During the era of film noir, which encompasses the time period of the early 1940s to the late 1950s, featured numerous films that emphasized cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. However, Jules Dassin’s 1948 film, The Naked City, stood out amongst its competition. The film’s style ignores the usual expressiveness of noir characters, and replaces them with professional, dialed-in detectives. In comparison, another film noir movie, The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Hutson and released in 1941, casted a stereotypical noir protagonist Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), in the sense that Spade is a tarnished hero who is not bound by the normal rules of morality. The Naked City was a truly unique in which it was able to focus on the theme of fakeness …show more content…
The film opens with an extreme long shot camera angle, which depicts a vast area from a great distance of New York City. Interestingly, the movie was not filmed in any studio lots or soundstage. In fact, hidden cameras were used to film much of the street action. These cameras were used to capture the essence of the city itself. Many of hidden cameras shot from a long distance, therefore capturing an entire area of action. The narrator of the film, Mark Hellinger, who was also the producer, poses several philosophical thoughts about the city while the lights are turning off at the respected area; “Does money ever sleep, I wonder [referring to the main floor of a large bank at night deserted]? Does a machine become tired [referring to night lights being casted over silent machines]? Or a song [empty street lit by only a few lights]? Does stone ever feel weariness [panning up to see a flat, monumental surface rising to the sky]?” Later in the film, Mark Hellinger states “and even this [referring to the two men walking to the edge of the pier], too, can be called routine in a city of eight million people.” I believe this was extremely important for Hellinger to highlight, to show that anyone can be doing anything, and that, in essence, creates
The Maltese Falcon is a classic mystery film that came out in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor directed by John Huston. The movie is based on the novel which came out in 1929. This film is a classic because of its excellent writing and videography for its time. The movie begins with a pan across San Francisco's City skyline getting shots of iconic buildings and structures. Then the camera fades to Spade and Archer's office.
Film noir, by translation alone, means dark film, and by that measurement Sunset Boulevard certainly fits the genre. A gloomy story that follows a jaded and sarcastic protagonist, Joe Gillis from his initial dire circumstances to his untimely death, Sunset Blvd. earns the description “dark” several times over. But there is more to film noir than crushingly depressing plotlines. There are common motifs and icons that are found in most film noirs, such as crime, dark alleys, guns and alcohol. Deeper than this, film noir features certain visual elements, character archetypes, and themes that create a unique style of film. Although some have argued that Sunset Blvd. fails to represent some of these elements, it has become known as one of the
Two of the first film noir pieces, The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane, share many structural and stylistic similarities. Their biggest similarities are use of the plant and payoff technique, and sending characters on meaningless quests. The Maltese Falcon opens with a description of a golden falcon statue, given as a gift from the people of Malta for their independence, lost en route. After these opening statements, the film jumps to a detective, Sam Spade, tasked with finding someone by Brigid O’Shaunessy, ignoring the falcon completely.
The Maltese Falcon: A Personal Review As a millennial who grew up with an affinity for Star Wars and other blockbuster movies suffused with special effects, I have a particular proclivity to disregard black and white films as sluggish and unexciting. To say that The Maltese Falcon exceeded my expectations would be an understatement. Seven and a half decades later since its release in 1941, the movie simply refuses to show its age. Alongside producers Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, director and screenwriter John Huston delivers a compelling plot while employing Hitchcock-esque layers of suspense, despite being (refreshingly) devoid of special effects and computer generated images.
In the 2003 Mayoral election, news spread regarding an electronic bugging device in candidate John Street’s office, twenty-seven days before the election. At first people thought John Street would lose the election because an FBI bugging device was found in his office. People wonder if Street was under investigation with the FBI. However, the documentary, “Shame of a City”, shows John Street and his Democratic cohorts manipulate or spin the news to Street’s advantage and as a result, winning last the closest Republican versus Democratic election.
Film Noir Film noir is not a genre, but can be described as a style or mood for films made in the early 1940’s during the Great Depression time period, in which Hollywood went noir. Just the word Noir itself means “darkness or black” in French. This meant all the films showed dark aspects of modernity, murderers, political corruption, and organized crime reflected on the disappointment of the times. Film noir is characterized by elements such as Dark and shadowy lighting, flashbacks and voice over, and cynical men and women. All films have similarities and differences in which they accomplish falling into the Noir genre, for example “Raw Deal” and “Out of the Past”, two very different films but fall into the same category.
By all accounts, this movie reflects and highlights this interplay that exists between film and American Culture. As the world was riddled with battles and darkness, the movies of this time period reflected this sinister reality. Death was a major reality during this time period in America and it was no less a reality in The Maltese Falcon. The audience watches as the main character, Sam Spade, becomes involved in a grand scheme surrounding a priceless statue. Same Spade and his partner Miles Archer, both private investigators, meet a seductive and secretive woman named Ruth Wonderly who claims she is looking for her missing sister who is mixed up with a man named Floyd Thursby. As the movie continues, Spade receives news that Archer was murdered and is later accosted by a man who demands that he locate an irreplaceable statue (the Maltese Falcon). The story unfolds as Spade finds himself entangled in a dark and dangerous web of crime in which his only option is to find the Maltese Falcon, which is one thing they all seem to want. A dark and realistic outlook and mise-en-scene is not the only thing that linked this movie to the respective time period however. Also reflective of the time period is film noir’s dark, sexual, and seductive portrayal of
This beginning shot composition relays to the audience the peaceful and happy Manhattan setting, giving them a false sense of ease for what’s about to come. More so, the camera movement plays an important role in the beginning shot as well. As the shot plays out, the camera slowly pans around to all of the people living within the apartment complex. This gives a personality to each individual as the camera shows how each person starts their day. This was intentionally done, not only to show the audience the peacefulness of the community, but to also show the harmless and spirited behavior of the neighborhood as well.
Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.
Film Noir, a term coined by the French to describe a style of film characterized by dark themes, storylines, and visuals, has been influencing cinematic industries since the 1940’s. With roots in German expressionistic films and Italian postwar documentaries, film noir has made its way into American film as well, particularly identified in mob and crime pictures. However, such settings are not exclusive to American film noir. One noteworthy example is Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard, which follows the foreboding tale of Joe Gillis, the desperate-for-success protagonist, who finds himself in the fatal grips of the disillusioned femme fatale Norma Desmond. Not only does the storyline’s heavy subject matter and typical character
As for New York City, in the novel it is defined as the perfect place to live life to the fullest and not have a care of the world. As a reader, it is expected to envision this city full of lights as a bright, restless, and colorful place. Nick Carraway depicts New York City as a “...city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of
I would say that New York City was depicted almost realistically, however I would like to boldly underline the word: almost. It is true that in late sixties New York City were very busy city, with a lot of people, and a lot of traffic, and today that is true as well just the people and the traffic are even times more than almost fifty years ago. What is missing from the movie is the other side of the New York City, the positive and good if you will side. The emphasis was on the bad that could happen in such large city, and that is very much true regardless if you are in New York City, Moscow, Paris, London, Prague, Madrid, Rome, Mexico City, Sofia or any other large city around the word. There are homeless people in every one of them, and certainly no one call police or emergency service for them, except if their presence interferes with someone or some municipal regulation, regardless which city you can choose, I can state that with certainty, I had the luck to travel and even live in all of the above-mentioned cities throughout my live.
New York City that is depicted in Taxi Driver seems to be too real to be true. It is a place where violence runs rampant, drugs are cheap, and sex is easy. This world may be all too familiar to many that live in major metropolitan areas. But, in the film there is something interesting, and vibrant about the streets that Travis Bickle drives alone, despite the amount of danger and turmoil that overshadows everything in the nights of the city. In the film “Taxi Driver” director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader find and express a trial that many people face, the search for belonging and acceptance.
The film is about a group of 5 people fighting to find and keep the
Film Noir as a genre is set in a specific period of time. It is also a genre that is considered to be related to a specific society - that of America from 1940-1958. Film Noir as a genre is a term that French critic Nino Frank coined to describe the new “film movement” emerging from Hollywood in the 1940’s, which appeared to be black and white, crime and detective films. But these two prominent characteristics do not form the genre alone. Stylistic film features such as mood, style and tone are very eminent in Film Noir however it was not always considered as a film genre, but this is what makes the film genre so distinctive. Film Noir was a “new movement” or cycle of films as it consisted of expressionistic lighting techniques such as low