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

IV. Semiotic Analysis of Key Noir Movies
1 From a Semiotic Perspective
It seems a strange thing when one comes to ponder over it,
that a sign should leave its interpreter to supply a part of its
meaning; but the explanation of the phenomenon lies in the
fact that the entire universe – not merely the universe of
existents, but all that wider universe, embracing the universe
of existents as a part (...) is perfused with signs, if it is not
composed exclusively of signs (Peirce 1998:394)
As mentioned in the introduction, the main objective of this part is to discuss the
notion of film “symbol” from a semiotic perspective, as suggestive of certain abstractions,
and understand how icons in the films of the classic noir era are part of a consistent
signifying pattern. I will describe as systematically as possible the symbols portrayed in
given scenes to provide the reader with clear evidence of film noir’s unique methods of
visual signification.
Semiotics has been criticised as an imperialistic discipline but at the same time
commended as being the most wide-ranging of fields. I believe the overarching metadiscipline
of semiotics brings a new and rich conceptualisation to forms of human
expression. Theorist Jonathan Culler acknowledges that “the major problem of semiotics is
its ambitions,” but positively recognises that its “value (…) is linked to its unwillingness to
respect boundaries, (…) to the conviction that everything is a sign” (in Suhor 1984:247).
From the very beginning of time and throughout human evolution, human beings
have always tried to make sense of or to create meaning through the establishment and
interpretation of “signs”. Charles Sanders Peirce was the American philosopher who first
coined the term “semiotics”. Other theoreticians argue though that the term was first
created by the Swiss linguistician Ferdinand de Saussure, when he presented a series of
lectures on structural linguistics at the beginning of the twentieth century. I agree with this
view, based on the fact that semiotics is generally attributed to his theories rather than
Peirce’s and that his theories are still now being used and have had a greater influence
when it comes to film theory. My discussion will therefore concentrate on his theories. I
am obviously not ignoring here what John Locke, back in the seventeenth-century,
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