This essay critically examines Shane Black’s movie ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ in respect to the Film Noir Genre. The Film Noir genre dominated the 1940’s with its distinct style that captured audience at that time (Grant, 1986). This style was also not extremely famous as compared to other action movies such as “Spiderman” or animated movies like ‘Shrek”. This genre was distinct and one of the central themes of the movie was violence (Browne, 1998). This genre also involved scripts where the characters created sometimes didn’t have to get involved in a certain situation but because of being in the “wrong place at the wrong time” they automatically become involved (Grant 1986). An example of this is Harry Lockhart and Gay Perry. Film Noir was displayed in movies by using certain images, typically darker scenes which were sometimes filmed away from society (Browne, 1998). The movie showed images of smoke which featured in the movie at the scene that was filmed in a club. Smoke was generally a symbol of danger. This genre is known for its mood and tone. Basically, the Film Noir genre represented among other things criminal activity and corruption that consumed the cities (Grant, 1986). This was brought about by wars that seemed to have influenced this style of film. Film Noir was represented in Principles where “….the theme is hidden in the style; and Bogus themes are often flaunted that contradict the style” (Grant, 1986:181).It was also not like the movies that were highly sparked with heavy lighting. The Noir genre was associa...
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... often nostalgic (Grant, 1986). Harry Lockhart shows signs of possessing such characteristics. Towards the end of the movie, Lockhart feared losing Harmony even though she betrayed his trust. He mentioned to her that he never finished anything he started from the time he was a little boy. He intended to complete school but he didn’t and he explained to her that he didn’t want to lose her. Also another example of this principle is when Harmony plans to be an actress but she only got as far as acting in a Commercial(Black, 2005).
In Conclusion, this essay seldom subverts the characteristics of the film noir genre, instead there are more reasons as to why “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” belongs to the category, although it doesn’t seem to belong entirely to this genre as a whole, it does feature characteristics of other genres, but overall the movie can be seen as a film noir.
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
One characteristic that almost all Film Noirs have in common is a certain mold of protagonist. While most genres of movie have a heroic, or at least optimistic and generally positive...
Janey Place and Lowell Peterson article “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” establishes noir as a visual style and not a ...
David Fincher’s 1999 noir film Fight Club, managed to shatter the barriers between reality and fantasy; while simultaneously expressing ideas against the massive consumer culture. The lack of this barrier allowed the film to maintain a psychotic uncertainty for both the characters in the film and the spectators. Fincher achieved the psychotic theme through noir thematic and stylistic devices such as the narration and disorientation of the film. These devices allow the film to be classified as noir.
TELOTTE, J. P. (1989). Voices in the dark: the narrative patterns of film noir. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.
Adapted from the novella written by James M. Cain, Double Indemnity is a melodramatic film noir that highlights the conflict its characters face through adultery and murder which develops from the dissatisfaction and alienation that arose in the era of modernity as shown in most noir films. Unlike most noir films, Double Indemnity set the bar in terms of structural themes to follow and elements that eventually came to be considered essential in the noir genre. The film was seen to be a full embodiment of what the genre should be. Double Indemnity is an archetypal noir film, which portrays noir elements through its style, the characters, its writers’ backstory and the history of Los Angeles, the city in which it is set. This essay will examine how Los Angeles is integrated not only into the location but also into the storyline of the characters and their motivations but also the filmmakers’ lives. It does this through characteristic noir motifs like “the urban cultural landscape, the lack of rootedness of the characters, and the self-deceptions that center their world” (p. 437) affect the protagonists in the film. Double Indemnity’s use of Los Angeles as its primary location exposes the innate decadence and decay of the city through film noir stylistic elements. Billy Wilder directed Double Indemnity and the film became the archetypal noir film because it embodied all the characteristics of a typical noir film, which include “claustrophobia, paranoia, despair and nihilism” (Place and Peterson, p. 327) course kit source. Los Angeles, the city used primarily as the location in the film becomes not merely a backdrop but a character in the film through its physical and implied characteristics. The context through the stories of Wild...
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
Film Noir, a term coined by the French to describe a style of film characterized by dark themes, storylines, and visuals, has been influencing cinematic industries since the 1940’s. With roots in German expressionistic films and Italian postwar documentaries, film noir has made its way into American film as well, particularly identified in mob and crime pictures. However, such settings are not exclusive to American film noir. One noteworthy example is Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard, which follows the foreboding tale of Joe Gillis, the desperate-for-success protagonist, who finds himself in the fatal grips of the disillusioned femme fatale Norma Desmond. Not only does the storyline’s heavy subject matter and typical character structure suggest the film noir style, but also Wilder’s techniques of photography and empty, worn-down settings make for a perfect backdrop for this dark approach at filmmaking.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Throughout the history of movies, movie companies have tried to do it bigger better and more exciting. They bring in bigger stars, better special effects and more convincing stories, which causes the masses to flock to the theatres in eager anticipation of each movie. The audience usually gets what the audience wants—more violence and more action the world over. “The Crow” has elements of different types of movie genres the horror, adventure, film noir and the western. In this movie there is no difference as is about to be shown in the following paper. They mix the genres together quite well in this movie to make it a true hybrid genre. From the mean streets, the use of shadows and surprise like the horror movie, to the adventure of the over all story. They also mix in a bit of western with the black cowboy that is in the comic, but doesn’t even appear in the movie itself. Now this paper shows how the movie appeals to the different genres using characters, settings, lighting and other effects to make the movie more interesting.
Run Lola Run, is a German film about a twenty-something woman (Lola) who has 20 minutes to find $100,000 or her love (Manni) will be killed. The search for the money is played through once with a fatal ending and one would think the movie was over but then it is shown again as if it had happened ten seconds later and changed everything. It is then played out one last time. After the first and second sequence, there is a red hued, narrative bridge. There are several purposes of those bridges that affect the movie as a whole. The film Run Lola Run can be analyzed by using the four elements of mise-en scene. Mise-en-scene refers to the aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theater. Mise-en-scene pertains to setting, lighting, costume, and acting style. For the purpose of this paper, I plan on comparing the setting, costume, lighting, and acting style in the first red hued, bridge to that of the robbery scene. Through this analysis, I plan to prove that the purpose of the narrative bridge in the film was not only to provide a segue from the first sequence to the second, but also to show a different side of personality within the main characters.
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.