Genre Speak: Neo Noir

ST.CLAIR FILM STUDIES

Genre Speak: Neo Noir

10/21/2020

6 Comments

What 3 elements do you feel are the most important to Film Noir?   List your 3 elements and justify your choices. Then read your classmates’ lists and provide at least 2 of them with your meaningful thoughts to their posts.

Remember, you want to do more than list the elements.  As this is a discussion, you should justify your choices. This means you'll offer reasons, evaluations, and examples to support your choices. There are no right or wrong answers, but you do want be convincing. Adding a visual to support your argument is also quite effective.

So, if you are intrigued with lighting techniques, you could explain how the lighting style is effective, and show an example with a screenshot. It makes the post much more interesting to read as well.  I'm looking forward to reading your posts!

6 Comments

Angus

10/22/2020 12:40:55 am

Heroes
This may be more of a personal preference, but I feel that films that contain a strong main character make a film much more engaging. From the small sample of Noir films I have seen, majority have contained a Police Detective as the protagonist. I found the ones that had a more complex character, with a shaded past that affects them within the movie, are much more interesting to watch as an audience. Especially as the past/the protagonist's story is revealed throuhgout the film, his actions begin to make more sense to the audience, and they can understand the character's thought process through out the film.

Francesca Ventura

10/22/2020 01:03:19 am

One of the three elements that are a necessity in Film Noir films are suspense and mystery, hero protagonists, and low lighting. These elements create crime dramas, famously known as "film noir".
Most film noir films are crime drama films in relation to sexual motivations and cynical attitudes. Physical attributes were low key and in a black and white visual style.

angus

10/22/2020 01:07:49 am

Compelling Story Lines
Many Neo Noir films that have seen success have many things in common, one being a compelling storyline. Storylines can be seen as the basis of the film, and an important element no matter the genre. Some Neo Noir films that I found enjoying were John Wick and The Equaliser. Not only because of the Action of the films, but I felt that the 'Revenge' storyline was very interesting to follow. For example, in John Wick, as you start to learn about John's past, and who he is as a person, you start to want to see him succeed in his goal. Even though you could argue that ethically John may be in the wrong, you still want to see him succeed, which I beleive is a result of the story arc.
Other Neo Noir films such as 'Seven' also contain compelling storylines, in the way of mystery.

Angus

10/22/2020 01:16:36 am

View/Depiction of Society
As if with any movie, I think that is always interesting to see how a film portrays society. The film can choose to either portray society as either heaven or hell in my own eyes. If they choose heaven, then they are trying to show the good and beauty within society, by placing it a positive light. If they choose hell, they try to show the flaws of society, and the evil things that people can do to one another, placing it in a negative light.
To me it is always interesting to see how a film portrays society, and the reasoning that the directors and writers give for chooseing to do so.

Cailin

10/22/2020 01:18:08 am

Genres are an important element within Film noir. Film noir contains a mystery that involves a detective story. The most common mystery sub genre is ‘Cosy’ which often includes murders taken place in a polite society. A writer who embeds this sub genre is Agatha Christie who wrote a story of a detective (women or man) who set a mission to discover the murderer in order to bring the world back to normal. In the end the murderer is revealed and peace return. This form of Film Noir is not the stereotypical storyline.

Protagonists within Film noir are usually represented as an anti-hero. Film Noir are mainly crime dramas which detail the events that surround the crime. The protagonists are often detective, mainly male detectives and are represented as social alienated individuals who are surrounded by an eerie mysterious aura. The detectives may have a dark past which emphasises the mysterious atmosphere which increases the tenseness

The 3rd element important within Film Noir is lighting especially because colour wasn’t available and with low budget they had to compromise using stark lighting that included heavy use of shadows. Low key lighting helped create shadows which helped with the suspense and mystery aspect of the films

Francesca Ventura

10/22/2020 01:20:21 am

Hero Protagonists

Film noir elements include a mystery genre film. With that, the protagonists are usually detectives or solving crimes. Many of them are dedicated through a realistic scenario, where an anti-hero is working to solve a mystery. Because of this, the audience is able to understand the protagonists' first point perspective and outlook on the situation, as well as their thought process.

GENRE SPEAK

Genre Speak: Neo Noir

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