Introductory Post

Welcome to my opinions on films. This is the place where I can explain, expand and develop my opinions on films, genre and art. Just to be as clear as possible these are my opinions and in no way am I attempting to pass them off as facts, I feel it is necessary to state this as clearly as possible in a bid to prevent the many waiting and willing internet users from pouncing on me for being inaccurate or holding a different opinion to themselves. Obviously I intend to be as factually accurate as feasibly possible but so much of what I will be discussing will come down to personal opinion, so you have been warned!

For the time being I am going to be concentrating on looking into the gender conventions depicted within the genre of Film Noir. Before I continue I would like to point out that yes, Film Noir is a genre, despite what certain academics and others may believe (remember it's all opinions) and I see no reason why a certain style or group of stylistic conventions can not be classed as a genre, especially when they are so often backed up with narrative and character conventions.

Noir movies can be identified by a structure involving certain visual and thematic conventions. They generally have convoluted plots, often with a displaced sense of time. The labyrinthine narrative accentuates the feeling of anxiety and contributes to noir's overall mood of trepidation and hopelessness (Borde and Chaumeton, 1955).


In this series of blog posts I intend to define the gender conventions as depicted within Film Noir specifically looking at the characters of the Femme Fatale and the Hard Boiled Man, investigate and critique previous analysis of these conventions.

I expect to find that the gender conventions depicted, whilst being highly entertaining and creating some of the most incredible on screen chemistry in film history, are not very flattering to either gender.

Referemces

Borde, R. And Chaumeton, E (1955). Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953). Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1955.