Noir Narrative Conventions
Storyline:
Mood:
Key Themes: Disillusionment, Anxiety, Fate [Fatalistic Nightmare]:
- In a common noir storyline a man, often embittered by life or tarnished by his past, meets a beautiful, mysterious woman (femme fatale). He is sexually and fatally attracted to her. Either as a result of their relationship or because she manipulates him, he cheats, murders or attempts to murder, a second man attached to the woman and with whom she is unhappy (eg: husband, lover, etc.). This causes the destruction of one or all of the group.
- Narrative structure in noir is non—linear, complex and twisting and the story is commonly told in the first person by a male narrator. It may be told in a fragmented, maze-like manner or in flashback - a technique which adds to the sense of hopeless/fatalism, since the outcome has already been decided.
- Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration.
- Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent "everyman" who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life. - www.filmsite.org
- The inherent subjectivity of Expressionism is also evident in film noir’s use of narration and flashback. An omniscient, metaphor-spouting narrator (often the central character, a world-weary private eye) frequently clarifies a characteristically labyrinthine noir plot or offers a subjective, jaded point of view. In other films—such as Welles’s Citizen Kane and Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard (1950)—the denouement (often the death or downfall of the central character) is revealed in the opening scenes; flashbacks then tell of the circumstances that led to the tragic conclusion. Tension and suspense are increased by the use of all-knowing narrators and flashbacks, in that the audience is always cognizant of impending doom-and are taken on a journey to discover how this fateful end has come about.
- The representation of the protagonist's subjectivity is crucial - his perceptions (both accurate and deluded), his state of mind, his desires, obsessions and anxieties. The need for attending to the handling of perspective in film noir is concisely summed up in Fritz Lang's explanation of his subjective camera work: 'You show the protagonist so that the audience can put themselves under the skin of the man'; by showing things 'wherever possible, from the viewpoint of the protagonist' the film gives the audience visual and psychological access to his nightmarish experiences. - The Development of Post-war Literary and Cinematic Noir, Lee Horsley
- Noir is set firmly within its contemporary American life and culture. Common noir settings are shadowy interiors, dingy offices and dark rain-lashed streets — a strong contrast to mainstream films of the time which were generally brightly lit. Sets were often only half or quarter lit throwing parts of the set and faces into shadow adding to ambiguity and mood.
- Settings are often angular and claustrophobic indicating harshness and the complicated and suffocating situations characters in noir find themselves in.
Mood:
- A mood of bleak pessimism is one of the defining characteristics of the genre. Melancholy, disillusionment, moral corruption, obsession, and paranoia background the characters’ lives and actions. Such moods are often recorded in the language of the titles, eg: Cry of the City, Fairwell My Lovely, Kiss Me Deadly, They Live by The Night.
Key Themes: Disillusionment, Anxiety, Fate [Fatalistic Nightmare]:
- Discussions of noir often centre on visual and specifically cinematic elements – on things like low-key lighting, chiaroscuro effects, deep focus photography, extreme camera angles and expressionist distortion. But it is essential as well to take account of themes, mood, characterisation, point of view and narrative pattern. Both literary and cinematic noir are defined by: (i) the subjective point of view; (ii) the shifting roles of the protagonist; (iii) the ill-fated relationship between the protagonist and society (generating the themes of alienation and entrapment); and (iv) the ways in which noir functions as a socio-political critique. - The Development of Post-war Literary and Cinematic Noir, Lee Horsley