the tropes that appear in this movie do so in a manner that is self – referential.

The aesthetics of film noir were influenced by the German expressionist films from the 1920’s and 30’s and this influence is evident in the black and white visuals of the Maltese falcon; this influence is not as evident in Blade Runner as it uses colour cinematography. Blade Rummer also talks about the humanity’s destruction of the environment which links to the Cold War anxiety about nuclear war. Both films are bitterly cynical about what is happening in the world and both protagonists are hardened and bitter detectives.  

Blade runner is intended to be a direct homage to the film noir of the 1940’s and this film consciously references the tropes and conventions that are present in films like The Maltese Falcon.   

Archetypes  

There are several archetypes that are associated with film noir, these are: 

• The private eye – he is often bitter and cynical. Spade and Deckard fit neatly into this archetype. They are often anti – heroes with a dubious sense of morality. He is often the narrator of the film
• The femme fatale. A beautiful woman who uses her charm and sexual allure to attempt (sometimes successfully) to destroy the man. Pris, Rachel and Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O’Shaughnessy all fit into this archetype. 
• The corrupt cop – could possibly be symbolized by Blatty. 

The aesthetic for film noir is sharply defined and immediately recognizable with the black and white cinematography and films with the established conventions of classic film noir e.g. The Maltese Falcon. Blade Runner conforms to some of the tropes of film noir, but this is done in a self-aware way and it does not have the immediate association with the film noir genre for audiences due to the sci – fi elements of the story and the colour cinematography which is one of the major things that differentiates neo – noir films from classic noir films.  

The term film noir was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank. in his article “Un nouveau genre ‘policier’: L’aventure criminelle” (“A new police genre: the criminal adventure”)  he said that “filmmakers express their own reality and many of them were from Germany” and as film noir was first popularized around the time of the rise of the Nazis and during this time they had limited resources i.e black and white film was less expensive and the filmmakers did not make much money and they used their medium in order to portray their struggle to the world.

Film noir is such a resonant genre of film due to the fact that it is often true to life and and the films do not seek to conceal the cruelty that human beings are capable of , instead the film makers seek to tell a story about how people struggle to survive in a hostile world and the reason that film noir became popular in the first place was the political tension leading up to world war two and the destruction that the war brought and neo -noir was successful because of the constant danger of nuclear annihilation that was posed to the Cold War world

The Maltese Falcon does use some stereotypes that could be considered to be offensive – for example , Joel Cairo exhibits feminine characteristics and there is an implication that he is gay. In the film he is one of the primary villains , due to the fact that he works with the Fat Man , but he is not simply a villain – he helps Spade at various point , this is emblematic of the moral duality that the characters in film noir are known for. Due to the Hays Code , which was a strict set of guidelines that filmmakers had to adhere to , the filmmakers could only hint at the characters homosexuality.

Blade Runner has more modern themes : the environment has been completely destroyed and the officers of the law are corrupt – these are more blatant allusions to the current political landscape than are present in the Maltese Falcon.