02.10.2013 - RESEARCH: FILM NOIR BOOKS

We looked through these books to get inspiration for our film opening.

1. Low key, black and white visual style
2. Roots in German Expressionists in cinematography
3. Derives from crime fiction of USA Great Depression
4. Central figure often a private eye (The Big Sleep 1946)
5. Plain clothed police man (The Big Heat)
6. An aging boxer (The Set Up)
7. A hapless grifter (Night and the City)
8. A law abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy)
9. A victim of circumstance (D.O.A)
10. Strong female characters who resist and disturb the male ordered world
11.  Within the noir world women's sexuality is consistently posed as a threat which the films only contain. 
12. Challenge to patriarchy which makes the film noir of such special interest to contemporary feminism. 
13. Gives pleasure by making us uncomfortable; anxiety, vulnerability and fright are all part of the thril.
14. Women are either vamps or virgins.
15. Characters faces are often partly shadowed to create hidden threatening spaces
16. Often sleazy, milieu of claustrophobic alley ways or deserted spaces alternating with gordy nightclubs and swank apartmen
17. High contrast lighting is featured