Introduction
Cinema/film has become a conspicuous form of mass entertainment whose popularity, influence, and proliferation have been phenomenal. Artistic expression and development via technological expediency have made it an unequaled facet of visual/fine arts since the inception of the 20th century. A vast array of genres constitutes film – action, adventure, crime, horror, westerns, science fiction to name a few with setting, mood, theme, and format as its hallmark characteristics. Amongst this cadre is the film noir (French for black film) genre. Italian-born French film critic, Nino Frank, is primarily credited with coining the term in his movie review article (“Un nouveau genre ‘policier:’ L’aventure criminelle,”/“A new police genre: the criminal adventure”) published in L’écran français (August 1946), a socialist-leaning film magazine. The review was on Hollywood stylish crime films (Maltese Falcon, Laura, Murder, My Sweet, Double Indemnity, etc.) shown in France after World War 2. Frank described them as “dark films” which steered away from the standard detective movie. This new form of “criminal psychology film” was void of “sentimental humanism” with a proclivity for the “social fantastic” and “dynamism of violent death” as well as “pessimism and disgust for humanity.”
Discussion
The Hollywood classical film noir era spanned over twenty years commencing with the 1940 RKO low budget thriller, Stranger on the Third Floor starring Peter Lorre and co-written by US author, screenwriter and satirist, Nathanial West. Iconic filmmaker, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil is considered by many critics as the last great film noir of this classical era. An offspring of the Hardboiled School of crime fiction which emerged in the U.S. during the Depression, film noir’s standard components evolve around setting, theme, mood, and format. Its utilization of these components is what makes it distinct for its visual aesthetics is deeply rooted in German expressionism cinematography. For economic reasons due to World War I, German filmmakers relied on basic settings/black and white lighting, etc instead of extravagant color features/locations providing a more simplistic/realistic appeal. Black and white cinematography is an essential ingredient used to enhance the dark mood/tone of film noir dramas. As film critic Robert Ottoson asserts, the tone is generally downbeat and “overwhelmingly black.”
Low key lighting schemes which produce dramatic shadow patterning and stark light/dark contrast coupled with low-angle shots, wide-angle lenses as well as Dutch angles contribute to the disorientation allure of film noir. Large urban settings (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, etc.) are a consistent feature as well as usage of real time and remembered time or flashbacks and voice over narration, most characteristically by the protagonist. Subjective in nature with a circuitous plot, the film’s hero/ protagonist are always morally questionable, flawed, and frequently doomed be they the fall guy or the fem Fatale. They are often alienated and existentially bitter. Such characters are engrossed in moral quandaries that transcend beyond simple black and white decisions in which the ends justify the means. Film noir, in most cases, exudes the motif that these characters are a by product of an inherently morally corrupt world. Setting, plot, etc. aids in engaging the audience in a visual/psychological journey into the protagonist’s nightmarish experience. In addition to the above mentioned films, The Night of the Hunter, The Asphalt Jungle, D.O.A., Sunset Boulevard, and The Night of the Hunter is regarded as film noir classics as well.
The film noir movement was a product of the Hollywood studio production process, yet its revolutionary aura epitomized many filmmakers’ desire to break away from stylist norm as well as the studio system itself and venture into independent filmmaking. Although many critics assert classic film noir as a cycle exclusive to the United States, it transcended into an international phenomenon as well. National or international, film noir was and continues to be an indelible feature of film. American-Armenian author, William Saroyan once stated “Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face.” Film noir, a social critique in essence, definitely attests to such a statement.
Bamboo Curtain was a political and ideological barrier separating the Communist countries of East Asia and the West following the Chinese Revolution of 1949 well into the 1960’s. An ideological barrier, more or less, is a barrier indicative of cooperation or interaction between two entities as a result of conflicting ideologies. Most importantly, the Bamboo Curtain is a euphemistic substitute for the Iron Curtain which marked the borders around the Communist countries of East Asia, in particular countries belonging to the People’s Republic of China that were shared with non-Communist countries during the Cold War era. The term was not applicable to the Soviet Union, North Korea, or Mongolia which also shared a border with China. Frequently, it referred to the border dividing North and South Korea as well as the flexible border between Communism and Southeast Asia countries aligned with the West against Communism. On past maps those countries indicative of the curtain were green. As opposed to the Iron Curtain which over a 40 year period was static in nature, the Bamboo Curtain was permeable and shifted constantly. The term became obsolete due to improved relations between China and the U.S. in the latter part of the Cold War and currently refers to the tightly-guarded borders surrounding Burma.