Movies Maltese Falcon and Basic Instinct 2 as Film Noirs - Essay Example

Multicultural Film I. Introduction According to Beltons (2005), film noir which literally mean "black film", refers to an American phenomenon made in Hollywood, United States of America. However, historians disagree as to its status as a cinematic phenomenon. Critics such as James Damico (1978) and Foster Hirsch (1981) consider film noir as a genre with conventional plots involving murder, crime, and detection, and character types such as hard-boiled heroes and femmes fatales. Durgnat (1974) and Porfirio (1976) map film noir into a family tree of thematic concerns, including sexual pathology (the Clytemnestra plot), psychopathic behavior, alienation and loneliness, existential choice, meaninglessness, purposelessness, the absurd, infernal urban landscapes, and other related subjects. A good definition of film noir was given by Borde and Chaumeton (1955), who refer to film noir as a purely affective phenomenon in the sense that it disturbs viewers, disorients them and produces a profound uneasiness. And it does this by whatever means possible. The historical nature of film noir derives, in large part, from its attempts to disturb. Film noir succeeded in creating a malaise in its audiences by refusing the stylistic and thematic conventions of classical Hollywood cinema. That is, noir arose in the 1940s as a response to and rejection of 1930s Hollywood cinema. In certain films, this refusal of 1930s cinema takes the form of a single scene or shot that violates the norm, such as the tight close-up of an unidentified hand firing a gun at Sam Spade's partner, Archer, near the beginning of The Maltese Falcon movie in 1941 (Belton, 2005). The majority of those who explored the darker reaches of the noir experience were American, born and bred. The source material for the bulk of noir narratives came from the underworld of American pulp fiction. Nearly twenty per cent of the film noirs made between 1941 and 1948 were adaptations of hard-boiled novels written by American authors. Film noir deals with a uniquely American experience of wartime and post-war despair and alienation as a disoriented America readjust to a new social and political reality. Film noir was discovered and christened in postwar France. In 1945, after the Allies liberated Paris, France, an enormous backlog of American films, which had been made during the war but had not been seen in Nazi-controlled territories like France due to the ban made by Germans, reached French screens. A succession of extremely downbeat films is shown in France. This cycle began with a Hammett detective film entitled Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941). It was an observed that in this cycle of films has subversive strain of behavioral deviance in American films, which at this time became dominated by crime, corruption, cruelty, and an apparent unhealthy interest in the erotic. The French believed then that American film had suddenly turned grimmer, bleaker, and blacker. II. Analysis of the Movies "Maltese Falcon" and "Basic Instinct 2" as Film Noirs The adjective "noir" aptly conveys not only the films' antecedents in the "romans noirs" or black novels but also the essential nature of experience that audiences have in watching the films. These films unsettled audiences. Through their violation of the traditional narrative and stylistic practices of classical Hollywood cinema that oriented and stabilized spectators, these films created an uncomfortable and disturbing malaise or anxiety in their viewers. Film noir is a specific emotional reaction produced by certain films in an audience. In the "Maltese Falcon" and "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", film noirs can be seen as a purely affective phenomenon such that it produces some emotional responses in people. Not every film noir needs to be noir from start to finish. It needs only to be noir for a moment or two. It requires only a single character, situation or scene that is noir to produce the disturbance or the disorientation that is necessary to give the audience an unsettling twist or distressing jolt. In a film noir, there is iconography, for instance, "dark city streets glistening at night with fresh rain" in "Maltese Falcon", or, "glistening steel-gray London night" in "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction". There are also fixed character types (proletarian, tough guy, antiheroes ensnared by treacherous femmes fatales) and predictable narrative patterns (murder plots and criminal fallibility leads to his victimization and / or defeat at the hands of his enemies and often results in his death or in an otherwise unhappy ending. Film noir relies on a well-defined system of conventions and expectations. It has a distinctive style, such that it is dark. Low-key lighting becomes the norm in film noir, replacing the pre-noir norm of cheerful, high-key lighting setups. Both movies reflect all these. Though certain characters, narrative situations, and thematic concerns appear again and again in film noir, these elements tend to resist conventionalization and play against expectations. Also, film noir lacked the institutional status of traditional genres. Producers, directors, and screenwriters of 1940's and 1950's film noirs did not deliberately set out to make film noirs. There was no body of noir conventions for them to follow. Nor did audiences who saw film noirs view them as they did not look at them in relation to a fixed system of prior expectations. In the movie "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", erotic mystery novelist Catherine Tramelle (played by Sharon Stone) has move in London, and after getting into an automobile accident that kills her boyfriend, she's brought in by Scotland Yard and put under the care of psychologist Dr. Michael Glass (played by David Morrissey), who determines that she is addicted to risk. She proves him right by starting a torrid affair with him, as those even remotely connected with him start dying off. It is said that every film noir does rely, to some extent, on identifiable character types and conventionalized narrative patterns. For instance in the movie "Maltese Falcon", the detective hero falls into the clutches of the woman, extricating himself from danger only by repressing those passions that drew him to her in the first place and by "sending her over" to the authorities. In the "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", a notorious crime novelist, Catherine Tramell is the deadliest challenge to the respected criminal psychologist Dr. Michael Glass' who was later lured into a murderous web of lies and deceit when he begins a torrid affair with Tramell since as their passion rise, so does the dead body count and Dr. Glass faces a choice that will change his life forever. Which is generic in film noir is precisely that which is not noir. There is nothing in the outline of the "Maltese Falcon" detective story that is necessarily eery, disorienting, or anxiety-producing for the audience. In the "Basic Instinct 2", the outline of this movie causes the audience to observe uneasiness and betrayals. Film noirs have schizophrenic nature. The conventions and systems of expectations that can be found in the "Maltese Falcon" film noir is that of the genre to which this film belongs - that of the detective film. On the contrary, crime, drama, mystery and thriller are the genres of the "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction". What makes these film noirs is the similar, transgenic attitude it takes toward its particular genre - the twist it give to conventional genre types, forms and patterns. Henry Bean and Leora Barish write well this noir script. These couple / writers live in New York and they are familiar with the American culture. These writers are into the therapy scene. This movie has a vintage quality with a modern twist. This is a classicist movie with a modern thing. These writers used the noir set-up and put a modern edge on it The film has that noir thing with the over-the-top modern edge to it. This is not a deadly serious movie. The "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction" employ noir stylistics such as low-key lighting and plot and character types associated with noir. It can be found in the movie Chandleresque detectives and femmes fatales. But this is not a noir - at least not in the same way that films of the 1940s and 1950s are. Film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s frustrated, twisted, and transgressed genre conventions (Beltons, 2005). As a whole "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", is a film noir thriller in which you have no idea who kills who. The main difference from the film noirs of the past is that the lead female character, Catherine Tramell, has upped her stakes and decided to mess with the mind of a very stable, very grounded Psychoanalyst Michael Glass, played by David Morrissey. III. American Culture as Depicted in "Maltese Falcon" and "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction" The various scenes of the "Maltese Falcon" and "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction" express many different ideas about men and women and their positions in the American culture. The American culture as depicted in these two movies represents attitudes from the past that are still present in modern society, new ideas about culture and the main ideas about culture. These are the progressions of American culture that are shown in these two movies which appeals to the viewers. Women are commonly expected to play either sweet and innocent characters, referred to as angelic characters, or harsh and volatile characters, referred to as monster-like characters. The idea of a woman character either representing a wholly negative and mean side or a completely calm and angelic side, express the main idea of women being angels or monsters. The ending of the "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction" does not depict-women as- either "angel" or "monster". The male takes the blame and is left powerless, while usually men are often seen as mighty and powerful. Also, it does not limit the women characters to extremes of angels or monsters. This ending is accepted wherein the male is confined in the mental institution for murdering several people, while the woman proved in her novel that the man, or the shrink, is the one who had committed the serial killings. Woman here is played as less than human, representing fictional characters and the man is mighty and without fault. However, there is that twist in the ending that shows the man did the serial killings. Ideas of less than human women paired with powerful and authoritative men are prime examples of ideas in American culture that have been around for years and still carry into the present times. The women in the two movies are reflected as more powerful than the man is. In the "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", Dr. Glass receives but largely ignores warnings about his burgeoning relationship with Tramell - first professional, then personal - from his friend and colleague, Milena Gardosh (played by Charlotte Rampling). Milena Gardosh shows the good side of the woman. The main ideas in the American culture currently are mixtures of ideas representing women as either angel or monster. The main woman in the movie is like a monster. A host of smart people (psychiatrists, journalists, detectives, eminent legal minds) falls under the spell of Catherine Tramell. Despite her notorious reputation, these fine folks befriend her. Feminism is also observable in the movie. The movie shows women's naked bodies on screen. This is not unusual since everybody get naked, anyway. David Morrissey who plays Dr. Michael Glass, is depicted as the the psychiatrist who is recruited to diagnose Ms. Tramell, thus, exposing himself to a world of sexual depravity and hedonistic abandon. After digesting the movie, one may suppose that the surname, Glass, is somewhat like a euphemism for how fragile this guy is. IV. "Maltese Falcon" Provides Window on Middle and Late Century Culture and Serves as a Comparison and Contrast for the Culture in the 21st Century as Reflected in "Basic Instinct 2" The movie "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction" reflects the culture in the 21st century in contrast with the culture in the 2oth century. Killing always wrong in any culture neother is helping always obligatory. Each culture has principles that dictate when killing is permissible and when helping is forbidden. The linguistic analogy is meant to establish how each culture sets particular parameters that, once established, make our understanding of another culture's settings as incomprehensible. The 21st century has a dare-bare culture. In this movie, a bisexual crime novelist and accused serial killer Catherine Tramell is depicted here as a sexually-active woman. Another strong character here unlike in the past movies, is the amoral cop who is willing to break any rules necessary to bring in the bad guys. This character is the intellectual adversary for Catherine. This English detective (David Thewlis) hell-bent on locking up Tramell and throwing away the key. Another difference in the 21st century movies in contrast with the 20th century movie is in the modern culture where the women are overly aggressive. Catherine, in the movie "Basic Instict 2: Risk Addiction" was diagnosed as suffering from "risk addiction." It is defined by Morrissey's Dr. Glass as a compulsive need to take risks and survive them. She seems to see in the murderous author a franchise character. Catherine is like a sociopath whose raison d'etre is to mess with anyone and everyone's minds for no seeming reason than her own enjoyment. And with a target for her mind games like Dr. Glass, who is susceptible. BIBLIOGRAPHY Beltons, John. (2005). American Cinema. American Culture. 2nd ed. , New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton, (1955). Panorama du film noir Americain (1941-1953). Paris: Les Editions de minuit. Damico, James. Film Noir: A Modest Proposal. Film Reader, February 1978. Durgnat, Raymond. Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir. Film Comment 10, no. 6 (November-December 1974) Hauser, Marc D. (2002). Basic Instinct. Science & Spirit Magazine. Hirsch, Foster. (1981). The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir. San Diego: A. S. Barnes. Porfirio, Robert. No Way Out: Existential Motifs in Film Noir. Sight and Sound, Autumn 1976. Read More