Sep
2016
JOURNAL ENTRY: WEEK 8
This week I looked further into the readings as my last project brief was on Film Noir and felt interested to look more into the history and areas I hadn’t done so for PB3- as this might have effect on PB4.
What was raised in the reading ‘House, Rebecca R. (1986). Night of the soul: American film noir. Studies in Popular Culture, 9(1), pp. 61-83.’ it stated that even though film noir has many typical aspects such as dark and mysterious tones that are very easily identifiable. Quite a few of the Noir films you would though to be noir are not. I thought that this was a very good point made by House as I can understand the idea that audiences see a black and white film surrounding a murder mystery and automatically think that it fits into the Noir. Yes, it has the expected concepts but Noir films are said in this reading to be based around one character and in one set location.
Film Noir has been debated for many years to not be seen as a genre. This is because unlike genres such as Western with conventions of setting and conflict, noir is more noted for its tone and mood. I really admire the quote “It seems reasonable to agree that American Film Noir is more of a movement then a genre”. I think this is a better way of looking at Noir because it doesn’t cut it from genre but shows it as a type of cinema unique that cannot contrast to anything else.