TCF 112 1st Edition Lecture 9 Outline of Last Lecture I Post War Hollywood 1946 1967 a HW Major Dilemmas Post War II i Shrinking audiences ii Paramount decrees iii Rise of the television iv Changing populations 1 Population migration 2 HW s response v Cold War Anxieties 1 Edward R Murrow vs Senator Joseph McCarthy b HW s Solutions i Additional Solutions Outline of Current Lecture I Post war Hollywood Genres and Social Melodrama and Film Noir a Social Melodrama i Characterized by ii Neorealism b Film Noir i Hollywood s German Expressionism ii Factors Shaping Film Noir iii Film Noir Characteristics These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute iv Legacy of the Film Noir c Pulp Fiction and Detective Stories i Pulp fiction ii Hard boiled Detective Stories d The Police Procedural Current Lecture Post war Hollywood Genres and Social Melodrama and Film Noir Industry and creatives were divided paranoid schizophrenic Social Melodrama The social problem film Ex The Lost Weekend Dir Billy Wilder o Characterized by Somber thematic tone Disillusionment Cinematic realism redefined acknowledges social crisis Ex The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 Dir William Tyler Dep Gregg Toland o Hollywood s Version of Neorealism Common Elements Professional and non professional actors Studio and location shooting Tarnished but redemptive heroes Happier endings than Italian Neorealism Film Noir Black Film Ex Double Indemnity 1944 Dir Billy Wilder French film critics of late 40 s 50 s coined term for this distinctly American film style Embraced a variety of genres Crime films o Hollywood s German Expressionism Ex Kiss Me Deadly 1955 Dir Robert Aldrich Story Mickey Spillane Ex The Asphalt Jungle Dir John Huston o Factors Shaping Film Noir 1 Post war gender relations o Women empowered financially and vocationally during war boom o Men must cope with war injuries must readjust to old jobs or find new ones 2 Better film technology o More sensitive film Night for night shooting possible o Cameras become smaller o Lenses become faster Ex Guncray 1950 A K A Deadly is the Female Long duration of the shots 3 Studio economizing 4 Major stylistic cultural influences o 1930 gangster film cycle Ex Little Caesar 1931 Ex The Public Enemy 1931 o Pulp fiction and Hard Boiled detective stories o German expressionism Impact on the look of film noir o Film Noir Characteristics 1 Darkness a Visual Low key lighting Ex The Big Combo 1955 b Psychological Ethical boundaries are unclear Ex Out of the Past 1947 Ex The Postman 1946 c Thematic Society is corrupt Take what you can while you can Ex Where the Sidewalk Ends 1950 2 Obsession Inability to change behavior even when has negative consequences Can concern anything Object Maltese Falcon Another person Lady from Shanghai One s former self Sunset Blvd 3 Male Anti hero Alienated and cynical Ex Chinatown 1974 Dir Roman Polanski At crossroads can choose good or evil Tragically flawed Between worlds 4 Contrasting Females Redeemer Black Widow Femme Fatale 5 Pervading Sense of Doom Central narrative question becomes Can anti hero escape tragic fate o Legacy of Film Noir Excessively stylistic expressions Pulp Fiction and Detective Stories o Pulp Fiction Cheap paperback publications focusing on fantastic tales across genres Lent itself to exploitation genres and was a precursor to grind house and pornographic media o Hard boiled Detective Stories An unsentimental depiction of crime sex and violence Major Writers James M Cain Dashiell Hammett Raymond Chandler Elmore Leonard Get Shorty Be Cool The Police Procedural Subgenre of the crime film Often contains stylistic elements of film noir Focuses on the step by step crime solving processes and institutional workings of the justice system Privileges police detectives and values of law and order Antithesis to the dark hard boiled detective narratives and corrupt seduction stories Ex The Naked City 1948 Dir Jules Dassin