From Weimar to Film Noir - hbkportal.co.uk€¦ · From Weimar to Film Noir. ... •Psychological...

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From Weimar to Film Noir

Transcript of From Weimar to Film Noir - hbkportal.co.uk€¦ · From Weimar to Film Noir. ... •Psychological...

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From Weimar to Film Noir

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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

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George Grosz John the Sex Murderer. 1918

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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

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Automat, 1927 by Edward Hopper

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The Killers

Robert Siodmak

(1946)

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The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Robert Wiene (1920)

• Insanity and hysteria

• Authority is useless or corrupted

• Claustrophobic/paranoid atmosphere

• Chaos

• Narrative structure

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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.”

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Coffins!

Male traumaNosferatu F.W. Murnau (1922)

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The Street Film

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• 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

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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Attraction/repulsion

The Street Karl Grune (1923)

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The Last Laugh F. W. Murnau, 1925

• Allegory of the national experience

• Masculinity brought low

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Otto Dix Metropolis 1928

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The domestic vsthe lure of thestreet

Asphalt Joe May (1929)

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Fritz Lang’s M (1931)

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The Nazi era

The cult of motherhood

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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

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Film Noir as style

High contrast lighting – not classic Hollywood soft focus

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…straight from Weimar cinema

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• Un-harmonious mise-en-scene –not harmonious

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…straight from Weimar cinema

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Irregular framing – not balanced composition

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…straight from Weimar cinema

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• 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

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“Rosie the Riveter,” by J. Howard Miller

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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

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Stranger on the Third FloorBoris Ingster (1940)

• Direct visual influence of expressionism• Paranoia• Anxiety and the influence of the doppelganger• The monstrous outsider

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• Flashback narrative structure

• Antihero as protagonist

• Expressionist influence in lighting, camera angles and mise-en-scene

Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)

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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’

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Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944)

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The opening shot

Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder (1944)

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Pandora’s Box G. W. Pabst (1929)

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The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles (1946)