Lets talk about Film Noir

No one understands Film Noir, no one but Steph and I apparently.

Film Noir is not about shadows. It is not about crime. It is not about violence. It is not about bad women. Its not about camera angles. It is not about lighting. It is not about water. (as one person I know thinks it is)

Film Noir is about desperation.

These films were made starting around 1940 and ending in the late 50s. 2 very significant things happened around 1940. World War II began and the Great Depression ended. Most of the world was up and busy. The economy recovered, people had jobs again and things to do. The world was at war. War is an exciting time. I don't mean that its fun, just that it is exciting. People are really worked up. Most of popular entertainment reflected these things.

However, there was a smaller group that felt isolated from these events. Artists who did not really join the rest of the world in coming out of the depression. Some who did not share in exuberance that was being displayed in many parts of the world. They shared a view of the world that was negative and hopeless.

The mood at the core of the film noir movement was born out of this feeling. These movies are about desperate people. They are dark and brooding people. They are bored and without hope. They are miserable in their lives. They no longer see any difference between moral rights and wrongs because they don't think that anything matters anyway. This is why they commit crimes. Because what would be the difference? And at least the crime might shake up their lives in some way that being right would not. Most of their actions are dictated by boredom in some way.

The Maltese Falcon: Bogart is a private investigator. His partner gets killed, and he is almost totally without concern. Why? Not because he hated the guy, but because he simply doesn't care about anything. He gets involved in the case, because that is what he does. He believes he is in love. Because at this point, even a mild attraction would feel like love. In the end he is stuck with a bunch of squabbling thieves. He turns them over to the police, not because he is particularly honest, but because it simply isn't worth trying to get involved in.

Double Indemnity: Fred MacMurray is an insurance claims investigator. He has been doing it for a long time. He is great at it. He is bored and tired and is searching for anything that would make his life more interesting. Not searching particularly hard of course, because that would take desire and effort. Then something falls into his lap. A woman. Together, they cook up a scheme to defraud the insurance company. It eventually goes wrong, she dies, and he confesses before he dies too. He throws away his life because his life is miserable.

None of this has anything to do with lighting or camera angles or crime specifically. But these things are great devices to convey this mood. And it is not enough to just say it is a desperate and hopeless attitude. It is an attitude specific to the during and post war era in the U.S and Europe. The people who made these movies did not set out to make these kinds of movies. They just made movies. They just told stories that represented how they felt. It was only later that these movies were studied and grouped together.

I see all the time how people talk about new Noir Movies just because they are about crime or are dark or mysterious.

The Usual Suspects is not a Noir. Pulp Fiction is not a Noir. Sundance darling Brick, is not a Noir.

There are no new Noirs. But if there were, Fight Club would be closer to one. Because it deals much more with desparity of mankind. Not because its about crime and has some dark shadows in it.

I just wish people would know what they were talking about before they talked.

-T