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

I then analyse four noir films directed by renowned noir filmmakers: Lang,
Siodmak, Tourneur and Lewis. Again, this selection of films was carefully thought over as
they represent major productions (from 1945 to 1955), covering most of the period of
classic noir in its diverse forms. The main idea at this stage is to recognise how much they
have contributed to the development of film noir, and more importantly, to elaborate on the
objects that appear in these films (and often in others), and interpret them in the light of
Peirce’s concept of “icons”, which resemble, he says, their conceptual object in various
ways.
Scarlet Street (1945), directed by Fritz Lang, is an English language remake of the
1931 film La Chienne by Jean Renoir. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea
and Joan Bennett, and in their roles, the trio explore themes of Freudian desire. I look at
the symbols which are traded throughout the film for something or someone that Chris can
never have. I thus demonstrate that even the paintings that Chris paints as a personal hobby
have symbolic repercussions as a means of escaping his colourless life and loveless
marriage. By deciphering and understanding these visual symbols, 9 I recognise that they
are often as vital as the characters themselves and even determine the course of the plot.
I also want to refer to the mise-en-abyme of the film, stressing the visual experience
of the characters standing, for example, in front of a mirror or between two mirrors. By
doing so, it will be more evident that the treatment of the figure of Chris implies a
subversion of the traditional Hollywood conventions regarding normative conceptions of
masculinity. I will finally endorse critic E. Ann Kaplan’s position about the corrosive
vision of patriarchy and how it is presented in Scarlet Street. This then causes a problem in
the narrative and brings about the destruction of Chris Cross. In sum, I intend to show how
film noir engenders these images of masculinity in crisis.
Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase (1946) is the second film I deal with from a
semiotic point of view. The story takes place in a big old sinister New England Victorian
mansion, where there is a local serial killer on the loose murdering only young women
with “physical afflictions”. Andrew Spicer underlines the arresting capacity of this director
to operate with cameras and obtain striking visual effects in this film:
9 I will also make a reference to other noir films in which symbols like the ones depicted in Scarlet Street
appear (for instance, the paintings in Laura or Night and the City or the clock in The Big Clock.)
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