Film Noir and more Film Noir Essay

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Duong Nguyen
Film and Fiction Study
Essay 1
After making several researches about noir film, I know that noir film is a cinematic term from French translated literally as black film. It is called black because it refers to films about the crimes in the underground world of Hollywood, especially emphasizing actions that ambiguity between the ethical standards such as good and bad, criminal or justice; and sexual motivation (1). For example, in The Maltese Falcon, at first I thought Sam Spade was a bad character because he had love affair with his deceased partner’s wife, Mrs. Archer and furthermore, he didn’t want to tell Miss. Archer directly about the death of her husband, deleted Archer’s name on the windows of office without feeling after that he wouldn’t want to talk with her anymore then fell in love with Brigid O’Shaughnessy. At the end, I figure out that Sam Spade did those things to reveal the Archer’s killer and the story behind the Falcon that makes him a good guy. The same happened with me while I was watching Double Indemnity, the purpose of Walter Neff and his lover Mrs. Dietrichson were good because they wanted to help Mrs. Dietrichson escape from unhappy married life but the action of killing Mr. Dietrichson to get insurance money had heavy negative side. In addition, first I see Mrs. Dietrichson as a pity woman living in darkness of a family life where her husband didn’t care about her and Walter was like an angle sent to help her. However, the end Mrs. Dietrichson was a culprit that killed Mr. Dietrichson’s former wife so she could marry him and get money, now she tend to kill him too with the help of Walter to get insurance money (worth 100 thousand dollars), after all she would borrow Nino Zachetti to kill Walter.
The most successful period of classic Hollywood film noir lasted from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Noir film in this era was black and white which not very romantic but tent to be complex, required people to think while watching the movie. The plot of story generally referred to the type of crime arising in recession America's first half century ago with a system of typical characters like detectives, perpetrators, assistants, wealthy clients…etc.
In term of the topic of noir film, like it was said, it often focuses on thrilling, sensational and intriguing stories. However, because of limited budget, noir film doesn’t have special effect or perfect screen construction; otherwise it tends to focus on the exploitation of the plot, the clever and humor of dialogue to create attractions of the film. Noir film’s script is very complex with many details and knots which only will be solve at the end. The film has a lot of dialogue, characters often shown his wisdom through what they saying. The setting of film noir is cared much, the majority of the action on film are taken in low light condition to cover up the poor designed background. However, thank for that low light condition, it creates the light dim, a very special
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