Women in film noir

scarlet street (1933)

Females in Film Noir sparked a new way of representing women in modern film. Before film noir women were shown as damsels in distress and a bit hopeless at defending themselves. So they often relied on the main man in the film to come and save her. So film noir started to show women as independent strong minded. It was the film noir genre that first started using Fem-Fatal’s. This became used in normal mainstream films from then on.

film noir classic double indemnity has classic examples of women in the fim.

The conventional characteristics of women in film noir are that they often have something to hide which is a crucial to the whole movie’s plot. Like for example in the movie “The Third man” the woman in the movie knows about what crimes Harry Lime committed but would not tell the main character about this. But later on in the movie the main character finds out about the truth of his friend and realises that he is a monster because he was selling faulty medicine to hospitals which ended up killing the small children. With Fem-Fatal’s they often have something crucial to hide from the main male character which is fighting for the triumph of good rather than evil. Another characteristic of a Fem-Fatal is the elaborate costumes that they were. In the movie scarlet street (1933) the woman in it has extremely elaborate costume which included lots of feathers and netting. She is also sexy with her long dress that is cut almost above her thighs. Another characterises of women in film noir is that nearly all of them smoke. This is because in the heyday of film noir it was seen as sexy and classy. Often the cigarette is lit by a mans equally classy Zippo. Since the heyday of film noir smoking has been found to be unhealthy and has been de-glamorised.

smoking in film noir.

The openings to “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Layer Cake”

The openings of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake have some fundamental differences but they also have many similarities. The difference that is the most apparent is the budget. Layer Cake had a massive budget stretching into millions of pounds. The most obvious sign of this is the main star of the movie, the name of the character is not known throughout the whole movie but he is played by Daniel Craig, who later went on to be the next James Bond. He would have cost a lot of money to be in the movie. Whereas Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has relatively unknown actors some of whom it is their first movies. Many of who went on to bigger things. And at the time Guy Ritchie was an unknown film director he had only directed one movie beforehand. But for the director for Layer Cake Matthew Vaughn it was his first movie ever. But the Matthew Vaughn was a producer for many of Guy Ritchie films, such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. I am not sure how he got such a big budget for his first movie but he might have made good contacts while he was a producer. Another reason you can tell the difference in budget is that the opening of the two movies is that Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels does not have any expensive locations or any shots that would need anything more than some rails. The opening is on an east London street that would be easy to get and inexpensive. Whereas the opening of Layer Cake has lots of expensive CGI in the drug shop, and crane shots which would cost lots of money to use in the street outside the flat. But the shot that emphasizes this point is the shot of the powerful Audi speeding up a long drive in the countryside towards a big golf clubhouse. It has been filmed by a helicopter which would be very expensive to use.

But they both have similarities too. For example they both have a voice over from the main character. In Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the voice over comes later than Layer Cake which is on from the first shot of the movie. This convention is used in many British gangster movies and is effective because it sets the scene for the rest of the movie.

The opening credits are used to create an effect in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels it breaks up the picture to create an effect to make the viewer wonder what’s happening because you can hear what’s happening but not see it. This creates an expectation for the viewer. It also gets people switched on and they are more likely read who funded the movies which is a good thing for those companies. Layer Cake uses the covenantal use of the credits which is putting the words over the shot so you can still see the picture but it shows you the credits as well.

Overall both movies have some big similarities like the use of a voice over. But they also have some big fundamental differences like the budget. This is very apparent in both films. Even though Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is much lower budget than Layer Cake I much prefer the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels because it’s more quirky and interesting than Layer Cake.