What is 'Noir'?
Excerpt from the book 'Film Noir' by Alain Silver and James Ursini
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Diction
Noir films draw their verbal power from the hard-boiled school of writing.
Hard-bitten Poetry. Quotable noir lines abound in books on the subject. The
dialogue of noir movies is rife with characters who ‘crack wise,` from double entendres to poetic conceits. The first meeting between insurance agent Walter Neff and femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity is a classic example. Neff`s opening voice-over features this piece of hard-bitten doggerel: "There was no way I could have known that murder sometimes can smell like honeysuckle." And once inside the Dietrichson house the celebrated, sexually loaded exchange between Neff and Phyllis begins:
Neff: I wish you`d tell me what`s engraved on that anklet.
Phyllis: Just my name.
Neff: As for instance?
Phyllis: Phyllis.
Neff: Phyllis, huh. I think I like that.
Phyllis: But you`re not sure.
Neff: I`d have to drive it around the block a couple of times.
Phyllis (Standing up): Mr. Neff, why don`t you drop by tomorrow evening around 8:30? He`ll be in then.
Neff: Who?
Phyllis: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him, weren`t you?
Neff: Yeah, I was. But I`m sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.
Phyllis: There`s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff, 45 miles an hour.
Neff: How fast was I going, Officer?
Phyllis: I`d say around 90.
Neff: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.
Phyllis: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.
Neff: Suppose it doesn`t take.
Phyllis: Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.
Neff: Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.
Phyllis: Suppose you try putting it on my husband`s shoulder.
Neff: That tears it...
Voice-over Narration. First-person narration was a popular device among the hard-boiled writers. It accomplished several purposes in noir films. First of all, it put the viewer into the mind of the protagonist. In that way the viewer could experience in a more intimate way the angst of the character. More importantly, it compelled the viewer to identify at least partly with the narrator, even when that narrator was deeply flawed, capable of criminal behaviour or even psychopathic rage as in so many of the classic noir works.
As we move further into the 21st century, this enthusiasm for film noir continues unabated. On television, a large number of series from the original Dragnet (1951–1959) to NYPD Blue (1993– ) assimilate a noir ethos into their own particular genre. On radio, Garrison Keillor`s A Prairie Home Companion features a weekly vignette devoted to a character called Guy Noir, Private Eye. In literature, neo-noir and neo-hard-boiled writers like James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, 1990) dominate the mystery-suspense markets. From cinema to computer games to comic books, in the US and around the world, the pervasive influence of noir is lurking in the shadows constantly ready to emerge and colour – or rather to reduce to the monochrome of black and white – any plot, character or image. What is this thing called noir? Hopefully this book will provide a few clues to a definition, will present some details that hint at its depth and breadth and will lead the reader back to the films. For that is where one can locate the scenes that fired the imaginations of audiences of the classic period, that stunned Frenchmen Frank and Chartier with their violent tone, that inspired a new generation of film-makers with their grim philosophy, where one can find the heart of that particular darkness known as film noir.
Seite 1 2 3 4
Seite 1 2 3 4
Diction
Noir films draw their verbal power from the hard-boiled school of writing.
Hard-bitten Poetry. Quotable noir lines abound in books on the subject. The
dialogue of noir movies is rife with characters who ‘crack wise,` from double entendres to poetic conceits. The first meeting between insurance agent Walter Neff and femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity is a classic example. Neff`s opening voice-over features this piece of hard-bitten doggerel: "There was no way I could have known that murder sometimes can smell like honeysuckle." And once inside the Dietrichson house the celebrated, sexually loaded exchange between Neff and Phyllis begins:
Neff: I wish you`d tell me what`s engraved on that anklet.
Phyllis: Just my name.
Neff: As for instance?
Phyllis: Phyllis.
Neff: Phyllis, huh. I think I like that.
Phyllis: But you`re not sure.
Neff: I`d have to drive it around the block a couple of times.
Phyllis (Standing up): Mr. Neff, why don`t you drop by tomorrow evening around 8:30? He`ll be in then.
Neff: Who?
Phyllis: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him, weren`t you?
Neff: Yeah, I was. But I`m sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.
Phyllis: There`s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff, 45 miles an hour.
Neff: How fast was I going, Officer?
Phyllis: I`d say around 90.
Neff: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.
Phyllis: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.
Neff: Suppose it doesn`t take.
Phyllis: Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.
Neff: Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.
Phyllis: Suppose you try putting it on my husband`s shoulder.
Neff: That tears it...
Voice-over Narration. First-person narration was a popular device among the hard-boiled writers. It accomplished several purposes in noir films. First of all, it put the viewer into the mind of the protagonist. In that way the viewer could experience in a more intimate way the angst of the character. More importantly, it compelled the viewer to identify at least partly with the narrator, even when that narrator was deeply flawed, capable of criminal behaviour or even psychopathic rage as in so many of the classic noir works.
As we move further into the 21st century, this enthusiasm for film noir continues unabated. On television, a large number of series from the original Dragnet (1951–1959) to NYPD Blue (1993– ) assimilate a noir ethos into their own particular genre. On radio, Garrison Keillor`s A Prairie Home Companion features a weekly vignette devoted to a character called Guy Noir, Private Eye. In literature, neo-noir and neo-hard-boiled writers like James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, 1990) dominate the mystery-suspense markets. From cinema to computer games to comic books, in the US and around the world, the pervasive influence of noir is lurking in the shadows constantly ready to emerge and colour – or rather to reduce to the monochrome of black and white – any plot, character or image. What is this thing called noir? Hopefully this book will provide a few clues to a definition, will present some details that hint at its depth and breadth and will lead the reader back to the films. For that is where one can locate the scenes that fired the imaginations of audiences of the classic period, that stunned Frenchmen Frank and Chartier with their violent tone, that inspired a new generation of film-makers with their grim philosophy, where one can find the heart of that particular darkness known as film noir.
Seite 1 2 3 4
Still from 'They Drive by Night' (1938)
When Shorty Matthews (Emlyn Williams) Gets out of jail and finds his girlfriend murdered, only Molly O'Neill (Anna Konstam) believes he is innocent. The atmosphere echoes the French poetic realist films.
