What is Film Noir?
"Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography."
Here is a link to a very useful site which is worth a read: http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
Double Indemnity (1944) (Section of the film highlighting Film Noirs wit and seduction.)
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| Double Indemnity |
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| Double Indemnity |
Rebecca (1940)
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| Rebecca |
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| Rebecca |
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| Rebecca |
We light objects by creating both highlights and shadows to create our sense of a scene's space. There are two diffferent ways to describe shadows; attached and cast.
"Lighting also shapes a shot's overall composition." In the shot below the gang members are brought into a unit "by the pool of light cast by the a hanging lamp. At the same time, it sets up a scale of importance, emphasising the protagonist by making him the most frontal and clearly lit figure."
(Bordwell & Thompson 1997)
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| Asphalt Jungle |
Lighting can also affect our sense of shape and texture. Lemon by Hollis Frampton illustrates this very well.
Josef von Sternberg, one of the cinema's masters of film lighting said: "The proper use of light can embellish and dramatize every object."
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