This is the first post written and illustrated by Ida Grujić, and she will be a contributing author to the Geographies of Noir series. Ida is
a set designer, with a strong interest in theory and history of cinema.
She graduated with a thesis on spatiality in film noir and Roman
Polanski's cinema.
As
mentioned in the previous post, space in noir is what under surface is. As in other sorts
of movies, representations of space in noir influence quintessentially
the way of understanding them. But what is the nature of this space?
In my previous work I attempted to identify the right methodology for
analyzing it, so to speak, a more objective type of analysis for the
specific cinematographic space I have in front, if eventually there
is one that is applicable. Film noir is extremely demanding from this
point of view. I'm looking here to introduce what might be considered
the problem of the definition of this space. What is behind dark
shadows, strong contrasts, nocturnal settings, and how does it work
in noir's literal context? Is it just a narrative method or is it
possible to speak about a deeper extension throughout spatio-temporal
dimensions? Is this space just a black imagery? And what is a
structure through which this black materializes in an image, in a
sequence, in an entire film, in a series of films, in a period in
Hollywood production of almost twenty years?
Manifestation
of the space in noir is based on interaction of a huge range of
different elements, so let's start from a simple observation –
in each noir there is always a plot, a tale. There is a concrete and
precise content that acts as the basis of the film. A story put down
in that way functions as a basic support in a process of establishing
the level of empathetic involvement in the film. It happens
contemporarily through the presence of a wide spectrum of figures.
Thus, space in noir is deeply dominated by its story-like character
and by relations of diverse, more formal elements that give an
emotional value to this space. Reading of this space can’t be
separated from its fictional attribute. On the other hand, what would
be a social component in noir films? And how it concretely acts in
the formation of its structure?
Films
produced in the period ranging from 1940s to 1960s and connected with
this term are so diverse among them that systematic examination is
almost impossible. In that sense, the idea of noir as a genre is
reasonable, but only if it circumscribes these films within the term.
Than it would imply that “genre” works as a container (holder),
as a fixed memory open to its manifestations but in continuous
relationship with elements external to the system, which in part have
function of regulators. It could be then possible to valuate each
author's sensibility, and diverse thematics, as much as the
analogical structures acting as the film's basis. But it is more
significant to analyse the tendency to establish a structure that
provides certain functionality, structure which is also a model that
allows variations and substitutions, combinations and contradictions.
What I am trying to make clear is that the problem of film noir's
definition is already a problem of the reading its space. As always
when attempting to frame a metaphysical concept, the problem of
finding the origin of the underpinning idea and understanding of how
the convention arises.
James
Naremore once affirmed that noir belongs to the history of ideas as
much as to the history of cinema, and as such regards
important cinematographic heritage as much
as the origin of the underpinning idea. To
expand the scope of the idea is to enlarge the border of noir in many
directions, in chronological terms first, then
narrative stylistic and thematic variations, reflecting in
this way also the vagueness of the term. Already the first essays
about noir, written by Nino Franc and Jean Pierre Chartier in the
mid-fifties, are based on the same
intuition: the importance of a realistic
affinity with the hard-boiled literature, which as an objective has
both the description of the ambient and the characterization of the
protagonists. In this perspective, spatiality cannot
be separated from visual attributes and epical manifestations: films
noir tend to narrate the story by exposing
the facts, filtered through
the stylistic neutrality of surroundings.
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