Background Facts:
- Released in 1984
- Directed by Sergio Leone, a well known auteur director and famous for 'spaghetti westerns' such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West"
- Set in a period between the 1920's to the 1960's, the film is largely told through flashbacks from the 1960's.
- Heavily intwined with the Prohibition that took place in America from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was the ban on the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol. During this period organised crime received a major boost due to bootlegging and the black market.
- The film is a literary adaptation of the book "The Hoods" by Harry Grey
- Harry Grey wrote about life in the twenties and thirties and the syndicates that controlled the businesses in New York. Wrote "Call Me Duke" and "Portrait of a Mobster" as well as "The Hoods'
- Shown at Cannes Film Festival
- 3 cuts were made; the original being 269 minutes long, the European cut is 229 minutes long and the USA cut is 139 minutes long; this version had the narrative changed by re-editing the scenes in chronological order.
- "Epic tale of a group of Jewish gangsters in New York, from childhood, through their glory years during prohibition, and their meeting again 35 years later" - Short summary from IMDB page
Notes on opening scene(s):
- Characters: right from the outset we see traditional characters that may be found in thriller films, especially the sub-genre, crime thrillers. These characters could possibly be gangsters/criminal or maybe even bent cops, it is hard to tell exactly from the 4 minutes viewed. What we can see is that these characters are most definitely shady and so fit the thriller genre perfectly as they would not look out of place in completing dark acts. Alongside these gangsters/criminals/bent cops we have the victims that they are terrorising/interrogating, these sort of characters often appear in the thriller genre because they help to convey the fear and emotion of what is happening. Victims are also used in thrillers because it helps to ground the audience, thrillers are based very much so on reality and the grittiness of what can actually happen in life and so the victims remind the audience that what is happening in the film (sometimes) happens in real life also. Lastly it appears that a 'femme fatale' is present in the opening, she must be dangerous/deviant because the gangsters give no thought in shooting her after she denies knowing the location of the man in question, the fact that they shoot her hints that she may know some information that is potentially dangerous.
- Locations/settings: The locations used in the opening scenes are dimly lit, or what could also be referred to as 'noir lighting'. This helps to convey the dark mood/nature of the thriller genre and also that of the film, giving us a sense of foreboding of what is to come.
- One of the first props used in the opening are guns, this seems appropriate to the gangster feel of the film as guns are a method of quick and easy death, death is frequently apparent in the thriller genre because it is almost inescapable when dipping into the darker side of the genre.
- The opening scenes leave the audience with a lot of open questions and uncertainty, for example who is the man that the gangsters are looking for? Why are they looking for him? Who are the people being interrogated and what do they know? The aim of proposing all of these questions is to ensure that the audience will be hooked into the film, to make sure they don't get bored and Once Upon a Time in America does this well.
Why might the femme fatale be considered a misogynist representation of gender?
I don't think that the femme fatale is a misogynist, more the complete opposite because they are often portrayed as dangerous, deviant, mysterious and sometimes 'fatal'. This is quite contradictory to the traditional misogyny towards women because they can often be shown as weak or unable to do things for themselves; women are also objectified in many films as promiscuous and untrustworthy. Femme fatale are often very different to this stereotype because they can be dangerous, sometimes more so than any of the male characters, and are very able to take action themselves. Although femme fatale's are seen as being more confident within roles they are still almost always depicted to be seductive, which they often use to lure men into dangerous situations. This could be seen as a misogynistic towards the female gender because it gives the impression that all women have to seduce men in able to co-operate with them which shouldn't be the case in real life.
Definition of Film Noir
The term 'Film Noir' comes from the French and means 'black film'. It's a genre that came about in the early 1940's and thrived predominantly in this era, with many classic noir thrillers being released around the time. There are several characteristics that can identify a 'noir' film; these are the characters/protagonists, the setting, the plot and visual style.
Characters
I don't think that the femme fatale is a misogynist, more the complete opposite because they are often portrayed as dangerous, deviant, mysterious and sometimes 'fatal'. This is quite contradictory to the traditional misogyny towards women because they can often be shown as weak or unable to do things for themselves; women are also objectified in many films as promiscuous and untrustworthy. Femme fatale are often very different to this stereotype because they can be dangerous, sometimes more so than any of the male characters, and are very able to take action themselves. Although femme fatale's are seen as being more confident within roles they are still almost always depicted to be seductive, which they often use to lure men into dangerous situations. This could be seen as a misogynistic towards the female gender because it gives the impression that all women have to seduce men in able to co-operate with them which shouldn't be the case in real life.
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| Anne Savage - Detour, 1945 |
Definition of Film Noir
The term 'Film Noir' comes from the French and means 'black film'. It's a genre that came about in the early 1940's and thrived predominantly in this era, with many classic noir thrillers being released around the time. There are several characteristics that can identify a 'noir' film; these are the characters/protagonists, the setting, the plot and visual style.
Characters
- Femme fatale (e.g Marion Crane - Psycho, Gilda).
- Private Eye
- Often alienated or bitter towards the world.
- Corrupt policemen.
- Jealous husbands.
- Gangsters
- Down-and-out writers.
- Cigarette smokers often symbolised the protagonists.
Setting
- Often shared with gangster film, police procedural, gothic romance and social problem films.
- Typical locations are Prohibition period cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
- Bars, clubs and gambling dens.
- Climax often takes place in industrial settings such as factories, refineries, power plants (conclusion of White Heat).
Plot
- Crime, often murder plays a part in the noir genre due to its dark nature.
- Greed and jealousy.
- Heists or con games.
- Murder conspiracies involving love affairs.
- Betrayals, false accusations and double-crosses.
Visual Style
- Dark/low-key lighting contrasting with lighter areas, often creating interesting, striking shadow patterns. This can sometimes be called Chiaroscuro lighting, a term derived from Renaissance paintings which literally means "light-dark".
- Faces of characters are often partially or fully concealed by the shadows, appealing to the dark nature of the genre.
- Wide angle, low angle and tilt shots have known to be used frequently, this is mainly to disorientate the audience.
- Shots of characters distorted reflections also create a sense of disorientation amongst the audience.
- Often shot at night.
A SPLENDID start to research into the thriller genre reflecting intellectual engagement with genre. Note the representation of women in thriller films tends to either marginalise weak women (appendages of men, wives, girlfriends, mothers "The Godfather Trilogy" or demonise women who are manipulative or deviant. Eve is an example of the latter and is thus destroyed. It's interesting that Leone has the shooting of Eve at the beginning of the film though the action throughout the film is male centric.
ReplyDeleteWell done for discussing the different cuts, the Europeon and USA cut where the narrative structure was changed. This is like the recent remaking of the Danish TV crime series "The Killing" by a USA network, suggesting the USA audience will not make the effort to read subtitles!!!
A quick note re femme fatales being a misogynist representation. The point is that strong women in film are too often considered dangerous or shrewish and certainly not to be trusted. If you think of films like "In Her Shoes" which is a splendid example of female stereotypes in film. There is one sister who is unreliable and off the rails (the sinner), another who is the saint, she is a lawyer, responsible and aspirting, then there is the mother figure.
ReplyDeleteAlso the film American Beauty focuses on 4 distinct negative female stereotypes:
1)The sinner (the young 15 year old Lolita girl who unknowingly seduces the older man).
2) The saint girl who is passive and eventually trails after brightgeeky boy next door.
3) The mad woman who is mother of bright geeky boy.
4) Shrewish wife (a career woman - how awful!) who is ridiculed and is mother of saint girl and wife of poor misunderstood angst ridden man who falls for Lolita young tirl.!!!!! And he is the hero of the film.
The film American Beauty is well thought of but personally I think the representations of gender are out of the Arc!!!!
Much to think about Hamish and we are very pleased with your progress.
Don't forget to do an analysis of aspects of mise-en-scene for Essex Boys. You can also do this as a prezi looking specifically at lighting, locations, character types, costume, role of the voice over, props and objects.