Film Noir Movie analysis

Black dahlia:

Black Dahlia was a film created as a neo-noir American crime film in 2006, it is based on the true story of a horribly gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947. The film is about two LA police officers of that time who try to solve the murder of Short, Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert (Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard investigate the case together until Bucky falls for his partners girlfriend Katherine Lake (Johansson) - Lee get more and more suspicious and obsessive until he disappears, only to be found dead later on. As this is all going on Bucky meets Madeline Linscott (Swank), who looks practically identical to the recently found dead woman, Elizabeth Short, what else is interesting is that she is obsessed with the 'Glasgow Smile' which is one of the wounds found on the body. Bucky starts dating Kay, however gets caught red handed by her as he is trying to get Madeline to have sex with him. Next he goes to a barn below the Hollywood sign and finds a picture of a man on the wall with a Glasgow smile painted on in blood, it is the same picture that Madeline has in her house! He storms to her house and accuses Madeline's father of the murder, when in a surprise twist her mother owns up to it. He goes back a few days later and speaks with her sister when he finds the real truth towards the death of his partner, Lee, at which point he finds Madeline in a Motel and shoots her dead. The film finishes with Bucky walking towards Kay's house, realising that he had just had a hallucination which is where it ends.

Film noir conventions are actually a key part to this movie, the costumes (suits, hats, dresses), The smoking, blinds etc - what i also liked is that, although the film wasn't in the authentic black and white, the low key (dim) lighting really brought it back into the film noir genre. Also the quite simplistic story line was good because you could really get into the story without getting confused about what was going on, however it had some nice twists that an audience wouldn't really be expecting. It really has a modern feeling to a cynical film noir story line, i believe the characters fit well, the scripting was very good and all in all an interesting film to watch - we will definitely be taking a few pointers from this movie as it really captures the audiences attention which is what we want for our own movie.

Double Indemnity:

Double Indemnity is a 1944 film (Based on the book by James M. Cain), this movie is one of the most authentic and conventional film noir genre movies that i am going to look at. In the film an Insurance Salesman, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), in down town Los Angeles. The film is told as a flash back by Neff, as he is sitting in his office speaking into a Dictaphone - he is gravely hurt and obviously wanted to tell someone the truth of the events of the last few weeks before he died. At first Neff is trying to sell a man car insurance, however at this point he meets the mans wife, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and falls in love with her - things however get sinister when she tries to take out life insurance for her husband without even telling him, she is planning on murdering him and keeping the money. Physillis seduces Walter even more and (knowing that he knows all the loop holes of the trade) convinces him to help her murder her husband. They carry out their plan as Walter breaks his new lovers neck after hiding in the back seat, he then poses as the man when boarding the train and pretends to fall off the back while no ones looking, they then drag his body onto the train tracks and disappear! Investigator Keyes, Neff boss, suspects foul play with the death and sets about trying to work it out - Walter then goes to see his lovers step-daughter, Lola, who believes Phyllis killed her father, however Walter then finds out his apparent love is actually seeing Lola's Boyfriend behind his back, and is trying to kill Lola off. He is disgusted and is about to kill Phyllis when she pulls out a gun and shoots him first, he is injured but not dead however instead of firing again she confesses her love for him - however Walter doesn't buy it and shoots her twice, dead. He then drives back to his office and sits down (back like the first scene)- Keyes arrives and hears enough however there is nothing that can be done and Walter dies.

I really like the style of this film, it is the perfect conventional film noir, the story line mainly centred around the femme fatale which was also interesting to watch. The film was also in the authentic black and white format, i really feel like it makes the film look more like it is from the time period it is set in. The audience are also really drawn in emotionally because of the narrator, they see at the beginning he is gravely hurt so automatically feel pity for him, then through the movie it is quite obvious that he is just being used and so the audience almost ignores the fact he kills someone and actually sides with him. I really like the flash back idea because it slightly confuses the audience, however like said before you really do get a closer connection to the main character and how he is feeling, especially when the femme fatale is seducing him - and you don't really want to like her character but you always end up liking her, because in those days the strong, sexy, independent women was just hitting the population.

Brick:

Brick is a 2006 neo-noir movie which was written and directed by Rian Johnson. The films indicates to an authentic film noir detective based film, however it is set in a modern Californian suburb centred mainly around a high school - most of the characters are high school students and the film name represents a block of heroin. Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) receives a call from his hysterically terrified ex girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin) pleading with him for help before a car drives past and she suddenly hangs up. Brendan searches for her, pushing his way into different cliques at school until he finds her with the stoner group. However she turns round and says that she no longer needs him and wants him to forget all about her - Brendan manages to steal her notepad, only to find a clue about where he will find her dead body a few days later. He then takes upon the role of the film noir main male characters conventions, the detective, and plans to find out whoever killed Emily. It is then found out that drug gangs are at each others throats because, the now dead Emily, apparently stole a brick of heroin, sold half, then filled it back up with detergent (causing certain heroin users to fall into comas). On receiving a note about the death of Emily, Brendan goes the one of the drug baron's houses, firstly only to be accused of murdering his ex girlfriend himself, and then to be stuck in the middle of the gangs gun fight (and finds out that Emily was also pregnant when she died) - the next night he sleeps with Laura (Nora Zehetner) who is in one of the drug gangs, then goes back and meets up with the two gangs, another fight breaks out over another missing brick of heroin and Brendan get out just before the police turn up, however on his ways out sees Emily's body in the trunk of the car he had just borrow to try and set him up.

Though the next day Brendan meets up with Laura and reveals that he has worked out that she was behind Emily's murder all along, she had made Emily take the wrap for the brick of heroin that she stole then refilled, then manipulated another gang member into killing her believing the baby she was carrying to be his - and now has stolen another brick in order to start a war between the two rival drug gangs. He has already left a note for their vice principal to check her locker for the brick, and revealing all of her deeds - he then begins to leave however as a final blow, Laura tell Brendan that Emily was 3 months pregnant, the baby that she was carrying when she died was his.
This modern film noir was interesting as it didn't settle on the normal conventions of film noir but changed some of them to suit the time period. The femme fatale (Laura) was very modernised, with her shortish hair and slim figure, however she did wear red lipstick and clothes at some points to highlight the seductive nature of her character. The storyline was very hard to follow, especially when seeing it in different sections (because we watched it in class and wouldn't have time to finish it in one lesson) however a discussion with my group and some research online we began to understand what the film was really about, and the messages it was trying to get across. The thing i can learn from this is to not make our story line too difficult, if people cant keep up with the story it will make them less able to appreciate the time and work that has gone into creating it. The editing however was amazing and some of the sections really inspired me and made me excited towards creating my own film noir, the suspense of the movie was also incredible and you really felt drawn into the movie, and even though it was modern it kept the same dark cynical story line and characters of any authentic film noir movie.

L.A. Confidential:

L.A. Confidential is a neo-noir movie created in 1997, (Based on the novel written by James Ellroy) - it is telling the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953, it mainly revolves around police corruption and the Hollywood celebrity world. Three police officers; Detective Wendall White, Sergeant Jack Vincennes and Sergeant Edmund Exley, become tangled up in the Los Angeles world of corruption when they started to investigate a multiple murder at the coffee shop, Nite Owl. Sergeant Exley is the son of a famous investigator and therefore desperate to live up to his fathers reputation. However this makes him isolated from the other officers as he believes everything should be done exactly to the rule and his harsh feelings towards his colleagues as he even volunteers to testify against them in a police brutality case. Though because of this he gets promoted to detective lieutenant through doing this, much against one of the captains advice. White, who is obsessed on dishing out his own form of punishment on any criminal he comes across, hates Exley after his testimonial leads to his partners firing, however the whole thing becomes personal when his Partners body turns up with the others in the Nite Owl massacre. Sergeant Vincennes is a narcotics detective, who is also a TV personality as a technical advisor - he used to receive money for tipping off a magazine editor about up-coming celebrity arrests however when a young actors gets killed because of him, he feels guilty and is then determined to find the killer. The three men are all investigating separately, however their fates are always intertwined - Lynn Bracken is a prostitute who looks extremely like actress Veronica Lake, who ties in to both White's and Exley's investigations, this also ties in with Vincennes who discovers a pornography racket, where an operation of prostitutes have plastic surgery in order to look like famous actress' - There is a dramatic show down at the end with power and corruption leaking into the city's political departments.

This film was harder for me to analyse because i missed a lesson due to illness and therefore did not actually see the whole film, however with a lot of research i began to piece together parts of the movie to help inspire me towards my own film. Even though this is a modern film noir it still has many of the conventions of an authentic one, although not in black and white the colour is very low key and dim which brings the movie down to a somber emotion, also the uses of costume, smoking and setting are much the same as any another conventional film noir. The characters are quite interesting as the aren't your usual film noir based characters, but the storyline really gets you hooked, however at some points may have been slightly complicated. The editing and scripting was amazingly good and made the film flow really well, however it kept the main film noir feeling at the for front of the movie at all times (with the deaths, hints at pornography/sex, corruption, treachery etc).