Schrader's Notes on Film Noir

I found Schrader’s writings on film noir to be thoroughly engaging and informative. It’s close analysis of film noir sheds a good deal of light on both films of this period that we have screened this semester: The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity. For one thing, I was not aware that film noir was not considered a genre, but a film period equivalent to French New Wave or German Expressionism. This adds a different perspective, because though I knew that the tones were darker and it had quite a distinct style of dialogue, I had always associated film noir with crime dramas, and this isn’t particularly the case. One of the most interesting and applicable points brought up in the reading about the creation of film noir was that of the social circumstances that surrounded its birth. Film noir was brought on by the disillusionment of society following the over-simplification of cinema and the start of WWII. The main point is the disillusionment that people felt towards society after long periods of hardship, and its worthy of note at what point this article was written. At first when I began to read it, I was confused about the author’s reference to old movies as being contemporary, and their more fatalistic style appealing young viewers to it and that of the old film noir period. Then I noticed the year of publication: 1972. This was after the country had suffered through years of the Vietnam conflict, and there was a prevailing culture of disillusionment once more. I have also noticed a trend in cinema to depict realistic, and many times somewhat fatalistic stories in films today and I can’t help but think that this is a recurrence of the trend, brought on by the wars we’ve seen for the better part of a decade. When processing the analysis Schrader made toward this film period, many films meet many of the criteria set by film noir, I would venture to say most notably in the execution and acclaim that The Departed accomplished only three years ago. Other films of note are direct throwbacks to the film noir style, including Brick and the The Black Dahlia.