September 17th 2016 archive

Week 8- The Killers(1964) Film Noir

the_killers_1946-poster4

The Killers(1946) is a classic noir film. The use of shadows, hush lightings, reflection and flashbacks Instead of following through flashback of the protagonist, we followed through a list of flashbacks from different perspective. I was lost halfway through the movie from all the different flashbacks but I can see the classic narrative noir structure in the movie.

Noir has many interpretations, some argued that noir is a genre, visual style, movement. Charles Higham quote that Film noir is a genre deeply rooted in the nineteenth century’s vein of grim. It may be considered as a genre between 1940s-1950s, in my opinion, noir has evolved from a genre to a visual style. In our readings, Rebecca mentioned “that Film noir is not a genre, it is not defined as are the western and gangster genre by conventions of settings the conflict, but rather by the more subtile qualities of tone and mood. ” In today’s neo-noir film, instead of following a set of noir conventions, directors use some noir conventions to interpret their film. Most of the Coen brothers’ films has very strong elements of noir but it may not necessary reflect it as a genre.