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

writer, director, producer, and artist. In analysing the filmography of these three directors
(all three with a background in theatre), I try to isolate their singularity and in so doing
analyse their unique contributions to the noir cycle.
Thus, I study Wilder’s four pictures in the noir style over seven years, from 1944
with his Double Indemnity to 1951 with Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival). I will
show how much these films are imbued with a distinctive and recognisable style. Being a
tough and independent writer, his courage (others may call it cynicism) was evident in
fearless films, such as The Lost Weekend (1945) which deals with a social problem
frontally. His individual insights and approaches make him the most idiosyncratic Eurofilmmaker,
well-known to Hollywood front offices for provoking audiences’ sensibilities.
As well as his celebrated and influential oeuvre as a director, he is one of the best
screenwriters of all time.
In regard to Orson Welles, because his oeuvre is already much discussed and for
reasons of space, I confine myself to three of his major productions: Citizen Kane (1941),
The Lady from Shanghai (1948), which serves my investigation in terms of the censorship
and cine-semiotic issues it raises, and Touch of Evil, 8 which, as I have pointed out, brings
the classic noir period to a close. I will highlight Welles’s radical work on Citizen Kane,
for example, in its stunning use of deep focus, low angles, high contrast and dark shadows,
and the ideal collaboration he achieved with cinematographer Gregg Toland. Such was
Orson Welles’s respect for the huge contribution Toland made to the film that he insisted
their names run on the same title card in the film’s closing credits. On the whole, it is
through his sometimes complex mystery stories, involving a puzzle-within-a-puzzle, his
degree of inspired improvisation, persistently exploring new possibilities during the course
of a shoot, that Welles’s fundamental work helped to redefine film language.
Finally, I move on to analyse Otto Preminger as an auteur, concentrating on the
way he was able, like Wilder, to tackle the controversial subject without hypocrisy. I will
first centre on his initial success in Hollywood with classic noir, Laura (1944), and then
look at his other major films: Fallen Angel (1946), Whirlpool (1950) and Where the
Sidewalk Ends (1950), on all of which he also worked as producer. Preminger left behind a
very mixed collection of films (ranging from a series of hard-boiled thrillers, screwball
comedies, tragedy / dramas) but it is his background in the theatre that was unquestionably
8
These two films are also relevant for this work as they were both shortened and recut against the director’s
wishes.
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