Beat the Devil was full of well-known noir stars and imagery. Peter Lorre was the international star from M. Humphrey Bogart was known from The Maltese Falcon,… Read more “Beat the Devil Analysis”
MEDA 325 Darker Than Night Posts
Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock follows the famous photographer L.B Jeffries stuck at home in a wheelchair due to his broken leg, he spends his time watching his neighbors through his rear window. He believes he has witnessed a murder, with the help of his nurse Sella and fiance Lisa they take on theContinue reading “Rear Window (1954) Scene Analysis”
Key Largo tells the story of Frank McCloud, a pragmatic army veteran who is taken hostage inside the Hotel Largo by a power criminal and his henchmen. Unable to escape due to a catastrophic hurricane surging just outside the hotel’s doors, Frank and the other hostages attempt to stay alive under the oppressive thumb of […]
Lady Gangster is a 1942 Film Noir starring Faye Emerson and based off of the play Gangstress by Dorothy Mackaye. The story follows Dorothy Burton, a bank robber who pleas guilty of being an accomplice to the crime. The plot thickens as a childhood friend, Kenneth Phillips, goes to bat for her. Though Phillip and … Continue reading Scene Analysis 3: Lady Gangster
As for formal elements of film noir, I will be analyzing a scene from Dementia (1955). Throughout the scene and the entirety of the movie, expressionistic imagery is used in order to illustrate what the main character is thinking or how they feel through the way the scene is set up and shot. The scene […]
I will be looking at a scene for Kansas City Confidential, more specifically the scene at 1:00:59 where Tim Foster is looking out his window and seeing Joe Rolfe and Helen Foster speaking with each other. I will start with the lighting, in a typical film the character in front of the camera would be […]
One interesting idea that we’ve discussed in our class together is this idea of existential motifs. We’ve seen it in films like The Maltese Falcon where the entire cast is chasing after a statue that will make them all insanely rich and they all sacrifice everything to get it, and then finally when they haveContinue reading “Scenes analysis 2 revised”
The Asphalt Jungle directed by John Huston follows fresh out of prison Doc Riedenschneider and his plans for a million dollar heist. He puts together a small gang of specialist, Louis the safecracker, the driver Gus, financial backing from Emmerich, and help from the Anti-hero Dix Handley. Even the best laid out plans can goContinue reading “The Asphalt Jungle Scene Analysis”
Themes: The Asphalt Jungle In The Asphalt Jungle, the scene I chose matches the theme of betrayal as Alonzo Emmerich and Bob Brannom plan to double cross Doc Riedenschneider and Dix Handly. The four men, Erwin “Doc” Riedenschneider, Dix Handly, Alonzo Emmerich, and Bob Brannom, gathered around in a hotel suite to talk about the […]
Any cameraman or photographer will tell you just how important lighting is in a shot. However, with film noir the lighting seems to be emphasized. In the Place/Peterson reading we did for class, the writers talk a fair bit about lighting. Specifically the different kinds of lighting. “The key light is the primary source ofContinue reading “Scene analysis 2”