IdaZFilmNoirClassNotes

                                                                        Gun Crazy (1950) Film noir emerges in the 1940s out of the gangster films of the 1930s. While the pre-code gangster films of the 1930s feature graphic depictions of violence compared to crime films one decade later, noir style reflects the darkness of postwar America . Noir draws on the style of artistic movements such as German Expressionism to paint a bleak portrayal of life in the nuclear age. The noir world is often described as a dark place, psychologically and morally, but also cinematographically. The design of shots and the composition of images matter just as much as what is conveyed via story and plot. Our discussion in this Module centers arou...

1.4 SCREENING: Gun Crazy Pauline Kael once said Joseph H. Lewis’ Gun Crazy (1950) “has a fascinating crumminess,” which is an apt description for a film that has so much lurid material on its brain — guns, sex, robbery, murder, youthful corruption — but that never exploits it for more than it’s worth. It’s a film about two people brought together by their shared love of guns, and who stay together through a life of crime because they’re made for each other “like guns and ammunition,” in the words of the boyish Bart Tare (John Dall), and yet the film has a sensitive core that can’t be masked by its prurient surface. It’s a B-film with a heart of gold, even if that heart was probably stolen. As a teenager, Bart Tare robs a hardware store to steal a gun and is sent to reform school. Though His friends and older sister testify that Bart would never kill a living creature after being emotionally scarred by shooting a young chick with his BB gun, the Judge still forces him to leave his frien...

1.3 The Paramount Decree and Postwar Production Changes United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 U.S. 131 (1948) In 1938, the Department filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that eight major motion picture companies had conspired to control the motion picture industry through their ownership of film distribution and exhibition. The eight original defendants were Paramount Pictures, Inc., Twentieth Century-Fox Corporation, Loew’s Incorporated (now Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (“MGM”)), Radio-Keith-Orpheum (dissolved in 1959), Warner Brothers Pictures, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Universal Corporation, and United Artists Corporation. After a trial, the district court found that the defendants had engaged in a wide-spread conspiracy to illegally fix motion picture prices and monopolize both the film distribution and movie theatre markets. On appeal, the Supreme Court sustained those findings. See United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948). Subsequently, each of the defendants entered ...

1.2 The Rules of Film Noir The chase is on in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949) Film Noir. When you think that phrase, the mind is immediately drawn to images of leggy ice queens, rumbled losers in fedoras, guns, neon and certain deadpan cynicism. Film Noir wasn’t a self conscious movement in the way the French New Wave was. It wasn’t a brand name like a Marvel superhero epic. But it did tap into something dark in the American postwar zeitgeist (spirit/mood/ideas/beliefs) and became for a spell hugely popular. It also created some of the most unforgettable images in film history. Film Noir hit its zenith in the late ‘40s , a time when veterans were returning home in droves after having witnessed unimaginable horrors. Under the weight of war trauma , men felt the brittle veneer of traditional masculinity – strong, stoic and dominant — crack and crumble . Film Noir tapped into this anxiety. It’s no accident that film scholars have called Film Noir the male weepy . Rule #1: Choo...

1.1 What is Film Noir? Throughout this course we will explore an array of film and literature movements, styles, modes, genres and techniques that ultimately helped influence what we now refer to as "Film Noir."  1. Hard Boiled Detective Novels (1920s-40s) 2. Gangster Films (early 1930s) 3. German Expressionism and Weimar Cinema (late-teens through the 1920s) 4. The Production Code (1934-1968) The Film Noir Myth Film noir is more than just 1940s and 1950s crime films infused with a higher quotient of sex and violence than their 1930s counterparts. There is, however, as Andrew Spicer (2002, vii) argues, a prevailing noir myth that “film noir is quintessentially those black and white 1940s films, bathed in deep shadows, which offered a ‘dark mirror’ to American society and questioned the fundamental optimism of the American dream.”   There is, of course, some truth contained in this so-called mythology, although it is more complex than this. Film noir is both a discursive const...

1.0 Overview Introduction and Overview Peak Noir Annie and Bart are "lovers on the lamb" in Gun Crazy In this module we will consider overarching questions debated by film lovers and historians about Film Noir - is it a genre, style or mode of filmmaking and revisit one of the peak B-Noir films that notoriously flew under the radar upon its release that checks all the noir boxes - Gun Crazy (aka Deadly is the Female). LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this module, you will be able to: 1. Describe stylistic and thematic elements of peak film noir 2. Identify and assess noir elements of lighting, characterization, theme,     mood and tone  3. Assess Gun Crazy (1950) as an example of peak noir TO DO LIST To meet the objectives of this module, you will complete the following activities and assessments: 1. Read James Naremore A Very Short Introduction to Film Noir Preface   and Chapter 1 If you have not yet ordered the textbook, do so now 2. Review all the clips and conte...

  Gaslight (1944) This module is presented as a developing reference to further materials that will help expand your understanding and study of Film Noir. BOOKS Books available to access online via the CCSF Library with your RAMID In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity by Frank Krutnick ( Links to an external site. ) Create a FREE Archive.org ( Links to an external site.) account to "borrow" these and other books! A Panorama of American Film Noir by Raymond Bourde & Etienne Chaumeton ( Links to an external site. ) Free access via the Internet Archive, A Panorama is an early key work originally produced in French that lays out early thoughts on the development, context and production of American Film Noir. Encyclopedia of Film Noir by Geoff Mayer & Brian McDonnell ( Links to an external site. ) The authors first examine the debate surrounding the parameters of the genre and the many different ways it is defined. They discuss the Noir City, its setting and b...

  Hi, my name is Denah Johnston and I'm a teacher, writer, filmmaker and curator working as a Film Studies professor and Chair of the Cinema Department at CCSF. I've been working in the department since 2015. With a background in photography I moved to San Francisco in 2001 to attend the graduate Film program at SFAI and study with Ernie Gehr, George Kuchar, Janis Lipzin, Craig Baldwin, Steve Anker and others. I continued my line of inquiry as a post-graduate student at the European Graduate School and completed a PhD in Media & Communication in 2011.  I worked at Frameline in educational distribution and later as the Executive Director of Canyon Cinema Foundation ( Links to an external site. ) – the West coast source for experimental film, guiding the organization to attain nonprofit status in 2014. Involved in Bay Area film and arts since 2002, I have worked as programmer and pre-screener for the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film F...

 Thanks everyone who could join us yesterday afternoon for the first meeting. You will find more of a regular class "flow" next Monday as we begin with a class discussion of Gun Crazy, so be sure to watch it! Each week you will see your TO-DO's listed on the Overview page. For next Monday you have the following: 1. Read James Naremore A Very Short Introduction to Film Noir Preface and Chapter 1 2. If you have not yet ordered the textbook, do so now 3. Review all the clips and content in this module 4.Watch Gun Crazy 5. Complete the "Introduction and Peak Noir" Discussion For those who couldn't join us, be sure to review the class meeting recording via the CityZoom link on your class menu. Select "Cloud Recordings" and click on the link for the 1/24 meeting. If you have any questions feel free to reply to this Announcement OR drop a quick note in Pronto (linked on your Canvas menu).

Welcome to CINE 23B Focus on Film Noir first class meeting January 24th 2pm via Zoom Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950) I look forward to our first class meeting via Zoom on Monday January 24th at 2pm. To get an idea of class policies, assignments and expectations take a look at the Syllabus. To join Remote class meetings, simply go to CityZoom on the left Menu and select the meeting date, click JOIN. If you are unable to join us please be sure to review the class recording available a few hours after the meeting concludes via the CityZoom menu. Your first homework film and Discussion in Module 1 will be available to you at 8am on the 24th. If you haven't acquired it already please order The REQUIRED TEXTBOOK which is available hardcopy and as an e-book: James Naremore Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction Oxford, 2019 All of the required films and clips will be provided in Canvas via Berkeley's Lumiere system or other means and will be captioned in most instances (as the media i...