LA confidential is as much a film noir as it is not a film noir, for one it is set in the 1950’s which is film noir era. Noir films are based corruption in urban settings so location of these films often consist of nighttime scenes, neon and busy cities and los angeles (the location of the film) is a perfect example of such. A city was chosen to host this film because film noir plays largely on the idea of loneliness and solitude and the setting of a big city allows just that where the male protagonist does not communicate or socialize with people outside of work.
LA Confidential begins with the narration of Sid Hudgens which is very typical of film noir, he describes the beauty of Los Angeles and on the other hand its bitter truth of corruption and organized crime.however this is the only time the narration occurs so it is less of a film noir in that case.
One of the male protagonists ed exley decides to testify against his fellow officers, throwing away any chance of friendship and likeness he has with them to preserve his integrity which is quite typical of film noir: the idea that sacrifices must be made for justice and some form of self righteousness/ moral code. You also have another male protagonist Bud White, a brutal, imposing enforcer of “justice” utilized by captain Dudley. He walks like a
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The plot is far more complicated than that of a typical film noir- at the perfect timing it seems, the film manages to connect all the dots and pick up missing pieces to expose the true plot of the film which has everyone gasping and anxious i.e at the end of the film where Exley finds out Dudley’s involvement with the shootout, his father’s death and Jack Vincenne’s death before killing him). This is very much neo noir which contains more complicated plots and a certain hint of sophistication to
The goal is clear. The tone is dark, fitting for a thriller. The opening establishes the tone and there’s a strong backstory involving the murder of the heroine’s father. The first act nicely sets up the ordinary world of Megan, establishing her role as a civil rights advocate and her personal life with her lover. There are several good plot beats in the first act that move the story forward: the release
Film noir movies often have stylistic characteristics such as exaggerated lighting and shadows. Scarlet Street contained many subjective camera shots while also using exaggerated shadows, for example during the first scene in the movie, there is an emphasis on the mans shadow as he walks into the room. Which brings me to a crucial point, Black and white filmmaking. Black and white style is considered to be an essential attribute for a film noir movie, black and white allows the director to emphasize on distorting images, for example use of the venetian blind shot. Another continuous pattern of film noir is to include main stock characters, this film contains: an anti-hero and a femme fatale, these stock characters are always seen in noir films.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/oscars-gangs-of-new-york/ . In this article Ted wanted to convey all the facts from the movie and distinguish what was nonfiction v.s. fiction. His main points focused on the Brothel House, Resurrecting Five Points for the screen, and the real gangs of New York. He compares how the movie projected all these things and how they actually were in real life.
The Story has a man daydreaming in his car, while the movie has a man going on a worldwide quest for a negative photo. This intrigues the audiences with a feel for adventure. The movie also Introduces the love interest of Walter, Cheryl. This adds the extra suspense in the movie. This is because the audience doesn't get to know if they get together.
Film noir is a cinematic style that began in the early 1940s that focused on the crime and corruption that occurs in everyday life. Film noir was influenced by two major film movements, German Expressionism and French poetic realism (Schrader 8). While German Expressionism influenced lighting techniques, realism affected narrative and cinematography. The Great Depression and World War II shaped film noir’s cynical tone that fate is uncontrollable. A classic example of film noir is the 1945 film Detour, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.
This was life for the citizens in Chicago, everyone was kept in constant fear for their lives if they ever crossed Capone. The Federal Government knew they had to control the violent city of Chicago by eliminating the Gaffron 2 criminal that was behind it all, Al Capone. This is when our heroes enter, The Untouchables. In the movie, The Untouchables were a team assembled by Federal Treasury Officer, Eliot Ness, to help combat the massacres by mobsters in Chicago. The Federal Ban of alcohol (prohibition) led to an illegal market for liquor and in turn, more crime.
There are many distinct elements of a film noir. Strong lighting features, tough female characters, a twisted love story, and crowded yet simple sets. These are just a few of those elements and they all make Blade Runner a film noir. One of the more noticeable elements of a film noir is lighting. Throughout the film, lighting is used to set the mood and atmosphere of each scene.
Hyperreal L.A. in The Big Lebowski and The day of the Locust Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust is based in the thirties in Hollywood and focuses on a group of charters lives that is supposed to resemble that of what it was really like in L.A. at this time. The Coen brother’s The Big Lebowski is about a charter who goes by the dude, and is adventure to try and find who kidnapped Bunny Lebowski and who peed on his rug. It is also set in L.A. but in the nineties instead of the thirties.
You would be hard pressed to find a Noir without a femme fatale. There is usually some spider woman in the middle weaving the men of the plot to her plan. These women challenge male masculinity in Noir and are usually tamed by the protagonists or destroyed. In Vertigo we have Judy. She strings Scottie along acting like she is his friends wife and she is possessed.
The film American History X is a film about crime fueled by racism. The crime was committed by a man named Derek Vinyard, a white supremacist. He murdered two black gang members after they attempted to steal his truck. If we look closely at the case of Derek Vinyard, we can see that the crime he committed weren’t just a spur-of-the moment thought of killing someone. His actions were rooted deep into his past, wherein his experiences have shaped him into the person that he was today.
The most common archetype seen in noir is the femme fatale. The femme fatale becomes a distinct part of film at the end of World War II as well as a threat to transgress the patriarchy (Grossman, p.4). The origins of the femme fatale comes from "the historical need to reconstruct an economy based on a division of labor by which men control the means of production and women remain within the family, in other words, the need to reconstruct a failing patriarchal order" (Jancovich, 2011, p.100). Furthermore, Jancovich claims that the femme fatale was created as an effort to encourage women to revert back to their womanly duties and to quit their jobs that they took on while the men were overseas. He calls them a “demonization of the independent working-woman” ( 2011, p.105).
Those that believe Casablanca is not film noir usually perceive Film Noir as a genre. Noir is not a genre; Noir transcends genres and behaves more accurately as a style of cinema. As styles go, there can be variations of them as we see now with Post-Noir and Neo Noir, noir elements in a different time period of film technology which makes these films slightly different than the style of classic film noir. Themes of cynicism, impending doom, loss, jeopardy of life accompanied by visuals dominated by shadows, strong lines, and overall darkness to the image make up film noir’s style. Noir is not absolute, the beauty of this style is its vulnerability to variation, which is why Michael Curtiz’s Classic Casablanca is film noir.
The movie "On the Waterfront" is an example of Film Noir which literally means black or dark film. Movies like this were more serious and explored more realistic and depressing subject matters. The movie was mainly about the struggle of the working longshoremen in Hoboken, New Jersey against the gangsters who bullied and extorted money from them. The protagonist of the movie is Terry Malloy.
There are also freeze-frames and jump cuts, which add to the effect of French New Wave cinema. However, I chose a specific extract from the movie to analyze in detail. What grabbed my attention the most in the movie was the scene where the protagonist shoots the policeman. This scene was particularly interesting since there was major use of jump cuts and other techniques used in French New Wave. This scene, along with the entire movie, reflects on Jean-Luc Godard’s work in all ways possible.
Philadelphia, a film released in 1993 starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington was one of the first major films to cover controversial sexual health issues in the United States. After the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the media feared to exploit the deadly disease and issues concerning sexuality and sexual health were continued to be viewed as taboo. The film aims to depict the current issues (in 1993) dealing with HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia discrimination and the lack of knowledge and prejudices that accompany those issues. Tom Hanks’s character, Andrew Beckett, is a young and driven attorney that made partner at a high-powered law firm. Beckett conceals his sexual orientation as a homosexual male and his HIV/AIDS status from