The term film noir can be defined as a style of film which was marked by a period of pessimism‚ self doubt and fatalism. The term was applied by French critics in the 1946 to a group of US films that were made during the war and that were released in quick succession after 1945. Ultimately there has been much debate surround the ambiguity of the term‚ but it is now understood that film noir is more of a narrative and stylistic tendency and ultimately “a critical category” rather than a genre in
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Film Noir‚ meaning “black film’ in French‚ was the trending style and genre in American culture between the 1940s and the 1950s. It is a combination of European cynicism and the American landscape. Film Noir has its origins from German Expressionism and French Poetic Realism. Nino Frank‚ who was a French film critic‚ was the first to introduce this black and white genre to Hollywood in 1946. Many of the directors who introduced Film Noir where refugees from Nazi‚ Germany. From that moment in time
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Film noir is generally associated with a ‘dark’ type of film in the era following WWII. Film’s that are categorized in this genre are marked by a style that generally contains certain distinguishing elements – dark rooms with Venetian blinds‚ dark alleys‚ rain-slicked streets‚ dark offices and low key lighting. The plot usually deals with the dark aspects of humanity-greed‚ murder‚ deceit and paranoia. There are also distinguishing characters‚ the main character a detective or an investigator usually
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Media genres are a reflection of society. Film noir is a movie that conveys a mood of pessimism‚ fatalism‚ menace and cynical characters. French critics used it to describe American thriller or detective films in the 1940s. The term literally means ‘Black Film’ and features extremely negative themes. Fedora hats‚ trench coats and nighttime make up some of the distinguishing features of film noir. Film Noir of this era is associated with low-key black and white visual styles that have roots in
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Before World War II‚ the quintessential film contained bright‚ happy‚ and optimistic tones. However‚ when the United States entered the battlefield‚ motion pictures became less optimistic. As Americans discovered the circumstances of the war‚ the filmmakers of the time felt hopeless as well. Ultimately‚ movies became hard boiled‚ unheroic‚ and unromantic. This movement is known as film noir (or black film) because the movies of this era contain a dark mood and tone. It would continue to thrive until
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Existentialism and Film Noir Existentialism and its worldview are believed to have derived from Nietzsche’s provocative and controversial statement “God is dead”. The underlying meaning to Nietzsche’s controversial statement is that empirical natural science has replaced metaphysical explanations of the world. As a result of this‚ according to Nietzsche we no longer have any sense of who and what we are as human beings. He concludes that no foundation exists anymore for the meaning and value of
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Film Noir is most often seen as a man’s world- the hard boiled detective is the ultimate masculine hero‚ and the he fits right into the dirty world around him. However‚ with a shift in perspective‚ we see that just maybe the opposite gender are the ones who are the heroes of the genre. The women are certainly memorable. Through analyzation of the typical hero’s journey and comparison to the stories of the women in film noir‚ we see that they are the true heroes of the genre. This again begs the
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In the books The Big Sleep and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight‚ both authors‚ Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and Simon Armitage (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)‚ create the protagonist of each story into archetypal knights. The protagonist of The Big Sleep is named Phillip Marlowe and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the protagonist is named Sir Gawain. The 3 knightly qualities that we will be focusing on in this essay are self-sacrifice‚ loyalty and courage. These qualities are displayed throughout
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In the novel " The Big Sleep "‚ there’s a character by the name of Philip Marlowe. Philip Marlowe is a private investigator who is hired to work for a wealthy man named General Strenwood‚ in the month of october. General Sternwood wants Marlowe to deal with a blackmail on his wild young daughter Carmen . Carmen is being blackmailed by a book seller named Arthur Geiger she was also previously blackmailed by Joe Brody. Carmen is clearly the femme fatal who killed her brother in law Rusty because he
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otherwise artificial story would sustain. Chandlers statements issued in “The Simple Art of Murder” are quite contradicting to the product that he provides for his readers in his “realistic” detective agendas. While the characters of the story The Big Sleep can be seen as very real individually‚ it is when Chandler brings the characters together for the purposes of the story itself that his plot becomes moderately artificial. The exaggerations presented by Chandler serve as social criticisms and the
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