LOS ANGELES: Dark City and Film Noir
Imagining the City in the American “Dream Factory.”
Films to be considered and discussed…
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Bladerunner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Readings…
2010 > Flashback (Chapters 12, 13)
2014 / 2024 > Cities and Cinema (Chapter 2: The dark city and film noir: Los Angeles)
Each week in preparation for the next film city we explore, I will ask you to submit and complete as a reading assignment. The questions are designed to test for your ability to offer analysis and demonstrate comprehension of the main ideas communicated. Over the semester, you will be asked to submit SEVEN assignments out of NINE.
You can choose which of the assignments you prefer to submit, but it is important that you make the choice and submit a total of SEVEN assignments over the duration of the course. Please refer to the “Assignment Response Instructions and Rubric” doc in Moodle under “Course Documents”for more help with putting these responses together. Write your response directly into this document and/or make sure to include all questions in your submission that must be uploaded as a WORD or PDF file.
DEADLINE: September 18th in class @ 1pm with PRINTED HARD COPY I will review and return same class and then you will have 48 hours to submit final version on Moodle.
**note** all page numbers noted are aligned with the digital pages on the eBook version.
What are the defining characteristics of "film noir" aesthetics as described in the opening to this chapter (p. 39) and characteristics of “film noir” themes and stories (p. 42)?
Professor of Film and German Studies at the University of Florida, Barbara Mennel opens her discussion of Los Angeles and film noir by providing a definition of film noir. Mennel explains how the concept of film noir (a term coined by French film critics in the 1950s) shared many characteristics, defining aesthetics, and themes with the German Expressionist ‘Weimar’ city films of the 1920s (39). Shooting on black & white film was one shared formal characteristic, while other shared characteristics Mennel mentioned included: using low-key and chiaroscuro lighting (39); as well as extreme, skewered, and wide camera angles (39), with sweeping camera movements and aerial shots of the city skyline (43). Mennel also describes how “noir films usually show the city at night and in the rain” (39), and she explains how film noirs usually feature the film’s protagonist telling the film’s story through a voice-over narration and the use of flashbacks (39).
These formal choices add layers to the content of the stories that film noir is exploring. To this end, Mennel noted how: the lighting choices affect a film’s mood, specifically, “…a dark mood with extreme and proliferating shadows (39); the skewered camera angles “…evoke a sense of urban alienation” (39), and underscores the significance of space, where cities are seen“…as both alluring and dangerous” (43); and the choices about how a city is portrayed reveals “…a city devoid of emotion” (43). These formal portrayals of blasé, emotionless cities help to mirror the genre’s use of lonely individuals and the alienation they feel inhabiting their empty urban spaces (39). Furthermore, by formally showing the city at night and in the rain, noir films reveal the morally corrupt, seedy, transitional, and underground world its characters inhabit. Another key aspect of a film noir story lies in how these lonely characters come from incomplete and often broken families, which results in the characters betraying one another as the stories progress. Mennel describes this further as standing for a “…crisis of masculinity (that) coincides wit the presence of the femme fatale, a sexualized, duplicitous, dominant female character” (39).
These ideas tie into the context that film noirs explored, as Mennell notes how: “Film noir associates the city with alienation, isolation, danger, moral decay, and a suppressed but forceful sexuality” (43). Mennel relates this to ideas discussed by sociologist Georg Simmel, where links exist between “…the city, alienation, and emotional detachment” which Simmel considered “…unconditionally reserved to the metropolis.”
Identify how some of these characteristics show up more specifically in an American film noir classic film, referring directly to what you see in these two film clips from The Big Sleep (1946):
Clip 1: “Very Small Favor” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqoxk3SrZRw&t=106s
Formally, director Howard Hawks’s 1946 film noir The Big Sleep, as showcased in this clip, is shot on black & white film. Hollywood had been regularly releasing films in colour for approximately a decade prior to the production of The Big Sleep, with iconic films such as 20th Century Fox’s 1943 film Heaven Can Wait; Disney’s 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as well as 1940’s Fantasia and 1942’s Bambi; as well as Warner Brothers’s 1939 film Gone With the Wind; but black & white was still easier to produce in terms of cost, and fit the film noir genre in terms of tone and visual style.
Specifically, this scene pushes back at the convention of primarily showing us the city at night. It is daytime, in the late afternoon, and the LA street our incorruptible detective protagonist Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) crosses is bustling with people and cars. In terms of the overall film, the story is just getting going and our protagonist is still somewhat grounded in an ordinary world of the everyday. Nevertheless, Marlowe moves through the streets as a solitary individual on a mission, and he does not interact with anyone. He has just come from bookseller Arthur Geiger’s (Theodore von Eltz) store. Marlowe had been hoping to meet with Geiger but the stern and firm gatekeeper who works at the shop, Agnes Lowzier (Sonia Darrin) informs Marlowe that Geiger is not available. She comes across as very stern, and even feels duplicitous in her interaction with Marlowe, making her a candidate for another femme fatale in The Big Sleep. It is not yet completely clear as to what motives Geiger has, other than the plot point of General Sternwood’s (Charles Waldron) promiscuous and drug addicted daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) owing him money. As such, it seems plausible that if Geiger is a shady character, he would not be someone Marlowe would meet during the day, as a trope of the noir cycle holds these characters for being interacted with at night.
Marlowe has crossed the street to enter another bookshop, Acme Bookstore, where he meets another female, its unnamed proprietor (Dorothy Malone) who at first plays coy with Marlowe, evading his questions in an almost femme fatale manner. But she is merely wearing the mask of the femme fatale, and intrigued by Marlowe’s questions, becomes an ally. She is a strong character, knowledgeable, and able to provide Marlowe with detailed information about Geiger’s appearance. She even closes her shop to let Marlowe stakeout Geiger’s shop, safe and dry from the heavy rain that is now falling outside. The trope of the femme fatale being strong in her sexuality arises, as also shows interest in Marlowe sexually, letting down her hair and taking off her glasses. In many ways, one gets the feeling that she could be an equal of Marlowe’s, just as capable of solving his case as he is: two solitary figures brought together briefly to help propel the story forward.
Clip 2: “Encounter” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jof9NwrhKSI&t=80s
“Encounter” serves as The Big Sleep’s climatic sequence, in which protagonist Philip Marlowe encounters and confronts Eddie Mars (John Ridgely) about blackmailing Vivian Sternwood (Lauren Bacall). The music that opens the scene is loud, and bombastic with drums rolling like a wave in a prelude of what is to come. Marlowe’s slightly lit face disappears as his body slowly recedes behind a curtain that divides the room, to help hide himself in the shadows from Mars, a position where he can also see Mars’s actions. Mars cuts through the room, as shadows fall onto and off his face until he turns on a desk lamp. Mars is about to cut the telephone line when Marlowe confronts him, his revolver firmly in hand. Marlowe pats down Mars and commands him to sit down. Their interaction is tense, and Marlowe’s questioning of Mars highlights how various “…characters have betray(ed) and double-cross(ed) one another” (39).
Header Photo > Hawks, Howard. Film Still from The Big Sleep. 1946.