Louis Proyect wrote: > > Defining the noir style has been a preoccupation of many leftwing cultural > historians. This is not surprising since noir not only reflects the > hard-boiled depression-era sensibility but the sense of disillusionment > that followed it during the post-WWII period. Yes, but there is a lot more going on in noir. Themes of the existentialist philosophers are evident in most film noir, fate, angst, condemned to freedom, etc. The use of the atomic bomb in Japan created a sense that the world could end at any moment creating an atmosphere of doom. This theme plays out clearly in the most cynical and doom laden noir "Criss-Cross" with Burt Lancaster. All this was laid out in Mailer's essay "The White Negro." While much of noir art was > produced by left-wingers, it very rarely captured the sense of optimism and > group solidarity that defined the Popular Front cultural ethos. While many > of the CP'ers who wrote noir screenplays obviously believed that Ben Shahn > and Mike Gold were doing the right thing, they either were prevented from > producing such work in Hollywood or--more interestingly--consciously chose > to depict shady and economically marginal characters cut off from society > instead. So defining the link between such works as "Blue Gardenia", "Force > of Evil" and "The Big Clock"--all written by CP'ers--and the politics of > their creators becomes a real challenge, Sometimes the marginal characters in noir are seen as a kind of lumpen proletariat waging a class struggle through crime. For example, the solidarity and friendship between Richard Widmark and the snitch in "Pickup on Southstreet" despite the fact that Widmark knows the snitch had ratted on him. The typical view in noir is that the cops and the crooks are really the same people who use the same methods, they're just on opposite sides-- there's a line to this effect at the end of "The Naked City." Another device is to show 'honor among thieves' like in Asphalt Jungle (Marilyn Monroe's first feature and starring the incomparable Sterling Hayden) and Kubrick's great neo-noir The Killing(also with Hayden). There are the traditional themes too like redemtion; where Alan Ladd (my favorite)is redeemed at the end of "This Gun For Hire." The theme of the pervasive evil and corruption that lurks beneath the surface would influence later film directors like David Lynch. "Laura" consumed much of her energies in this period, > which she felt was a necessary escape valve from the intense feelings of > disillusionment the pact brought on. The movie, best known now for its > haunting title melody, depicts a strong-willed woman trying to carve out an > identity for herself. After she is murdered, a working class detective > tracks down the perpetrator in a decadent and morally-corrupt group of > upper-class society types. Laura is not actually murdered in "Laura." She appears about half way through the film. That plot device so common in American entertainment the 'mistaken identity.' > > Close to two other left-wing émigrés Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, When Eisler was called before the idiots at HUAC, he was accused of being the "Karl Marx of music." Eisler replied that he was "flattered." Lang > eventually moved to Hollywood where his German expressionist esthetics > helped to influence film noir, often perceived--incorrectly in my > opinion--as a specifically American phenomenon. Although Lang adapted to > the Hollywood prejudices against overtly political films with messages, he > never was happy with these constrictions. Lang himself made some great quasi-film noirs in his Hollywood period. I don't think Noir is a specifically American phenomenon since some directors like Godard in "Breathless" attempted the noir aesthetic (though in Godard's case its hard to tell whether he is parodying it or not.) Noir is still the greatest film genre to come out of America doing for american film what neo-realism did for Italian and the New Cinema did for French. Sam Pawlett
