Current Forum: Session 10: Film Noir and Sexuality	Read 4 times 	
Date: 26-Mar-2001 23:59:08	
Author: SANTORA, GEORGE J. <gjs8362@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>	
Subject: Neo-Noir 	
 [Remove]	
		
       Belton says, “ [that] film noir deals with a uniquely American experience of wartime and post war despair and alienation as a disoriented America readjusts to a new social and political reality” (pp. 191). Some critics consider film noir to be a series of films that share aesthetics, themes and character types, which reflect the socio political concerns of a historical era. This definition reduces films outside of the period from 1941 to 1958 to pseudo noir. Modern films that incorporate the stylistic elements and even thematic concerns of film noir are not genuine; they are neo-noir, because they exist outside of the historical period that molded this unique form of expression. Similarly, if a modern artist paints in the impressionist style, his efforts do not reflect the climate that existed that lead to the emergence of impressionism, he is a neo-impressionist. Although noir films have stylistic and thematic archetypes, the imitation of these outside of the original period fails to succeed in the goal of creating an “uncomfortable and disturbing malaise or anxiety in the viewer” (192). Although LA Confidential utilizes the stylistic 
elements and stock characters of noir, it fails to recreate the unsettling experience intended to represent the socio political climate of the original era.
       The low-key lighting, in conjunction with strange camera angles is designed to create an atmosphere of tension, which the viewer will find unsettling. The use of such techniques in LA 
Confidential is one way in which it captures the aesthetic qualities of the original noir films. The conversation between Bud and Lynn in the liquor store is a good example. The camera uses strange angles to relay their conversation. 
       The characters are also the stereotypical noir types for both the male and female characters. The male characters are tough guy proletariat types. In traditional noir, the 
protagonist is closely associated with the criminal element, a private eye, or even an insurance agent (Double Indemnity). They are forced to think like a criminal in order to do their work. This positions them on the edge of respectability. In LA Confidential, the police officers seem to meet this criterion at first glance, but they are totally corrupt and just as criminal as the element they are supposed to defeat. This applies to all of them Bud, Jack and evened. This presents a problem for the protagonist is typically enticed into criminal activity by the “Femme Fatale” Lynn in this film. The femme fatale lures the protagonist into criminality through the use of her feminine wiles. She is hyper-sexualized and the protagonist and the viewer find her irresistible. Although she is portrayed as a danger to male society such a black widow etc. in traditional noir, she is never made out to be a prostitute. In LA Confidential just, as they went to far with the borderline criminality of the protagonist they also do to the femme fatale.
       The problem of taking the characters to far into the dark side of society is that it eliminates any possibility of a moral lesson. Noir films reinforce the status quo by depicting the fate of characters that fall prey to the wrong type of woman, the femme fatale. She is representative of the woman who entered the work force in post war America and hence threatened the nuclear family, the base of all middle class values. There is usually a “good” woman whom the protagonist gives up on or is not interested in at all. His folly is choosing or having been lured into choosing the femme fatal. Since his choice is the wrong choice, the choice that threatens the family he and the femme fatale have to pay the price often by death. These films intend to demonstrate the kind of woman to be avoided, and the fate of the men who cannot resist their whiles. 
       LA Confidential fails to offer any alternative to the femme fatale. In addition, there is no danger represented by Lynn to any of the characters because they are already corrupt. Without the moral message relevant to the socio-political climate of post war America, LA Confidential is only a film that immerses the viewer into a world that is devoid of any moral conscience. 
       Lastly, the fact that the film has no need to resort to innuendo to make its illicit content clear only detracts from the experience. Although the film is useful for the examination of noir elements in modern films, according to Belton is not true noir.