Tuesday 17 January 2012

MC: What are the generic conventions in Brick? (Johnson, 2005) - Film Noir & Neo Noir

Brick (Johnson, 2005)

Link disabled for copyright reasons



- The initial values of film noir ‘black film’ were first enforced back in the classic times of 40s and 50s in Hollywood.
- This American culture heavily influenced the rise in popularity of this film phase of the crime drama and psychological thriller genre.
- This style and era had popular acclaim for its stylistic low-key black and white filming styles.
- Stereotyping classic film noir, a vintage original; The Big Sleep (novel originally by Raymond Chandler) features a protagonist detective, provided and typically exaggerated with pessimistic attitudes and influence of sexual motivations.

- Noir has been popular throughout the years, and breaching into the future, neo noir is a very popular type of film for independent film enthusiasts; not seen as a separate genre until the 70s.
- Multiple directors have paid homage to classic film noir traits despite modern day advancements, and have been found to use stylistic and controversial filming techniques.
- In Following (1998), Nolan chose for the film to be in black and white. Unconventional camera movements are enforced in modern neo noire to distance the audience from the narrative.

- Like all genres, crossovers have been experimented with and found successful.
- Teen noir is one branch, and a popular film of this genre is Brick (Johnson, 2005).
- The audience can understand its unconventions simply by viewing the opening sequence.
- At times, there is an entire absence of white noise; an effect proving odd and isolative
- We can also comprehend the stylistic focusing, particularly during the use of shallow depth of field.
- The slow cutting rate of the entire sequence also proves noteworthy, some frames are multiple seconds long, subtly developing the protagonist. While he is given prevalence, we learn he is lonely and very contemplative.  




No comments:

Post a Comment