HUM-3321 Lecture 11: Belton- Film Noir
Document Summary
They violated traditional narrative and stylistic practices of classical hollywood cinema that oriented and stabilized spectators. Film noir reflected a sense of postwar despair and alienation. The french term this new kind of american cinema film noir, or black film . During wwii, american films were banned in nazi-occupied france. Following the war, french audiences were flooded with american films made during the war years. French critics recognized that many american films had grown grimmer, bleaker, and blacker . Jarring juxtapositions between shots involving extreme changes in camera angle and screen size. Film noir dealt with subjects prohibited by the production code through allusion to controversial themes. Existential themes such as the alienation of the individual in industrial, mass society figured prominently. Related to this is the theme of the amnesiac on a quest to recover personal identity. Dime novels (crime-driven pulp fiction) fueled about 20% of these films scripts.
