Film noir:
- Usually follows the main protagonist playing a private eye, detective, journalist, etc
- The narrative focuses on the fall of the main character as they question their morals after being forced from one bad situation to the next
- Technical characteristics include Noir color pallets (dark colors/black and white), rarely shooting daytime shots, deep focus, high angle shots, tonal editing, dutch tilt, chiaroscuro, low key lighting
- Narrative characteristics include cynical heroes, intricate plots, tones of despair and madness, manipulation, etc. It usually incorporates current political, social, and economic issues and expresses them by using characters that represent real social figures such as police, detectives, screenwriters, etc.
American Cinema/American Culture, John Belton:
Belton writes, “film noir grapples, as Robert Porfirio suggests, with existential issues such as the futility of individual action; the alienation, loneliness, and isolation of the individual in industrialized, mass society; the problematic choice between being and nothingness; the absurdity, meaninglessness, and purposelessness of life; and the arbitrariness of social justice, which results in individual despair, leading to chaos, violence, and paranoia.”
Sin City:
Camera:
- Deep focus
- Close-ups/XCU
- High angle shots
- Contrasting colors (black, grey, red, yellow)
Narrative:
- Follows the different stories of 3 characters
- Characters are faced with a moral dilemma that eventually leads to their death
- Sin City shows the consequences of individual actions in a mass society
The Lady from Shanghai:
Camera:
- Camera Pan
- Deep focus
- Behind the back
- Low key lighting
- Close-ups and high angles
- Chiaroscuro lighting
Narrative:
- A seaman getting involved in a complicated murder that involves framing the seaman as a murderer
- “Elsa being represented as a Femme fatale – deceiving the anti-hero”
- “Reflecting the post-war period of uncertainty”
References:
JMR – Defining Film noir
Britannica – Characteristics of film noir
Taste of Cinema – Reasons why sin city is a neo-noir classic
A level film fact sheet (WJEC) – Lady from Shanghai