12.3 New Hollywood, Neo-Noir

 New Hollywood, Neo-Noir

Gittes and Evelyn in Chinatown (1974)

Neo-noir is classified as an early 60s shift on classical film noir standards using modern technology and social values. This new movement focuses on exercising an appreciation for classical film noir using nostalgic elements commonly found in such films. It is genuinely a modernization of the film noir movement by recognizing the choices made and shifting it to entertain and inform the post-modern audience. Neo-noir characteristics include cynical heroes, the deeply flawed protagonist, femme fatale, and light vs. dark elements, whether textually or subtextually. Some of the neo-noir traits come off similarly to those in classical film noir, so the difference relies on the execution of said characteristics. (LYNCH)

The most apparent difference between classical film noir and neo-noir would be the use of black and white turned to color with a post-modern touch. Chinatown and You Were Never Really Here both perfectly depict a profoundly flawed protagonist and the unfound circumstances to save an innocent soul that had been damaged by the guilty and murderous.

As with most if not all classical film noir, Chinatown takes place in Los Angeles, depicting all of the disgusting things found in a dirty underworld, such as misogyny and racism. With the modern touch, Chinatown makes the audience believe Evelyn Cross Mulwray (played by Faye Dunaway) to be the femme fatale by having her go through the same motions as a femme fatale in classical film noir.

With a dark, sultry appearance and the sudden murder of her cheating husband and seducing the detective, J. J. “Jake” Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson (Links to an external site.)); it truly all adds up to her being the femme fatale; however, Chinatown makes her more than that. It is shown in the end that Mulwray was raped by her father, which resulted in her having a daughter/sister and her father being the one to murder her husband. Chinatown truly depicts how disgusting and cruel the world can be while showing the audience how these things are swept under the rug into “Chinatown,” something insignificant and rather hateful in the eyes of those who despise immigration.

YOUTUBE CLIP OF CHINATOWN - Link Here
Chinatown Movie CLIP - Capable of Anything (1974)

CLIP DESCRIPTION:

Jake (Jack Nicholson) learns the awful truth about Noah Cross (John Huston),
but is helpless to stop him.

As opposed to classical film noir, Chinatown releases the inner truth of the nature of a man who would define someone by her sexuality. The filmmakers twist the narrative into making the audience the men in the beginning who will classify Mulwray sexually until we learn her true fate. I recall this to demonstrate that the typical portrayal of a woman in classical film noir has been morphed into showing the true nature, as shown in Chinatown. You Were Never Really Here is also doing a brilliant job at demonstrating unspoken life circumstances but at the same time focusing on the deeply flawed character that is Joe (played by Joaquin Phoenix (Links to an external site.)).

YOUTUBE CLIP OF YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE - Link Here

You were never really here OPENING SCENE (HD)

Movie title: You were never really here    Year: 2017
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writers: Lynne Ramsay (screenplay by), Jonathan Ames (based on the book by)
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov..

Film noir lends itself towards the loser characters (LYNCH) and never promotes happiness or happily ever after. This could not be truer than with the character Joe and his portrayal of a dead-beat man who sees himself as relatively insignificant in a nightmare of a world. In this neo-noir, Joe is the murderer, and it is up to the characters to release this idea because of the devastation that relinquishes itself inside of Joe mentally. This newer example of neo-noir does not focus on death as it used to, for instance, in Laura but instead focuses on the genuine disgust and nightmare that roams the world. Joe, a man who murders for payment, is the single good-minded man to save a young girl, Nina (played by Ekaterina Samsonov), who had been raped and cruelly abused.

YOUTUBE CLIP OF LAURA (1944) - Link Here

Laura, Preminger, 1944 - Interrogation Scene
Descripton: 
In investigating a crime, a police officer often gets close to the victim, maybe a little too close in this famous film noir by director Otto Preminger. Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is looking into the murder of a young woman believed to be Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) and the more he learns about the deceased, the more he wishes he could have met Laura before her untimely demise. As he interviews suspects and reads Laura’s letters important details come to life, as the dedicated lawman looks to uncover the party responsible for this crime.

The audience is influenced to forgive his actions because we are shown to suffer relentlessly throughout the film in the flashbacks. (LYNCH)The death presented throughout the film does not have the same power in classical film noir. Instead, it is a real nightmare of people we would never suspect to rape and abuse a child that keeps the audience up at night. It is the heartwarming element of connection we have to protect Joe as he has protected Nina and save him from what haunts him. This new neo-noir shows the world not to question the one who murders but question the world that has made them murder.(LYNCH)

Classical film noir began with men
1.who contained sexual idealizations of dangerous women
2.who influenced flawed men while at the same time influencing sociological issues.

(Neos)
As time grows, so does film noir, with the increased depth of storytelling provides a deeper purpose and meaning. 

Classical film noir and neo-noir are two completely different genres, as are the people who exist within those eras.

- Isabella Brownlee, "Neo-Noir Films: How Film Noir Continues to Influence,"
 Hollywood Insider