Blog Entry #6

Well, where to start.  Classic noir and neo-noir, on the surface, seem to evoke the same message of cultural and social anxiety relevant to their respective timeframes.  They do this through the mediums of fatalism, pessimism, obfuscation, and upheaval of specific gender roles.  Add to this the usual expressionistic styles; dark, gloomy, depressive atmospheres, and let’s not forget the classic “crime doesn’t pay attitude.  With all of that, we get the classic definition of film noir, yet neo-noir does most of this, yet so much more.

First, let’s take a brief look at classic noir.  Generally a male protagonist whom is usually fairly ambiguous, a sultry and seductive femme fatale, a strong and willful detective (who can be the protagonist, he usually, however, loses he strong and willful nature when interacting with our femme fatale), and a dark and shocking crime.  Add all of that together with a dark monotone world full of shadows and gloom and you have some of the quintessential noir films described in a nutshell.  They may deviate from one or two of the usual aspects, however the overall feel is still very much noir.

Now, let’s take a look at neo-noir.  Gone (usually) are the dark monotone landscapes, now replaced with vibrant and colorful high-definition; gone (usually) is the crime doesn’t pay attitude, now replaced with a “take all you can and give nothing back” attitude; yet we still see parallels that equate the new school with the old school.  While sometimes the visual aspect isn’t dark, the social aspect more than makes up for it making the film still dark and gloomy.  With the loss of society’s perceived innocence, we gained darker and grittier stories to accompany us.  Gone are the ambiguous sexual innuendos and the minor, yet still shocking for the times, violent actions.  Now we have blatant sexual themes and overt over-the-top violent actions.  Sometimes these elements are even intertwined for an orgy of the senses, perhaps showing how desensitized we as a society have become that we need the over-the-top to connect to these films at all.  Sometimes we lose the overall ambiguous protagonist, in place of a cocksure and strongly moral hero.  I’ve used the term “moral” somewhat loosely, as our hero’s morals may or may not conform to society’s morals, which is still a staple of noir.  Sometimes our protagonist fulfills the role of the femme fatale, a role traditionally left to an antagonist.  Overall, neo-noir takes the roles and conventions of classic noir to new extremes in a more a la carte style.  Perhaps we have only a couple aspects in neo-noir film that can be paralleled to its classic counterpart, but that is okay.  Noir has always been tricky to define, and nothing has changed about that, the overall definition has just broadened a bit.

After all is said and done we still have dark films sharing society’s anxieties in expressionistic ways.  The overall essence that defines noir is still very much prevalent and alive, however, the films, as well as the audience, has changed with the times.