Film Noir:
The 50s decade was known for many things: post-war affluence and
increased choice of leisure time activities, conformity, the Korean War,
middle-class values, the rise of modern jazz, the rise of 'fast food'
restaurants and drive-ins.
In the period following World War 2, most films were ideolised with
conventional portrayals of men and women, but young people wanted to see new
representations.
Film Noir (literally 'black
film or cinema') was invented by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in
1946), after noticing the trend between 'dark', downbeat and the colour black
to the looks and themes of many American crime and detective films released in
France to theatres following the war.
A wide range of films reflected the resultant tensions and
insecurities of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of
Hollywood's musicals and comedies. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of
innocence, despair and paranoia are readily evident in noir.
The criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy
perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were a metaphoric symptom of society's
evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict, purposelessness and sense
of injustice. There were rarely happy or optimistic endings in noirs.
Primary characteristics and conventions of Film Noir: Themes and
style
The primary moods of classic Film Noir were melancholy, alienation,
bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral
corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
Heroes or anti-heroes, corrupt characters and villains included
down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops,
gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths, killers, crooks,
war-veterans, politicians, petty criminals or murderers. The protagonists were
often morally ambiguous and low-lifes from a dark and gloomy background. They
had distinct character traits: cynical, hard-boiled, disillusioned, insecure
and struggling to survive.
Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting.
Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically
communicated through foreboding background music, flashbacks, witty language
and first-person voice-over narration.
Horror:
Between
1940 and 50 the concept of a horrific monster barely changed. Although, there
were more recognisably human faces attached to evil, for example WW2 traitors
or Mad Scientists. Society was deprived from the joys of family and earth
because of the numerous loss of loved ones during World War 2. Homecoming
soldiers and bereaved widows had too many horror stories of their own to
appreciate fantasies on the big screen, meaning that they gained no
entertainment or escapism from these films, instead they may have only had the
pleasure of information. The world could never be the same again, and the
dawning of post-war posterity in America created a new breed of monsters,
adapted specifically for survival in the second half of the twentieth century.
In
the 1950's, Films were related to the B-movie category. Thus, the primary
audience for horror movies were teenagers, who ensured that the genre remained
very profitable. This demographic never truly cared about the plot or
character development and the production values, instead they simply cared
about the reactions and emotions they were experiencing whilst watching a
particular horror film.
The
main aim of the 1950's horror films were to thrill the audience the monsters,
whilst perhaps more terrifying in conception than execution, never failed to
deliver action and intensity.
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