The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

INTRODUCTION:

Film Noir is a term coined by French critics in 1946. It's a type of American films that "invaded" French cinemas after World War II. Film Noir emerged from a period of political instability within 1941's until 1958's, the time of WWII and the Cold War in United States. The characters are cynical and the Film Noir is filled in malice, features world of darkness, violence, paranoid and fear. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

Usually, the visual of Film Noir is dark and with lots of shadows. It also has the high-contrast lighting and the German-expressionistic. It always have the locations such as alleyways, cramped corridors and so on.  The setting of Film Noir is city-bound, comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors. The thematically of Film Noir is usually features a narration and also consist of hard-boiled antihero versus femme fatale. 

SYNOPSIS:

In this noir classic, detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets more 

than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman (Mary Astor). As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam's partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want the bejeweled Maltese falcon. 

ANALYSIS:

In this film, the low angle shot was mostly used as it can create the tension of the atmosphere of the scenes. The above picture is one of the particular scene example where Sam Spade met with Mr.Gutmen in his hotel. Obviously, this scene is using the low angle shot where Mr.Gutman was holding his cigarette. This show that Mr.Gutman was trying to dominating the particular scene with the cigarette in his hand by the low angle shot. 

In addition, the high-contrast lighting was used in this film too. As the above picture shown, it's the scene where Sam was trying to keep away/ have a distance with Wilmer from following/ stalking him. Refer to the above picture, there's obvious shadow which gave a sense of Sam seems like a good person from his appearance but actually there's a dark side in Sam like the shadow. 

Last but not least, the femme fatale was showed. The woman is central to the intrigue, making her the object of the male's investigation. Ultimately, it is her sexuality that is under investigation which threatens the male quest to resolve mystery. In this film, Brigid O'Shaughnessy act as the femme fatale where she asked Sam and his partner to search for her sister as her sister was missing. Sam and his partner immediately promised to give her a help. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, everyone has an evil or a dark side in their life. This film quite surprised me where I thought that the main character must be an evil person but actually he's not. Even though this Film Noir is in black and white, but the combination of the setting and story line were actually attracted me.  

REFERENCE:

Film noir. (2005, October 3). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://global.britannica.com/art/film-noir