Next After Film Noir: Neo-Noir

What happened after film noir? It was a genre that lasted only through the 1930s and 1940s. Then, the dark, sultry noir genre became neo, a modernization for the post-war era. Besides the characteristics of noir—stark contrast lighting, penetrating cameras angling down dark alleys, the disappearing damsels in distress, and the basically good guy who’s mixed up with no-goodniks—neo-noir slunk into the 1960s with films overflowing with frank sexual or violent situations. We also see greater attention to wardrobe and set dressing, adding a lush polish to some films.

Let’s go all the way back to 1974, to Chinatown. Jack Nicholson starred as private-eye Jake Gittes. Faye Dunaway visits his office to hire him, then disappears. She is impersonating another woman who shows up and sues him. Gittes sticks with the mystery lady’s target—played by John Huston, who is involved with water rights worth plenty of money. Huston has the added bad manners of shoving both his wife and his daughter against Gittes. Roman Polanski directed this gem. It was nominated for eleven Oscars and won for Best Original Screenplay. The Library of Congress honored it with preservation in the United States Film Registry.

If you’re feeling like a Mississippi Mudslide night, get ready for Body Heat, starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. It’s hard to remember much when you’ve watched Turner and Hurt turn up the heat, so I’ll tell you the plot—it’s basically a remake of Double Indemnity, about a glamorous lady hatching a murderous insurance scheme. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the script, and this was his first outing as director; soon after came The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist, also starring Hurt.

The next film is one of the earliest successful examples depicting “a brilliant truth, sympathetic and funny, yet cruel, heartbreaking, and even nauseating.” That was how movie reviewer Roger Ebert described 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, another Library of Congress selection. And it made the jump, taking movie-goers from the loud yet bloodless crime stories of the 1940s to a new level of graphic shoot-outs and, yes, some sex.

Its stars, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, were at the height of their prettiness, and Beatty was a powerful actor who worked mostly for Warner Brothers. When he learned that French producers planned to film it in winter in New Jersey (the Barrow-Parker gang shot its way through Texas), he bought in as a producer and had the location choices that made the film special.

Parker and Barrow’s capture stunned the public, as the film depicts it, fairly accurately. Before that, we watch them get through various capers and then run, sometimes catching bullets. Director Arthur Penn often shot the heist scenes speeded up almost comically, and then the shock of their injuries would jerk you back to the reality of their vicious lifestyle. This film paved the way for subsequent films like The Godfather and Death Wish. Gene Wilder made his movie debut in a brief role as true-life stranded passenger, horrified to learn who he’s with. When Bonnie’s reunion with her mother is filmed, with the locals gathered faithfully to watch filming, the local schoolteacher was chosen as her mother. Remember that woman? She seemed like Bonnie’s real mother! And the fashionistas invented entire new wardrobes for fans based on Dunaway’s slinky outfits.

At the end when they’re shot, the sound of the bullets creates a brash staccato on moviegoers’ ears. Yet, with Dunaway and Beatty wearing squibs (exploding blood packs) for the first time in any movie, they jerk in a soft dance as bullets lands. It was up against stiff competition during awards season: while the film was nominated for ten top awards, it won only for Best Supporting Actress (Estelle Parsons) and Cinematography (Burnet Guffey). But Ebert, when using that description mentioned above, said that each of those qualities, describing this movie, made up the whole range of human life.

photo by a gang member

Leonardo DiCaprio had two neo-noir films released in 2010. Inception was an allegorical SF adventure story, from an original script written by director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight; Memento). Nolan’s neo-noir touches included a budget devoted to the sets of the various dreams DiCaprio and Company experience during the movie. Nolan shot on 35mm film using a variety of focuses and lighting. It was another story about what happens to a good guy in a world that just doesn’t feel quite real.

Conversely, in the lugubrious Shutter Island, you want to shout from your movie seat for Leo to wake up and sort through what’s real around him and what isn’t. The film is set in the fifties, the dark, creepy story of a detective at an island-based psychiatric institution hunting for a missing person, directed by Martin Scorsese, and made from a novel of the same name by the superb Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone). Scorsese’s low lighting creates ominous shadows, and we see Leo playing Detective Teddy Daniels on a dreary, rain-pommeled island. Scorsese tips off the apt listener cleverly; the music playing as Daniels and his partner (Mark Ruffalo) approach the island is adapted from The Shining, a portent of danger.

This is a broad-based genre with many gems. Soon I’ll post a follow-up including multiple films made by one man. Thanks to Wikipedia for access to any non-free film-content images. The photo of Bonnie and Clyde was taken by a member of their gang.

This content appeared previously in Braegen, a publication of ECOM, Karen Bujak, editor.