Similarly, Read Mercer Schuchardt also considers noir to be a genre by commenting on the essential ingredients of noir themes as “a spiritual medium that moves and talks; the
discovery of a murder without the discovery of a corpse; power and dominance; a bleak, melancholic atmosphere; anxiety; dark lighting; action taking place in the city at night; foul
play; and moral ambivalence.”
9
Another perspective considers noir as being not a genre per se, but more between a genre and a mood or style. Kaplan considers noir films as a genre in terms of thematic
concern, narrative structure, iconography, etc., because there are a number of recognizable conventions in them.
10
However, Janey Place argues that, “Because of the highly specific visual style and narrative concerns of film noir, its relatively short period, and its appearance
at a historical moment of crisis post WWII, these films – rather than constituting a genre, which is rarely defined in terms of a recognizable visual style and whose conventions very
much bend with societal changes – instead represent a movement.”
11
In countering Place’s argument, Christine Gledhill illustrates how traditional aspects of noir films have been
applied in conjunction with European films to match with modern topics. This particular trend within the thriller genre can be seen in other 70s films and can be
distinguished from the different permutations of the genre, of which Clint Eastwood’s police thrillers are an example. In other words, film noir can perhaps better be seen as
a sub-genre or a generic development emerging from the earlier gangster genre than is a genre by itself.
12
1.3 Noir as a MoodStyle
In contrast to those critics who consider noir a genre, there are also scholars who do not share this perspective. Andrew Spicer believes that noir does not fit into this classification
9
Schuchardt, Read Mercer. “Cherchez La Femme Fetale: The Mother of Film Noir”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.50.
10
Kaplan, Ann. Women in Film Noir. London: British Film Institute, 2008, p.15.
11
Place, Janey, qtd in Kaplan, Ann. Women in Film Noir. London: British Film Institute, 2008, p.15.
12
Gledhill, Christine, qtd in Kaplan, Ann. Women in Film Noir. London: British Film Institute, 2008, p.16.
because it is “a discursive critical construction that has evolved over time.”
13
This essentially means that the term “noir” was applied retroactively after undergoing various developments.
Spicer goes on further to state that noir plots are quite different. “Any attempt at defining film noir solely through its essential formal components proves to be reductive and unsatisfactory
because film noir, as the French critics asserted from the beginning, also involves a sensibility, a particular way of looking at the world.”
14
Spicer essentially means that you cannot just look at the studio effects in how the noir visual style is created, but you have to
look deeper at how these films convey a certain perspective on the world and humanity. In this way, the moods found in the early noir literary and film works can be applied in future
noir works of various genres. Raymond Durgnat supports Spicer’s argument by claiming that you have to classify noir based on its motif and tone. Durgnat conveys that the tone is bleak
and cynical, and the dominant motifs are related to crime and social criticism, gangsters, private eyes and adventurers, middle-class murder, portraits and doubles, sexual pathology,
and psychopaths.
15
Besides these characteristics, other traits that can be found are a feeling of loss, nostalgia, and insecurity. R. Barton Palmer also uses the term “transgeneric” to describe
noir because it can be expressed through various genres like melodramas, thrillers, Westerns, horrors, etc. Usually it will deal with a breakdown in society and some kind of criminality.
16
J.P. Telotte supports this position by stating that noir does not use a conventional narration because these kinds of stories are in a third-perspective, have characters with specific goals
that are logical, and have a finality or everything tied up at the end. Instead, Telotte states that
13
Spicer, Andrew, qtd in Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.11.
14
Spicer, Andrew. Film Noir, qtd in Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.11.
15
Durgnat, Raymond, qtd in Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.11.
16
Palmer, R. Barton, qtd in Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.12.
noir stories are unconventional and deal with problems of truth, objectivity, and the ability to understand reality.
17
In trying to come up with a proper definition for noir, Naremore claims, “Film noir belongs to the history of ideas as much as to the history of cinema; in other words, it has less
to do with a group of artifacts than with a discourse—a loose, evolving system of arguments and readings that helps to shape commercial strategies and aesthetic ideologies.”
18
Naremore goes on further to say, “Noir is not merely a descriptive term, but a name for a critical
tendency within the popular cinema—an anti-genre that reveals the dark side of savage capitalism.”
19
Similarly, in defining noir, Steven M. Sanders claims, “Noir themes and moods include despair, paranoia, and nihilism; an atmosphere of claustrophobic entrapment; a
nightmarish sense of loneliness and alienation; a purposefulness fostered in part by feelings of estrangement from one’s own past even as one seems driven to a compulsive confrontation
with that past. Film noir presents us with moral ambiguity, shifting identities, and impending doom. Urban locales give noir films authenticity, adding texture to their psychologically
dense and convoluted plots.”
20
Next, Jason Holt defines noir as “characterized in terms of its bleak existential tone, cynically pessimistic mood, stylistic elements inherited from German expressionism low-key
lighting, deep focus, subjective camera shots, canted angles, and so on, and stories and
17
Telotte, J.P., qtd in Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.13.
18
Naremore, James. More than Night: Film Noir Film Noir in its Contexts. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2008, p.11.
19
Naremore, Ibid, p.22.
20
Sanders, Steven M. “Film Noir and the Meaning of Life”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.92.
narrative patterns adapted from American hard-boiled fiction.”
21
Holt also likes to think of noir as being “stylized crime realism”, meaning that the crime elements can happen in real
life to morally ambiguous characters but the filming style accentuates the storyline. Likewise, Paul Schrader denies that film noir is a genre. He argues that noir films can “be roughly
grouped together only by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood.”
22
In Table 1 pg.175, the commonalities of film noir characteristics are outlined.
Therefore, for a noir movie to be considered as a true noir it must contain most of the following elements: it should be dark, shadowy, and have contrasting images; it should be in
black and white; the characters are hard and disillusioned with a degree of likeability; a male character faces a moral dilemma; there is a woman who is dangerous, alluring, and
independent; it is a crime or detective story; there are flashbacks, voice-over narration, one- liners, witty dialog, angst, paranoia, betrayal, insecurity, and no happy ending. The movies
are often shot or influenced by German directors. Many kinds of novels and movies have been made in a noir style, including Sunset Boulevard, The Maltese Falcon, Double
Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, Gilda, Mildred Pierce, Murder, My Sweet, The Killers, The Postman Always Rings Twice, among others.
Related to the use of one-liners often found in a noir work, oftentimes one-liners can traverse time and become memorable associations with noir productions several decades
later. Some famous one-liners that are still well-known today from the 1942 movie Casablanca include “Here’s looking at you, kid”, “Play it again, Sam”, “Louis, I think this is
the beginning of a beautiful friendship”, “We’ll always have Paris”, and “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine”. These are easily identifiable in the film
21
Holt, Jason. “A Darker Shade: Realism in Neo-Noir”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.24.
22
Schrader, Paul, qtd in Pippin, Robert B. Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy. Virginia: The University of Virginia Press, 2012, p.5.
or through the movie script.
23
By being able to recognize one-liners in noir literature and movies, it can be seen how famous phrases are still integrated and engrained into society
today. One-liners are often re-cycled in later literary works or films and even found in the advertising industry.
American noir literature and film noir also has a specific style of dialog. There are many kinds of idiomatic expressions used that are explicit to this particular mood. In the
films, it is also necessary to pay attention to the tone, body movements, and character interactions. This type of dialog affects the interactions between the characters in a noir
literary work or film. The ways the characters in these novels and movies converse reflect the historical backdrop of World War II themes, fear of foreigners, alienation, etc. Therefore, the
style of dialog can be considered a representation of the mood of the World War II period. As the characters of these kinds of movies generally have certain traits, it is pertinent
to be able to get inside the characters’ heads and know how to empathize with various predicaments that the characters may be facing. The dialog, interactions, character traits,
settings, among other aspects can familiarize viewers with the time period and main concepts found in the movie. These kinds of literary works and movies are also beneficial to promote
cultural understanding of the time period when the novels were written and movies were made. The noir period is very fascinating to study as it encourages one to be engaged
authentically with the language use of 1940s and 1950s noir movies and noir literature. Numerous cultural insights can further be contributed by analyzing a noir literary work from
one of numerous literary theoretical perspectives.
1.4 Interest in the Study
