Film Noir

What is Film Noir

This image is a complete depiction of film noir. It shows a murder that takes place during a dark and rainy night in what appears to be an abandoned street. The killer is a beautiful woman who probably seduced the dead man and killed him when he was least expecting it

    

A French Phrase meaning “black film.” This film genre emerged in the early 1940s and became more prevalent in the U.S. during the post-war era. It was unique in the sense that it differed in subject matter, setting, and characters. These black-and-white films portrayed disillusioned and desperate characters in the world of crime and corruption. These various elements combined with low-key lighting and an urban setting depicted a dark world full of tension, pessimism, and oppression.

History of Film Noir

    

The origin of film noir can be traced to American pulp literature and German expressionism in the years following the Great Depression. American writers started to publish crime stories that depicted the fear and anxiety many were feeling in response to the urban expansion and corruption found in America at this time. In Europe, the best directors were being trained to make movies in the new style of German Expressionism. With the rise of the Nazi party, many of these directors who were studying at a film studio in Berlin, fled the country due to worsening political conditions. In the early 1940s, Hollywood experienced a mixing of the new fiction produced by the American writers of this time with the cinematic style of the German directors. This combination produced what came to be known as film noir. In the end, it was the French who dubbed this unlikely combination film noir. Film noir reached its peak in 1944, with the release of many classic films such as Double Indemnity and Laura.

The Ingredients of Film Noir

    

[Linda Darnell, Percy Kilbride and Dana Andrews in Otto Preminger’s Fallen Angel (1945).] Here, we see the femme fatale inside with a man who has probably fallen for her charm and will later suffer because of it. Outside, in the shadows, lurks either a man who is part of the crime or the detective who is trying to gather information.

In terms of setting, the story takes place at night usually in weather that’s either rainy or foggy. In terms of characters, the protagonist, who is usually a cop or a private detective, appears to be a cynic on the surface, but in reality is a hero who believes in moral idealism. Perhaps the most important character is the femme fatale: the beautiful, yet dangerous woman whose loyalty and honesty is constantly being questioned. The context of these films is one of moral ambiguity. As the investigation continues, social problems such as crime and corruption are discovered in what seems to be an immoral environment. As for content, we see the recurring theme of murder and when it comes to writing style, writers often slip in sarcastic humor. In terms of the hero, at the end, we see that he is often flawed and not in full control of his actions.

End of Noir?

    

Noir never really ended, instead it moved to television. In the 1950s, Hollywood transformed in an attempt to compete with television. In order to attract people to theaters, studios had to show the audience what they couldn’t see at home. This included a widescreen context in which color and extras were a must---everything that was the opposite of noir. Many of the writers, directors, and actors who participated in film noir on the big screen, adjusted to the move by appearing on television.

Hays Code (Motion Picture Production Code)

Crossfire 1947 (Edward Dmytryk) The novel was based on a homophobic murder, but because of the code they switched it to another hot issues: Anti-Semitism.

    One document that had tremendous influence on the way Hollywood movies were constructed was the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, named the “Hays Code.” The Code states that, “Movies are “entertainment” but of a very peculiar kind which produces strange effects never encountered before as part of any entertainment, effects which threaten to compromise the morality of movie viewers so powerfully that moviemakers must censor themselves” (Tratner). The Code begins on just how movies reach audiences. He says that most arts appeal to the mature, but this art appeals at once to every class whether it be mature, immature, developed, law-abiding, or criminal. The combined fundamental appeals of watching a picture as well as listening to a story are bound to reach every class of society, and because of the mobility of a film and ease of distribution the art “reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art” (Tratner). All of this combined makes is very difficult to produces films that are intended for only certain audiences. The theaters are for the masses.
    The Hays Code describes screening in terms of broad distribution of prints and the consequential largeness of the audiences. This is due to the mobility that movies have as an art form, which results in very diverse audiences. This Code disagrees with almost everything the spectator theory says, for instance; the spectator theory says that the “Hollywood movies are constructed by projecting an audience of persons completely identical to each other” or in other words it says that movies are set up so that each person creates a response nonrepresentational from their position in society into an identically inspiring position. Hays code simply says that it takes more the deal with the variations of audiences so we might as well just structure each movie to imply an “identical, white, middle-class male spectator.”
    The Code worries that movies can create this apparent reality of life through the film images, which bring stories closer to the audience then plays ever could. Hays Code suggests that realism functions to produce crowd responses. It states that to arouse the emotional side is to draw people away from their rational or moral sides, and that those elements are predominantly effective at lowering the moral resistance of audiences.

Baby Face, Barbara Stanwyck Drinking was a way of dealing with the depression but Hollywood saw it as a decline of moral values.

Another part of the Hays Code deals with politics. The concern about the crowds a concern about the politics of mass movement, and an effort to protect the United States against political systems based on representing masses rather than representing individuals, mainly Communism and Fascism. Communist and Fascist leaders agreed with the Hays Code, that large audiences can make people suggestible, yet it also presents an effect that encourage morality, not a danger. The ministries of propaganda in Fascist and Communist countries actively promoted films of mass gatherings. Hays Code says that movie watching is not entirely experienced as a single moment in “darkness”, but instead it is experiencing a sense of being part of a large group of people watching the same images all over the country. Communist and Fascist regimes promote the alteration of morality caused by emotionally charged crowds.
    Hays Code does not propose leaving people to come up with their own interpretation nor does it propose ways to maintain people’s ability to resist the suggestions made by movies. Instead of trying to reduce all these crowd responses, the Hays Code focuses on how to use that response. The Code uses the power of social influence to provide a common morality for everyone, a morality that favors the individual over the masses.

Note the similarity of the conceptions which are invoked by the Hays Code, by Marx and by Hitler as they all talk about the crowd experience: "enthusiasm," "ecstasy," "intoxication" and intensely "aroused . . . emotions." What Hitler praises—the magic influence of mass suggestion—is identical to what the Hays Code presents as a dangerous effect of movies, the "lower . . . moral mass resistance to suggestion.

    This example shows the role in which Hays Code played in politics and not just movie making. Part of what got writers of the Code worried was the connection between what movies seemed to do to people and what mass riots seemed to do. This fear was in part because of the fear of communism in the United States and how these movies would create powerful collective emotions.
The Hays Code makes this shift from speaking of dangers of collective emotions to sexuality and criminality. This is in no way a way of ignoring the political issues rather; they saw it as an important method to developed in the twentieth century. Some argued that those powerful emotions were all sexual in nature so therefore, these scenes can be stimulates as long as the emotion that are produces are redirected into a sexual emotion.
It is apparent while reading this article that Hays Code had a great effect on both politics and movies. And today the Hays Code has been replaced with our rating system, yet censorship is in our films today.

Film Noir Under the Hays Code

    The film noir genre is notorious for being set in dark, corrupt, criminal underworlds where most characters are driven by personal gain and sexual motivations. Stories presented in film noir are primarily hardboiled crime stories about murder or theft. At the same time that film noir was popular, a set of rules governing the content of films called the Hays Code (or the Motion Picture Production Code) was in place. This code was based on ethics and norms of the time that it was created. The presence of this code made it difficult for film makers to fully portray the hardboiled stories in film noir while adhering to the provisions of the code.
    The crime based plots of film noirs conflicted with the rules laid out by the Hays Code. Particularly, it was not acceptable to show violence or criminal activities in any detail. As a result, directors were forced to omit scenes from their films containing violence. This made it harder to convey the stories which were often centered around violence or other issues.
    A characteristic of the film noir style is the corrupt world in which the stories take place where law enforcement and societal structure are unreliable or even corrupt. This too presents issues when confronted with the Hays Code. A very important purpose of the Hays Code was to make sure that government and law were never ridiculed or undermined by the film's story or characters' actions. A very important influence to the film noir genre was German expressionism, which was partially a byproduct of German discontent with society and government. The Hays Code would have made it very difficult to portray this discontent attitude in a film.
    The motivations of characters in film noirs often conflicted with the ethics promoted by the Hays Code. A staple element of film noir is the characters' motivations which are frequently sexual or out of self interest. This included lawyers and police officers in the films. Again, this was a problem because ridiculing the law or law enforcement was prohibited by the Hays Code. Additionally, any implicit or explicit sex or sexuality was prohibited. This too inhibited fim makers in portraying the stories in film noirs.

Examples of Film Noir Under The Hays Code

The Maltese Falcon

Parts of the Maltese Falcon's script had to be modified or taken out in order to satisfy the Hays Code. In this trailer, you may notice that Brigid's line "What else is there? Can I buy you with my body?" is changed to "What else can I buy you with?" Also, it is less clear in this trailer that Cairo is a dandy. These things and others had to be edited to comply with the Hays Code. Other changes were (Naremore, 98):

• Spade's attitude towards the police and lawyers
• Use of alcohol
• Implicit sex between Spade and Brigid

Laura

Similar to The Maltese Falcon, this film's script had to be edited to conform to the Hays Code. The following aspects were changed (Naremore, 98):

• Laura and Waldo had to have a more friend-like relationship so that it didn't seem like they were more than friends.
• Drinking in Laura's apartment had to be toned down
• Police violence had to be cut out