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Transcript of From Weimar to Film Noir - hbkportal.co.uk€¦ · From Weimar to Film Noir. ... •Psychological...
From Weimar to Film Noir
Common themes of the early Weimar films
• Irrationality – the environment reflects the individual’s interior anxieties
• The uncanny upsets the natural world – ghosts, vampires, etc
• The impact of industrial, capitalist society on human beings – particularly men
• The male individual feels alone and abandoned from the social world
• The doppelganger – ‘this is not the me I recognise’
• Society breaks down and evil is allowed to enter
• Psychological horror
George Grosz John the Sex Murderer. 1918
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Robert Wiene (1920)
Common themes of Classic 40s Film Noir
• Irrationality – the environment reflects the individual’s interior anxieties
• The impact of industrial, capitalist society on human beings – particularly men
• The male individual feels alone and abandoned from the social world
• A loss of self control - ‘this is not the me I recognise’
• Society breaks down and evil is allowed to enter
• Psychological depth – wrestling with conscience
Automat, 1927 by Edward Hopper
The Killers
Robert Siodmak
(1946)
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Robert Wiene (1920)
• Insanity and hysteria
• Authority is useless or corrupted
• Claustrophobic/paranoid atmosphere
• Chaos
• Narrative structure
Shell Shock Cinema – Anton Kaes (2009)
“The Weimar masterworks reveal a wounded nation in post-traumatic shock, reeling from a devastating defeat that it never officially acknowledged, let alone accepted.”
Coffins!
Male traumaNosferatu F.W. Murnau (1922)
The Street Film
• Artificial sets
• Strong use of lighting to create mood
• A generally dark and pessimistic atmosphere
• Depictions of strong emotion
• The central male character lost in events beyond his or her control
• The generally reductive portrayal of women
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
Attraction/repulsion
The Street Karl Grune (1923)
The Last Laugh F. W. Murnau, 1925
• Allegory of the national experience
• Masculinity brought low
Otto Dix Metropolis 1928
The domestic vsthe lure of thestreet
Asphalt Joe May (1929)
Fritz Lang’s M (1931)
The Nazi era
The cult of motherhood
Film Noir: genre or style?
Genre
Defined by narrative conventions:
• Plot structures
• Character archetypes
• Iconography
Style
Defined by cinematic technique
Particularly:
• Cinematography (esp. Lighting)
• Mise-en-scene
• Sound
Film Noir as style
High contrast lighting – not classic Hollywood soft focus
…straight from Weimar cinema
• Un-harmonious mise-en-scene –not harmonious
…straight from Weimar cinema
Irregular framing – not balanced composition
…straight from Weimar cinema
• Artificial sets used to carefully construct composition
• Strong use of lighting to create mood
• A generally dark and pessimistic atmosphere
• Depictions of strong emotion
• A solitary male character is lost in events beyond his control
• Women tend to be portrayed at extremes: femmes fatale or redeemers
“Rosie the Riveter,” by J. Howard Miller
The Production code
• Also known as the Hays Code
Conservative principles of the Hays
Code
Weimar cinematic technique
The wartime effect on the male psyche
Middle European mistrust of authority
Female aspirations
Hard-boiled pulp fiction
The collapse of the American Dream
Fascination with the eroticised female
B-Movie aesthetic
Stranger on the Third FloorBoris Ingster (1940)
• Direct visual influence of expressionism• Paranoia• Anxiety and the influence of the doppelganger• The monstrous outsider
• Flashback narrative structure
• Antihero as protagonist
• Expressionist influence in lighting, camera angles and mise-en-scene
Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
The Maltese Falcon – John Huston (1941)
• Pulp fiction adaptation• Character archetypes• Hard-boiled dialogue• Attraction/repulsion of gender relations• Assertion of male dominance at restoration of
equilibrium• ‘Cynical morality’
Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944)
The opening shot
Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944)
Pandora’s Box G. W. Pabst (1929)
The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles (1946)