Current Forum: Session 10: Film Noir and Sexuality	Read 7 times 	
Date: 26-Mar-2001 23:57:41	
Author: CASHIN, KATHRYN K. <kkc2311@mailer.fsu.edu>	
Subject: Black but not noir 	
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       David and others provide convincing arguments explaining why L.A. Confidential is not representative of typical "noir", but is more akin to "pseudo noir." The movie, instead of typical "noir" conventions such as low-key lighting, deep focus cinematography,and flashbacks, instead features high-key lighting, rack focus and sequential narrative. And, although a narrator is employed, it is not romantic narration usual to "noir" films. Instead the narration is almost comedic, largely because the character, Sid, is played by Danny Devito, who is hard to take seriously.(201.)
       Furthermore, although L.A. Confidential does not provide the typical "femme fatale", the movie does reinforce depictions of"safe" femininity (for the male) and "dangerous" femininity. 
Using Mulvey's (and Freud's) arguments that women pose a castration problem for men, the movie supports Mulvey's ideas that women are either saved or punished, particularly through the character of Bud White. (207) White saves abused women by asserting his masculinity with the abuser. These are "safe" women, because although they are in jeopardy, White himself is 
not. Lynn represents the dangerous woman. His relationship with her puts him in jeopardy since she is a tool of enemy (evil) forces. However, in the end, Lynn and Bud are comfortably reunited, which runs contrary to the concept of femme fatale found in film noir. 
       Film noir typically shows men protagonist as loners and isolated. Certainly L.A. Confidential includes this convention. However, the problem presented by the movie is that there are too many brooding, isolated men to follow with. Ed, Bud and Jack are all loners and outcasts. Furthermore, the narrator is yet another character, Sid. So, although the male characters of the movie follow the conventions for male noir characters (including being detectives), there are too
many of them to feel any real anxiety or tension concerning anyone of them.
       Race is a dominate feature of L.A. Confidential, but not necessarily noir. The movie reflects the tensions between corrupt police forces looking for scapegoats and minorities. The Mexicans are beaten for crimes they did not commit and the three African American males are killed as scapegoats for another killing they did not commit. Perhaps the racial tensions in the movie are used as a substitute for the sexual ones in earlier noir movies. No longer are men afraid of women as there post war counterparts were. Instead they are afraid of other races and nationalities that threaten the status quo and power of white male supremacy.
       In other words, the new castration anxiety is not caused by a femme fatale but by a male other. L.A. Confidential may not be film noir because modern day producers/screen writers can't
recapture the tension caused by post war women. The movie may be "pseudo-noir" because the tension has been replaced by a new, but different threat.