Conventions of Film Noir - Psycho
- Psycho has a piece of music that is used all the way throughout the film but is mainly recognised for the iconic shower scene, in Film Noir the music is mainly string based e.g. violins.
- Filmed in black and white, the limited colour range makes it feel more sophisticated, but creates a more tense atmosphere when it comes to crime scenes and the killing of the femme fatale.
- Mainly set in a less likely city of choice, this could be to make the film more disorientating as its not a well-known city, for example the city in Psycho is Phoenix, Arizona.
- Sex is usually featured in Film Noir's.
- A murder.
- There is always a femme fatale who is usually the one who has the sex scene and who gets murdered. Also, they usually have dreams that have not been achieved but are what drives them, for example the Femme Fatale in Psycho wishes to get married to the man she is cheating with and to settle down instead of having to cheat with another woman's husband.
- The man she's cheating with has money and is a liar, e.g. says he wants to get married to her.
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- Everyone always have cigarettes and alcohol.
- The femme fatale has an idea which may help her to have her dream but it involves doing something wrong that will get her into trouble.
- There is something that interrupts her plan.
- Always filmed with low lighting to create a dark atmosphere.
- The narrative is typical Film Noir, the audience know the basic outline of what will happen, there will be a crime, the anti-hero and femme fatale will fall in love and the femme fatale will die. Film Noir audiences like knowing what's likely to happen, yet they don't know how it's going to happen and this is what entices them.
- Psycho has the famous shower scene with the violin piece of music in the background to go with it. This has affected a lot of films that have come after it and that are being made in the present time, it has given some films ideas for other iconic murder scenes with their own branded background music to go with it, however the idea has been inspired from watching Psycho's famous shower scene.
- The film fits the experience of what a Film Noir audience are looking for, it has all the key conventions of a typical Film Noir.
your posts need to be far more visual and interactive Emily.
ReplyDeleteTo extend
> you need stills from the films to illustrate your points - it will enrich the quelity of what you write and enhance marks
> then add some summative writing showing what you have learned: you could consider analysing the decision to use a limited palette/colour range and a restricted narrative. It is also important to consider context - how does this film fit into the wider context of experience for the target audience- e.g borrowed interest or intertextuality as well as how they would read it within the target genre - wjat impact has it had on future films/genre - maybe discuss the remake/tv series/your own work...