Film Noir as Genre (Discussion)

From Screenpedia
Revision as of 16:42, 18 December 2007 by Jeremy Butler (talk | contribs) (New page: ==Readings== ===Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton (Group A)=== In "Toward a Definition of Film Noir," Borde and Chaumeton look mostly at aspects of narrative an...)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Readings

Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton (Group A)

In "Toward a Definition of Film Noir," Borde and Chaumeton look mostly at aspects of narrative and theme in their definition of noir.

  1. What do they mean “moral determinism” (as a theme)? And how to they believe noir has “renovated the theme of violence”?
  2. In terms of narrative, how do they characterize the “hero” of noir (as in Lady from Shanghai)? And how do they characterize the femme fatale (that is, what is a femme fatale and how does she fit into noir?)?

Raymond Durgnat (Group B)

"Paint It Black: The Family Tree of the Film Noir" covers eleven aspects of film noir. Some of these (most of them) are related to narrative and others to theme.

  1. Which aspects are narrative and which are theme?
  2. Where do Out of the Past and The Maltese Falcon fit among these aspects? Do they exemplify any of them? (Do not discuss The Grifters because that is what you are individually writing papers about.)

Paul Schrader

In "Notes on Film Noir", Schrader claims that “film noir is not a genre.” In considering his comments, Group C should provide examples from Out of the Past and Group D should do the same for The Maltese Falcon.

  1. Why is it not a genre, in his view? Do you agree or disagree?
  2. What does he mean by the term “stylistics”? And what aspects of noir stylistics does he note? Can you think of examples from Out of the Past and The Maltese Falcon that contain these elements?
  3. Although Schrader is mostly interested in stylistics, he does also discuss the “over-riding noir theme.” What is it? Is it present in Out of the Past and The Maltese Falcon?

Janey Place & Lowell Peterson (Group E)

As is obvious from the title, "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir," Place and Peterson are principally concerned with noir's imagery.

  1. How is noir "antitraditional"? What do they mean by this term? How is antitraditional style found in noir?
  2. What purpose does this visual style serve? In other words, what does it mean?

Bibliography

All from Alain Silver and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader (New York: Limelight, 1996).

  1. Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton, “Toward a Definition of Film Noir,” 17-25.
  2. Raymond Durgnat, “Paint It Black: The Family Tree of the Film Noir,” 37-52.
  3. Paul Schrader, “Notes on Film Noir,” 53-63.
  4. Janey Place & Lowell Peterson, “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir,” 64-75.

External links

  1. Film Noir Illustrations
  2. Film Noir Timeline
  3. Lady from Shanghai frame grabs
  4. The Maltese Falcon frame grabs
  5. Out of the Past frame grabs