Film Noir >> The Maltese Falcon

  

          Have been wondering Film Noir for years but never really understand about it. Finally get to learn it by watching John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon.

Film Noir?

            When think about the word “Noir”, it is the French word of “black”. So, what is Film Noir? If direct translate from the word, black film. With the addition of “black” derived from a French word, so Film Noir is about black film from French cinema.

           

            Film Noir is a film movement coined by the French critics in 1946, it can be understand as a type of American films that being invaded by the French cinemas after World War II. Film Noir films are made during the 40s and 50s. This was the time where the Americans question their national identity as they are paranoia and insecure. Back in those time, men fight in the war while women join the workforce to earn the livings for family. As women have expanded their worldview, they become more knowledgeable and realise they are able to become economically independent. This situation has eventually leads men to question about the masculine and national identity. The female makes the males to feel “less than a man”. After the war ended, women back home to take care the family and domestic sphere.

            In 1940s Film Noir, the focus is on the males concern at women’s growing economic and sexual independence which threatens the males. In 1950s, it transforms to reinforce the family values, thus overcoming the femme fatale is intricate to the reassertion to male identity.

Film Noir is all about a world of crime, criminals and investigations. The characters’ central motives are usually greed, lust and ambition, drench in fear. It is filled with violence and darkness. In this case, the characteristics are becoming “3D”. Before Film Noir, the characters are either good or bad. Here, people lie because they don’t trust each other. Film Noir makes the audience to realise there is no people in this world are completely good or bad.

           

            In terms of the visual, you will get to see the shots are taken with high-contrast lighting or also known as low-key lighting, dark with shadows. The scenes are usually lit for night, set in city-bound, comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors, involve locations like cramped corridors and alleyways. Film Noir is also got some influence from Germain Expressionism, where you will always see oblique horizontal and vertical lines in Film Noir films.

            Moving on to the theme, it’s dark, cynical and pessimism. It is all about tales of criminal motives that consist of hard-boiled antihero (flawed protagonist) versus femme fatale and corrupted characters. Blurred morals and intellect are shown, narration with hopeless tones are employed to deliver the despair feeling from something devasted already happened.

           

            The men in Film Noir are always the investigator, on the opposite, women are the object of male’s investigation and then get punished for being ambiguous over the masculinity. In the end, it is her sexuality that is under investigation which threatens the male quest to resolve the mystery. Hence, the closures of Film Noir films frequent determine the containment of the femme fatale. For instance, women will face the death, outcast, mental torture or keep behind the bars to conceal her economic and sexual independence.

Some notable Film Noir films are such as Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder, The Woman in the Window by Fritz Lang and also the one I’ll discuss below, The Maltese Falcon by John Huston.

Synopsis - The Maltese Falcon

            A private detective Samuel Spade investigates on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a seductive liar and their quest for a priceless statue.  

Analysis

            First of all, I get really frustrated by the dialogues. To be honest, the sentences they speak is way too long. If there is no subtitle provided, I would have hard time to understand what they said before they are done with speaking. Secondly, is it common to see everyone in the society is so well-dressed from head to toe? It makes everyone look so high class but the fact is, everyone in that time was just the same like that.  

            There is an interesting character name in the film. Ms. Wonderly, such a beautiful name, right? Also known as Ms. O'Shaughnessy, such a classy name but if break it down, it could be Ms. “Oh So Nasty”? What a surprise, an elegant name with underlying meaning that well describe the character with such characteristic.

            The film also confuse me by having an antihero. I mean when watching a film, don’t you automatically put the focus on the protagonist? Instead, we’re following his point of view to solve the investigation. Normally we labeled protagonist is good. But here, Spade is a bad guy. He asks his secretary to tell lies. Besides, Ms. Wonderly becomes a subject for him to follow. She tells lies too. However, Spade is still a smart guy who doesn’t fully put her trust on Ms. Wonderly, although he is sort of sexually attracted by her, which is a man’s nature, I guess? Overall the antihero experience is quite new to me.

            The intelligent use of shadows by having light enter the lcoations through windows and curtains create a criminalistic world the society live in. The people’s talking in locations like doorways, living room, table are always crowded with many people. It makes people to feel suffocating and mysterious of what’s going on.

            Because people are having trust issue towards each other, so it’s not about doing the right thing, but follow your intention. The film shows the world is unstable and malicious, people everywhere have intention. For every good, there is evil. And in lies, there are endless lies.

Conclusion

            I like the backstory of Film Noir, but I don’t like how it shuts down the women power. The rise of femme fatale is possibly contribute to the feminism we have in current world, the gender equality we share today is probably a result passed from the previous century. Without Film Noir, people won’t realize women is as capable as men. However, it’s normal to feel the fear, tension and competition between genders just like what presented in Film Noir as people tend to worry about getting replaced by another.

The psychological play is strong. I think it’s the most interesting point to study Film Noir.  

References

1 – The Maltese Falcon’s IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/)

2- Film Studies lecture notes

French Impressionism >> In The Mood For Love

This week film review is one of my most anticipated film to be screened in class! It is Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood for Love! Will discuss this film together with one of the film movement called French Impressionism.

French Impressionism?

            This film movement was popular in 1919 to 1928. It explores the psychological causes going through by the characters. It wants to reveal play of the character’s consciousness. All in all, French Impessionism concerns the mental states, dreams or fantasies.

            In order to depict the mental states via cinematography and editing, it uses irises, superimpositions and masks to indicate the character’s inner thoughts and feelings. The visuals are usually distorted, filtered and vertiginous to enhance the dizziness or durnknenness. Other than that, it employs point-of-view and rhythmic editing to show the character’s experience in a particular situation.

           

The camera movements are smooth which is a result brought by the frame mobility. The cameras are tieed to cars, wheels, bobsleds, cables etc.

           

French Impressionism started to fade due to the lack of interests by mass and rising production costs.

Synopsis – In The Mood for Love

            Set in the 1962 Hong Kong, people rent out the rooms in their apartments to the middle-class couples. Mr Chow and Mrs Chan are tenants and neighbours in the same apartment. They build a strong bond after suspect their spouses have affairs. This next-door neighbours fall in love with each other, but they decided to keep their relationship platonic so they would not commit the mistake which they spouse did.

Analysis

Why  I so look forward to it? It is because Mr. Joe once mentioned the film in a Year 1 class that the director change the script just before the shoot. This challenge is quite a brave one, no?  I don't really know about Wong Kar-wai. I only know he is quite an artistic filmmaker, that’s it.

Before the film screening, Mr Joe told us it is not a typical love story. Who would thought the the married neighbours Mr Chow and Mrs Chan will fall in love with eah other? This is really an exceptional love story, a love blossom out of rejection. Not every love has the same way. In The Mood for Love shows the process of falling in love, not the result, not the outcome. Although Mr Chow and Mrs Chan have affection for each other, but they agreed not to commit the same mistake of what their another half did, because they put themselves in the spouses’ position and imagine how they would face the situation. The characters are married,  Story wise, creative and incredible.

            Another interesting point, the spouses never show their faces in In The Mood for Love. We only get to hear their voices, see their back. In addition, Mr Chow’s wife always finish work late, Mrs Chan’s husband always go for outstation. And since the story is about Mr Chow and Mrs Chan, what’s the point of making them visible? I like the decision of making their spouses stay offscreen, this is bringing filmmaking to another level.

            Cinematography is outstanding too. The smoke above Mr Chow’s head was present in slow-motion, it is to denote his state of mind, he is frustrated. On the other hand, Mrs Chan has struggle too. The montage of she walks up and down in the stairs, go here and there in the hallways, it’s a way of showing thinking go or not to go in the hotel? Even though she stepped in, she still frustate it before meeting Mr Chow in the room. Also, a shot of peeping Mr Chow and Mrs Chan from the peeping window, is describing how the outsiders will define the married has affair.

           

            Out of all scenes, my favourite scenes are at the dark and narrow alleyway, where Mr Chow and Mrs Chan mostly meet outside of their apartment before their feeling grow bigger. Mrs Chow walk through the dark and narrow alleyway to buy noodle, and sometimes Mr Chan has his supper fix there. The scenes are slow paced as to show the time pass is slow, they are not happy with their lives. They live alone, eat alone, buy noodle alone. Time has passed. It’s repetiting. It’s boring. They are long for emotional freedom, which can be understood from the background music. Bascially nothing has change, except the emotions of both.

            Even though Mrs Chan wear beauitful and colourful cheongsam, the attractive look makes the contrast with her restrained emotions.

            The film display people in that time live a good image and not to disappoint others. But in the inside, they confuse. Even if living in a crowded apartment, they still feel the loneliness. It’s how they face their inner struggle by portraying a good image at the outside.

           

Conclusion

            It’s nice to see how the abstract are being put in work. And of course, such a brilliant film by Wong Kar-wai! I won’t mind to watch it for second time, third time …

Reference

1 – In The Mood for Love’s IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/)

2- Film Studies lecture notes