Analysis of a Film Noir Video Case

The femme fatale is the main priority in the frame. This shows the dominance she might have throughout the film. Her hair cover some of her face, this could give her a false innocence, mysterious feel to her. The low cut dress is very typical of a femme fatale and shows her seductive side. Low key lighting on her face suggests she’s powerful, secretive and the main focus. The men in the back ground then represent in descending order their importance in the film; however after watching the film you find out the reason behind the positioning hierarchy is to show that Ed Exley (middle man) is surrounded by corruption. The connotation of the evening sky – the colours red and orange may represent death. They contrast against the white of the Hollywood sign and the dress of the femme fatale, immediately drawing your attention to her.  All of the colours used are very stereotypical of a film noir. Reds and blacks could represent death, deceit, suspicion, seductive, love etc.

Film Review

Film review - Brick

Fear and desire, sex and violence, paranoia and lost innocence, guilt, betrayal, revenge... The mean streets of film noir? Or the school daze of adolescence? With his low-budget debut Brick, director Rian Johnson deconstructs traditional film noir and rebuilds it in a modern landscape. Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, however Brick set in 2006, follows the trail of Brendan (Gordon-Levitt) and his hunt of his missing girlfriend alongside the pupils of a Californian high school. This institution's corridors and sports fields are populated by shady ladies and big-hearted sceptics who are all school-kids with no apparent schoolwork to do. Instead of macs, they wear sweatshirts; instead of trilby hats, we get baseball caps - and instead of luminous black-and-white with dark shadows and low key lighting, it's filmed in the stonewashed colours of indie American cinema.

Early on into the film Brendan discovers the dead body of his ex-girlfriend, he embarks on a two-day investigation which takes him all over town and involves a number of shady and mysterious characters with names such as The Brain, Tugger and The Pin. Despite the neo noir contrasting all of the typical conventions of a 1940’s Noir film these characters all seemed to reflect the ‘stock characters’ of a Noir film representing the stereotypical antihero, villain, femme fatale etc. but allowing a modern day audience to engage and connect on a personal level to each character.  One issue I did have with Brick was that it's all very well to be mysterious and deep, but if there's little for the audience to latch on to then it can come across as rather pretentious and as the story line was very complex and often hard to follow I occasionally found my mind elsewhere and not focused fully on the film.

Functions and Visual Styles

Conventions of Film Noir

Close Ups  and Mid Close Ups are used often in Film Noir. Close Ups are normally to reveal more to the audience about the characters emotion etc. However the face is sometimes covered or shadowed in Film Noir in this case by a hat to build suspense and intrigue the audience.








The use of silhouettes and shadows are well known when it comes to Film Noir. A dark figure often in the smoke from a cigarette or the fog can appear unsettling for an audience making that character mysterious with a hidden identity.

The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods would often provide an iconic visual in film noir due to the use of low key lighting; these were regularly cast upon an actor, a wall or an entire set which had become well known to be done during the film noir era.

The females in film noir are either of two types; dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or Femme Fatales- mysterious, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, manipulative and desperate women. Femme Fatales always appear very glamorous and seductive in the way they dress and their whole ora.

Over the shoulder shots helps to establish the position of each person, and get the feel of looking at one person from the other's point of view. It's common to cut between these shots during a conversation, alternating the view between the different speakers. This also can hide the identity of a character while another develops.

Exterior shots were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet dark alleyways, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses.

Presentation - Body Heat

Here is the Youtube Link for the trailer of BodyHeat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AA_OzWyBqs

I picked out some really important conventions of Fim Noir from this film Body Heat. From the low key lighting and venetian blinds to costumes, hair and make-up, these all really came in useful when it came to designing each charcter for our own film noir. Above is the presentation I made for the rest of my group in order to share the ideas Body Heat created for me and then to help us as a group to blend all of our ideas together.