The cinematic style, film noir, is used to describe films that have been shot with lots of almost back scenes; sometimes the shot is completely black. Film noir translates as ‘black film’ in French and was mainly used in the 1940s/1950s and this reflected the state of society. Films that contain the cinematic style film noir are known as noir thrillers.
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| The Third Man, 1949 |
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman who traps men using her desire often into dangerous or deadly situations. In French it means ‘deadly woman’. She uses her beauty and passion to enchant her victims. In the end they are often tamed either becoming an innocent housewife or they die. The classic femme fatales are from the 1940s and 1950s but in contemporary films there is also another kind of femme fatale. They have many of the attributes of a classic femme fatale but are more up to date and strong minded.
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| Gilda, Gilda, 1946 |
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| Lisbeth Salender, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, 2009 |
Often thriller films contain anti-heroes; they are characters that act in an un-heroic manner, such as stealing or violence, to get what they want. An example of an anti-hero would be Noodles in Once Upon A Time in America played by Robert De Niro.
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| Noodles, Once Upon a Time in America, 1984 |
In some thriller films there is an attractive or sympathetic villain. These are villains that connect to the audience even though they shouldn’t. They make the audience feel sympathy towards them or they are attractive and the audience falls for them.
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| Harry Lime, The Third Man, 1949 |
Generic locations in thriller films are often dark, confined and claustrophobic. This gives the audience as sense of fear and closeness to the characters of the film. For example, a dark, small, wet back alley is confined and not a nice place to be so therefore would be ideal for filming a scene for a thriller film. Also, the London underground would be a good place to film as its underground giving a sense of no escape and small spaces.
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| Dark, Wet Street |
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| London Underground |
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| Multi-Story Car Park |
1 comments:
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