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

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point, Jeff enters a room, Sterling extends a pack and says: “Cigarette?” to which Jeff, holding up his hand, replies, “Smoking”. Finally, the American city, as I mentioned previously, is the ultimate symbol of film noir as it comprises all of the above iconographic elements - the paraphernalia of nighttime. Of these, the extravagant night bars, the jazz clubs, are just as essential for noir iconography and they are going to be analysed next. 204
1.7 Sounds of the City: Jazz Soundtracks Associated with the Weimar culture which pioneered the connections between Expressionism and jazz, this type of music was predominant in film noir due to its improvisational features and the fact that since the early twenties it has been linked with the crime and dissipation found in most gangster-owned clubs of that time. 59 This combination of jazz with an expressionistic décor can indeed be traced in the early Hollywood musicals almost from their very beginning (Broadway, 1929; King of Jazz, 1930), especially at Universal where this “Germanic” influence was most distinct. A strongly rhythmic music of black American origin that emphasises interpretation rather than composition, jazz is often connected with the notion of improvisation with, as Robert Porfirio states, “affective qualities quite compatible with the expressionistic quest for deeper meanings that focussed upon heigthened states and the unconscious in order to probe the secrets of the soul” (in Butler 2002:67). One of the most striking qualities of early jazz was its vocalised tone. Musicians sought to make each instrument sing like a human voice, though it especially favoured syncopation, displacement of the regular meter by stressing a normally weak beat. With its origins in the black American demimonde, jazz is often connected with speakeasies, and by association, with sex, violence and death. Hollywood soon took advantage of these associations, emphasising the strident and aggressive aspects of the music over its warmer and sentimental side and this prominence contributed to those popular jazz scores of the mid-forties and fifties that gave aural significance to contemporary urban issues. The tribulations of the jazz man’s life were gradually transposed to film noir as both forms were preoccupied with telling tales of anxiety and disorientation or breakdown, which flourished in America during the thirties and the postwar period. But it was Among the Living, a film released in autumn of 1941, about the same time as The Maltese Falcon, that used the 59 Curiously, the gangster film did not make much use of jazz, and it remained for the next generation, and particularly for the noir cycle, to promote that special relationship between jazz and urban violence. 205
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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
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Home (1937) - were two living proof
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which collapses the distinction bet
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Figure 10. Deadline at Dawn Alex’
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1.1.6 William Riley Burnett Another
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Figure 11. High Sierra The Asphalt
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1.1.7 Conclusions What made the det
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fiction managed to provide for a de
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escalation in illegal drinking plac
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Ben Hecht story and despite being p
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Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?”
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The third originating gangster movi
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part of the recurrent patterns of v
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protagonist of Edgar Ulmer’s Deto
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exemplify in Part III (“Space and
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1.3 The Gothic Romance 87 And trave
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titlecard when the film opens alert
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In Rebecca the beautiful, desirable
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forties. Thematically, the represen
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To complicate this matter further,
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trampled under by war and revolutio
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he says, when Expressionism ended,
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These early Expressionist films, wi
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student, Balduin (Paul Wegener hims
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(Tragedy of the Street, 1927, aka W
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plots with calculating precision. G
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perverted and neurotic sex murderer
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1.5 French Poetic Realism Poetic Re
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(Michèle Morgan), whose godfather
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strikingly atmospheric view of the
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Jean Paulhan, editor of La Nouvelle
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Julien Duvivier’s Pépé Le Moko
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the combination of lighting effects
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peculiar expressionistic lighting a
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Figure 28. Son of Frankenstein This
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Figure 29. Murders in the Rue Morgu
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alienation mixed with nuanced perfo
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2 Social and Political Influences o
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Liberal reforms soon became a spuri
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Polonsky, Jules Dassin, and Edward
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which are themselves historical eve
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Production Code Administration. Thi
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In this particular case, one can se
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Neff: Will you be here too? Phyllis
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against any possible theft of groce
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2.3 Postwar Readjustment If the moo
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In this group of films, the bleak a
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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
Page 175 and 176: to persist and overcome difficultie
Page 177 and 178: III. Noir Thematics 1 Essential Ele
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Page 181 and 182: Wyatt), cooks breakfast, domestic r
Page 183 and 184: structures of constituted authority
Page 185 and 186: 1.2 Space and the Noir City Film no
Page 187 and 188: other people and developing a calcu
Page 189 and 190: I am the city. Hub and heart of Ame
Page 191 and 192: 1.3 Trouble With Girls: The Femme F
Page 193 and 194: intelligent and powerful, if destru
Page 195 and 196: significant discussion of film noir
Page 197 and 198: Nevertheless, the message is quite
Page 199 and 200: Another example of the evolution of
Page 201 and 202: deceiving women. Like many of their
Page 203 and 204: Either as a femme fatale or an homm
Page 205 and 206: 1.5 Dazed and Confused: The Voiceov
Page 207 and 208: an impersonal “you” giving the
Page 209 and 210: of war veterans who, unfolding thei
Page 211 and 212: 1.6 Noir Atmospherics: Cinematograp
Page 213 and 214: John Alton’s highly stylised phot
Page 215 and 216: Figure 41. Stranger on the Third Fl
Page 217 and 218: indoctrination in the movie in the
Page 219: in the popular imagination. While t
Page 223 and 224: music, combines with images of patr
Page 225 and 226: Figure 45. Out of the Past Non-dieg
Page 227 and 228: ealm of near-explicit sexual metaph
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Page 231 and 232: City, Paramount’s Union Station a
Page 233 and 234: In my analysis of The Big Combo in
Page 235 and 236: Consequently, in the fifties, we st
Page 237 and 238: 2 Noir and the Film Auteur 2.1 Aute
Page 239 and 240: noticeably the case, for example, w
Page 241 and 242: point out the fact that it is only
Page 243 and 244: elationship to the way a director t
Page 245 and 246: 2.1.1 Billy Wilder Billy Wilder pla
Page 247 and 248: performance is full of understated
Page 249 and 250: Figure 54. Sunset Boulevard Wilder
Page 251 and 252: Figure 55. Ace in the Hole All of B
Page 253 and 254: 2.1.2 Orson Welles He may have only
Page 255 and 256: For example, in the scene above (fi
Page 257 and 258: As Leo Braudy in The World in a Fra
Page 259 and 260: slanting compositions, and brillian
Page 261 and 262: 2.1.3 Otto Preminger Austrian film
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Page 265 and 266: Figure 61. Where the Sidewalk Ends
Page 267 and 268: project my viewpoint on the audienc
Page 269 and 270: 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
Page 433 and 434:
____________ (1992b). Farewell, My
Page 435 and 436:
E Easthope, Antony (1993). Contempo
Page 437 and 438:
Greenberg, Joel & Higham, Charles (
Page 439 and 440:
James, David E. (2005). The Most Ty
Page 441 and 442:
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
Page 467 and 468:
Mildred Pierce WB 1945. Prod: Jerry
Page 469 and 470:
One Way Street Univ 1950. Prod: Leo
Page 471 and 472:
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
Page 495 and 496:
350, 352, 353, 354, 356, 357, 359,
Page 497:
Walsh, Raoul, 56, 57, 66, 73, 223,
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