Picture a quaint Victorian house in the Hollywood Hills overlooking Los Angeles. A modest insurance salesman shows up at the door, it is opened by a maid. There is a beautiful woman at the top of the stairs; the sultry Mrs. Dietrichson, dressed in nothing more than a towel. She gets dressed after the salesman tells her their car insurance doesn’t have them “fully covered.”
The following conversation takes place:
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The fast, witty, and flirtatious dialogue in this scene gives us light into how a man could possibly get seduced into what was to come. This is of course, the big murder/insurance scam from Billy Wilder’s classic 1944 film Double Indemnity.
There was a time when dark crime films were popular both with mainstream Hollywood films and B-grade productions. McCarthyism, Hollywood censorship, and World War II among other things all played a role in the shaping and growing popularity of what became known as the classic period of America’s film noir (1940’s-1950’s).
How can we forget the “stuff dreams are made of” from The Maltese Falcon or the last close up (for Mr. DeMille!!!) from Sunset Boulevard?? How about the quick and sexy dialogue between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep? These films reek of crime and desperation but remain fun and stylistically beautiful. The high contrast, looming shadows, and dim lit mise-en-scene gave way to a bleak and seductive emotionality.
Noir films often explore the seedy underground of Hollywood (In a Lonely Place), law enforcement (Touch of Evil), journalism (Ace in the Hole) as well as many other aspects of crime and deception. Their style is impossible to miss. Noir film has remained popular on a cult level but hasn’t reached mainstream status since its initial movement.
There is a piece by Matthew Sweet about his new documentary for the BBC, The Rules of Film Noir. He interviews director Werner Herzog, whose newest film, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, promises to be “a new step in film noir.”
Herzog goes on to say, “It’s not so much techniques of light or a particular kind of story. There’s something bigger behind it. You recognize a film noir very easily because it’s a cultural mood.” He is right, turbulent times call for films that reflect the mood of the country.
Today’s cultural climate, with the economic downturn, soaring unemployment, and the looming threat of terrorism warrants a new desire for noir film. It provides a perfect catalyst for a stylistically cynical and dark film movement. Turbulent times often result in artistic genius, just look at German Expressionism.
Today’s film industry is currently overlooking a type of film that could reignite some of the emotions from the 1950’s. I hope that the current cultural climate in the United States motivates Hollywood to dig deeper into its creative and stylistic vault.
Look at some of the better movies of the last couple years; There Will Be Blood, Gone Baby Gone, No Country for Old Men, and Gran Torino. All of these (though not noir) are tough films and offer conclusions that are not easily swallowed. The one closest to noir quality is No Country for Old Men, which was stylistically amazing.
There are some great hard hitting films these days, but they should take them a step further and utilize the stylistic brilliance of film noir. Now is a great time for a genre revival! Who wants to step up to the plate?
The Coen Brothers are the best living filmmakers of noir films (Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There) and genre films in general. Their ability to adapt genre in terms of style (Blood Simple), sound (No Country for Old Men) and iconography (Miller’s Crossing) is nothing short of brilliant.
Most noir films today are simply an exercise primarily in genre style (which is fine). Take Rian Johnson’s Brick for example; it is a great film that puts a hardboiled detective story that feels straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, and throws it into a contemporary high school. Robert Altman did a similar adaptation in 1973 with The Long Goodbye, taking Chandler’s Philip Marlow character and placing him in contemporary society. This innovative use of genre should be seen more often (especially with noir!).
The film industry needs to take another look at noir cinema. Whether it is a new story or a retelling of an old one, there is plenty of ammunition out there for a new resurgence in film noir. It is time for Hollywood to utilize its creative side to make the streets on the big screen once again as Raymond Chandler wrote them, “dark with something more than night.”