Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

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The connection between German Expressionist cinema and American film noir was not only to be discernible and joined “into a uniform style,” as Schrader points out, but also via the creation of an embracing Umwelt, a kind of intimate environment. In short, it was through a visual style that used chiaroscuro and fragmented camera angles as its main visual lexicon and which would years later influence the noir iconography. In conjunction with the abovementioned Stimmung, it provided the emotional connection (and dilemma) existing between the objects and the subjects of the story. 110
1.5 French Poetic Realism Poetic Realism (…) whether good or bad, gave glory to French cinema and was sold around the world. It has been imitated abroad but, God knows why, nobody makes this kind of movie better than the French. (Andrew 1995:3) Born in the 1930s, the expression “Poetic Realism” fuses two concepts which can be considered contradictory: realism and poetry. Indeed, the designation “Poetic Realism” seems to spring from a network of influences, mostly literary (naturalism, populism), and from German Expressionism and the “Straßenfilm” mentioned in the earlier section. One can in fact speak of “realism” as many of the French film directors represented the social realities of an anxiety-ridden society in a world that was clearly getting out of hand. Their films would portray the life conditions of citizens living in poverty and crime or facing the harsh political and social situation of that time. Hence we see the street as the place of choice for poetic realism, rain-slicked as in noir films, and often snaking along the banks of the Seine reflecting the dark mood of dolefulness in fog and mist. This kind of décor and setting / lighting has received close critical and been found to be in harmony with the gloomy nights and shadows of the German cinema. The term “Poetic Realism” was first employed in 1933 to give an idea of “a genre of urban drama, often set among the Paris proletariat or lower middle classes, with romantic / criminal narratives emphasising doom and despair. In these films, “poetry” and mystery are found in everyday objects and settings – hence the proletarian milieu” (Vincendeau 1992:54). This is one of the reasons why these films were also designated as le fantastique social, as they also depict the Popular Front (a consolidated party of the left) phenomenon and the texture of interwar period society. Poetry is present aesthetically within the narrative, which is heavily imbued with the notion of fatalism. The décors are very important and are all set in the studio, most of the time in tulle (a fine, often starched net of silk, rayon, or nylon, used especially for veils or gowns). The French critics had already used the term “film noir” for the films made before the war. In fact, this cycle of films ranging from 1936 to 1939 was essentially made by the 111
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Joaquim da Silva Universidade de Av
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To Antonio, who made this possible.
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Acknowledgements This long journey
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Finally, I owe a huge debt of grati
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keywords abstract Film Noir, genre,
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2 Social and Political Influences o
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2.4 Joseph H. Lewis................
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Figure 42. Force of Evil ..........
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I. Introduction: Paving the Way for
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term that the film industry itself
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about which films themselves consti
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also, in the films’ fundamental n
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American films after the Nazi occup
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we also find a disruption of the wo
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oth in these French productions of
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Hollywood feature films but it did
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throughout this work); and c) to di
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odies, or as killers and crooks, bu
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these films was to confer on them a
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writer, director, producer, and art
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cinema does not have the power of
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Before working on The Dark Mirror,
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y taking it “from the outside.”
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and many, if not most, films would
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1.1.1 Dashiell Hammett In 1929, Das
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tough appearance, by their occupati
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Apart from “The Continental Op”
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unsettling when for example shootin
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1.1.2 Raymond Chandler Raymond Chan
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Figure 4. The Big Sleep the chaotic
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eleased to the big screen by MGM wi
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most fastidious visions of London i
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hometowns and move into bigger citi
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Double Indemnity started the trend
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has happened, but, as if hypnotized
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destructive, or used by stronger wo
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Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) into a noir
Page 75 and 76: Home (1937) - were two living proof
Page 77 and 78: which collapses the distinction bet
Page 79 and 80: Figure 10. Deadline at Dawn Alex’
Page 81 and 82: 1.1.6 William Riley Burnett Another
Page 83 and 84: Figure 11. High Sierra The Asphalt
Page 85 and 86: 1.1.7 Conclusions What made the det
Page 87 and 88: fiction managed to provide for a de
Page 89 and 90: escalation in illegal drinking plac
Page 91 and 92: Ben Hecht story and despite being p
Page 93 and 94: Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?”
Page 95 and 96: The third originating gangster movi
Page 97 and 98: part of the recurrent patterns of v
Page 99 and 100: protagonist of Edgar Ulmer’s Deto
Page 101 and 102: exemplify in Part III (“Space and
Page 103 and 104: 1.3 The Gothic Romance 87 And trave
Page 105 and 106: titlecard when the film opens alert
Page 107 and 108: In Rebecca the beautiful, desirable
Page 109 and 110: forties. Thematically, the represen
Page 111 and 112: To complicate this matter further,
Page 113 and 114: trampled under by war and revolutio
Page 115 and 116: he says, when Expressionism ended,
Page 117 and 118: These early Expressionist films, wi
Page 119 and 120: student, Balduin (Paul Wegener hims
Page 121 and 122: (Tragedy of the Street, 1927, aka W
Page 123 and 124: plots with calculating precision. G
Page 125: perverted and neurotic sex murderer
Page 129 and 130: (Michèle Morgan), whose godfather
Page 131 and 132: strikingly atmospheric view of the
Page 133 and 134: Jean Paulhan, editor of La Nouvelle
Page 135 and 136: Julien Duvivier’s Pépé Le Moko
Page 137 and 138: the combination of lighting effects
Page 139 and 140: peculiar expressionistic lighting a
Page 141 and 142: Figure 28. Son of Frankenstein This
Page 143 and 144: Figure 29. Murders in the Rue Morgu
Page 145 and 146: alienation mixed with nuanced perfo
Page 147 and 148: 2 Social and Political Influences o
Page 149 and 150: Liberal reforms soon became a spuri
Page 151 and 152: Polonsky, Jules Dassin, and Edward
Page 153 and 154: which are themselves historical eve
Page 155 and 156: Production Code Administration. Thi
Page 157 and 158: In this particular case, one can se
Page 159 and 160: Neff: Will you be here too? Phyllis
Page 161 and 162: against any possible theft of groce
Page 163 and 164: 2.3 Postwar Readjustment If the moo
Page 165 and 166: In this group of films, the bleak a
Page 167 and 168: explain, these noir heroes of the f
Page 169 and 170: (Gilda, White Heat, Scarlet Street,
Page 171 and 172: seething excitations” and adds th
Page 173 and 174: Romanticism present at the very hea
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III. Noir Thematics 1 Essential Ele
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its modernist sensibility, enabled
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Wyatt), cooks breakfast, domestic r
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structures of constituted authority
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1.2 Space and the Noir City Film no
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other people and developing a calcu
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I am the city. Hub and heart of Ame
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1.3 Trouble With Girls: The Femme F
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intelligent and powerful, if destru
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significant discussion of film noir
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Nevertheless, the message is quite
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Another example of the evolution of
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deceiving women. Like many of their
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Either as a femme fatale or an homm
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1.5 Dazed and Confused: The Voiceov
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an impersonal “you” giving the
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of war veterans who, unfolding thei
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1.6 Noir Atmospherics: Cinematograp
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John Alton’s highly stylised phot
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Figure 41. Stranger on the Third Fl
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indoctrination in the movie in the
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in the popular imagination. While t
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1.7 Sounds of the City: Jazz Soundt
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music, combines with images of patr
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Figure 45. Out of the Past Non-dieg
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ealm of near-explicit sexual metaph
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the two, affirming that “Jazz is
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City, Paramount’s Union Station a
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In my analysis of The Big Combo in
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Consequently, in the fifties, we st
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2 Noir and the Film Auteur 2.1 Aute
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noticeably the case, for example, w
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point out the fact that it is only
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elationship to the way a director t
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2.1.1 Billy Wilder Billy Wilder pla
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performance is full of understated
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Figure 54. Sunset Boulevard Wilder
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Figure 55. Ace in the Hole All of B
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2.1.2 Orson Welles He may have only
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For example, in the scene above (fi
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As Leo Braudy in The World in a Fra
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slanting compositions, and brillian
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2.1.3 Otto Preminger Austrian film
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plans, June still shows her love fo
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Figure 61. Where the Sidewalk Ends
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project my viewpoint on the audienc
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postulated as the “doctrine of si
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pouvait espérer sortir de la déno
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I am at the barber's, and a copy of
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certain community, our subjective r
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interpretant” (Stam 1992:6). Here
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The notion of “text” as a disco
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only agree that these disciplines s
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2 The Universe of Motifs and Symbol
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Andrew Sarris once wrote that “If
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exception to this rule, his movies
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independent production companies in
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Figure 66. Double Indemnity In the
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Figure 67. Scarlet Street The symbo
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contorted Expressionistic grimace,
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Figure 70. Metropolis The clock mot
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Figure 71. Strangers on a Train The
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“When I was young I wanted to be
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themselves in the projection of inn
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woman in the portrait throughout I
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scenes as the attachment is purely
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(namely The Spiral Staircase and Ou
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Chris meets by accident, is a hellc
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2.1.1.4 Conclusion All in all, ther
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Question: Scarlet Street had the sa
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an accepted and well-known screenwr
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Siodmak’s next two films for Univ
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money from Dundee. A more harrowing
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2.2.1 The Spiral Staircase (1946) a
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here increased by the unsteady blac
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Figure 83. The Spiral Staircase Thi
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Warren, making either of them the p
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2.2.1.2 The “Optical Unconscious
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camera is expressive, as it informs
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ordering” - appears to match this
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eyewitness, but at the same time, a
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Figure 87. The Spiral Staircase Bas
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While Cross implicitly acknowledges
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Figure 89. Affair in Trinidad Other
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However, much of this iconography t
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long, wooden staircase while trying
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Figure 93. The Spiral Staircase Fig
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of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The B
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almost part of a game, emphasising
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2.3 Jacques Tourneur Born in Paris
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a laughing audience), and broken la
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violent mishaps could have led to h
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writers like Dashiell Hammett (who,
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Chuck Tatum, a cynical, frustrated
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on, Ann, who represents his hope fo
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This kind of temporal manipulation
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ought forward by the characters of
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found Kathie: “I was glad it was
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Figure 102. Out of the Past In this
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Figure 104. The Lady from Shanghai
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Jeff: Give him time. Kathie: You ar
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Figure 106. Out of the Past The sce
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Gun Crazy, a barrage of police gunf
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2.4 Joseph H. Lewis Considered as a
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untold storied of ordinary men and
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through windows, to provide the ind
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2.4.1 The Big Combo (1955) and the
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of most noir films including The Bi
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2.4.1.1 “First is First and Secon
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In The Big Combo the unconscious tr
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It is not only in terms of narrativ
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Although the idea is not to go into
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Figure 113. Scarlet Street Neff’s
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2.4.1.2 The Big Combo and Generic T
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and knowing they are both surrounde
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As the noir movement entered the la
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V. Conclusions: 1 Genre Revisited T
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on social aspects through a dramati
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Buscombe is right: if we take a gen
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constructions that make it difficul
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Such factors have been scrutinised
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Thematically, noir films as a group
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While enforcement of the Production
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are “as often nihilistic, cynical
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which is normally not associated wi
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morality brought about by these noi
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It is within this cinematic and cri
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____________ (1994). The Semiotic C
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____________ (1992b). Farewell, My
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E Easthope, Antony (1993). Contempo
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Greenberg, Joel & Higham, Charles (
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James, David E. (2005). The Most Ty
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Malkiewicz, Kris (1986). Film Light
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N Naremore, James (1978). The Magic
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Polan, Dana (1986). Power and Paran
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____________ (2006). Ava Gardner:
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Sullivan, Ellie (1986). Jacques Lac
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Wilson, Edmund (1962). Classics and
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Appendix I: Annotated Filmography T
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Beware, My Lovely RKO 1952. Prod: C
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Christmas Holiday Univ 1944. Prod:
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Dark Corner, The Fox 1946. Prod: Fr
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Framed Col 1947. Prod: Jules Schern
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House on 92 nd Street, The Fox 1945
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Killing, The UA 1956. Prod: James B
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Mildred Pierce WB 1945. Prod: Jerry
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One Way Street Univ 1950. Prod: Leo
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Repeat Performance EL 1947. Prod: A
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Stranger, The RKO 1946. Prod: S.P.
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Unsuspected, The WB 1947. Prod: Cha
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B) Other Relevant Filmography The f
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Last Laugh, The ScreenSound 1924. P
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Appendix II The Motion Picture P
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VIII. Religion 1. No film or episod
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B. By reason of the mobility of fil
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Reasons Underlying the Particular A
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VIII. Religion The reason why minis
Page 491 and 492:
146, 152, 186, 192, 229, 250, 298,
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high-contrast, 11, 46, 172 Highway
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350, 352, 353, 354, 356, 357, 359,
Page 497:
Walsh, Raoul, 56, 57, 66, 73, 223,
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