‘Film Noir’

That explains how the genre of ‘Film Noir’ which is used to establish pleasure for the audience. The historical back ground of Film Noir is a 1946 French film Critic to describe certain types of films based on darkness and about the strength of people. It has the historical origin of German expressionism which includes the hopper image of showing contrast towards loneliness and darkness to light and the dark.

The conventions of the 1946 critics of ‘Film Noir’ are that they are mostly involved with the ‘tough guy’ who would be stable throughout the story and they are portrayed about how they are upright and how they are shown with the ‘femme fatale’ when they show off and get entangled with them to make love which turns out to be dangerous. The lighting effects how the image portrays the meaning to the audience. The characters were a dangerous female with sexual needs to attract men (‘femme fatale’). The dialogue was snappy, quick, wise cracking and use of voiceover.

Then there was the music which was dramatic, downbeat and sometimes jazzy. The Narrative had complicated plots which started off with a simple task which gets more complicated. Themes had corruption, justice and alienation. The settings of ‘Film Noir’ were urban, bleak, and dangerous with lot of internal settings. The Big Sleep In “The Big Sleep” by Howard Hawks shows a reliable film noir using all the conventions. The use of music also creates tension and fear by the tone of the loud jazzy music. The way Hawks creates apprehension by using the quick and touchy language with the dialogues.

The detective who is Humphrey Bogart is entangled with Lauren Bacall later on who is the “femme fatale” in “The Big Sleep” as a part of the conventions of the “Film Noir”. Hawks makes the detective sound very sardonic that makes his image look like a “man”. The effect created by the lighting creates the mis-en-scene with the lightings, textures and the use of colours. This is usually in a dark contrast with a little light. The setting of “The Big Sleep” was mostly set in the greenhouse where he was hired by a rich family. This shows how he was the “tough guy” in the movie and also how he was a man of love.

The comparison between the “tough guy” and the “femme fatale” are similar as they both comply in being tough and strong in matters of love or fight. This movie shows the “tough guy” starting to flirt with the “femme fatale”. This leads to sexual tension and makes a “tough guy” proposes to do something that he wasn’t meant to do, this was one convention that mostly happened in all the “film noirs” to make a twist in the plot outline. The pleasure “The Big Sleep” gives us is very entertaining and entangles the audience to be in thoughts about how they create suspense.

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