Exploring the Depths of Neo-Noir: A Cinematic Journey

What does The Dark Knight, Seven,  Taxi Driver, John Wick and Blade   Runner have in common? Well, they are all  different variations of the same genre.   Sure, at first glance it's not that obvious. But Neo-Noir is a very expansive and  

interesting genre with a great  selection of cinematic bangers.   Even some of the best contemporary directors were  cutting their teeth with stories of anti-heroes,   ambivalent mysteries, deceptive  femme fatales and illusive truths.  

But where does this genre come from? Isn't it  just a shinier more modern noir iteration?   Well yes and no. Yes, as it continues in the footsteps   of its precursor but not as it's a more self-aware  progression that goes beyond the limits of noir.  

You see noir is a term we use retroactively to  categorize those sleuth movies of the 40s and 50s   from films like The Maltese Falcon  to Orson Wells' Touch of Evil.   Back then these filmmakers weren't thinking  that they were expanding on a genre.  

That classification came from an outsider  perspective from the French that had an   interest in these dark American stories. Although, the big difference with the   current genre and its precursor is  the expansion of its ambivalence.  

Back in the early 30s to late 60s there was  censure on certain things that would be deemed   immoral. The Hays production code regulated and  minimized the use of blood, acts of violence,   and sexuality. If a villain committed a crime,  then by the end of the movie the criminal would  

have to be punished. Justice had to be served. But not in Neo-noir. That' why we see a rise of   narratives were the main character doesn't catch  the killer, where justice is far too murky,   and all we are left with are loose ends... Welcome to the Screened Film Club I'm your  

curator Moises and today We will be exploring the fascinating   recurring patterns of the puzzling  and obscure Neo-noir genre.   And since we will be talking about how some of  these movies end, some spoilers will follow.  

And today's video is kindly sponsored  Surfshark but more on that midway.   "You're a very nosy fellow, kitty cat.  Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows?   Huh? No? Wanna guess?" We start by taking a look at the protagonist  

that must manoeuvre these uncomfortable stories  of crime and mystery. An unconventional character,   unequipped with the qualities and virtues  that inhabit an ideal or even a normal hero.   "The word 'hero' never seems  to fit the noir protagonist,  

for his world is devoid of the moral framework  necessary to produce the traditional hero"   Here it's referring to the classic  noir protagonist, but the meaning   hasn't changed only deepened. The neo-noir anti-hero is born  

out of pessimism and alienation... If his precursor was a by-product of post   war anxieties this mutation is a manifestation  of the cultural disillusionment of the time.   In the late 60s and early 70s we see an  America that doesn't buy into the American  

dream and image as easily as it used to. Still suffering the fresh wounds of events like   the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal.  There is just a growing sense of national   mistrust and uncertainty...that dovetails  perfectly with the era's postmodern view.  

The relativism of values and morality. These anti-heroes are symptoms   of this social ambiguity. That's why a lot of the neo-noir   characters have very distorted moral compasses  and are representations of inverted archetypes.  

The corrupt cop, politician, or  authority figure like in Chinatown   or in L.A. Confidential where the antagonist is  the systemic abuse of power of law enforcement.   We also see the use of the benevolent hitman  like in John Wick, getting revenge for his  

dog's death, Leon "the professional" taking  in Mathilda after her family was murdered,   Joe from You Where Never Really Here trying  to save Nina from a prostitution ring.   Or the example of the incongruous  polite criminal to whom murder can  

seem less of an affront than  not tipping your waitress:   "What do you mean you don't believe in it? Come  on you, cough up a buck you cheap bastard."   not bringing flowers to visit the sick mother  of the man you're currently holding hostage:  

"She carried you in her womb for nine  months. People buy flowers, buy flowers."   arriving late to a pre-kidnapping meeting  or giving a married woman a foot massage.   But we also have the contrast of the  everyday person giving into a dark side.  

Like in Fargo, a suburban meek husband  stages a kidnaping of his wife to get   the ransom money from his father-in-law. In Prisoners it's a father ready to do   anything to find his daughter even  torture a mentally challenged man:  

"We hurt him until he talks or they  are going to die. That's the choice."   Some neo-noir characters are either on  the path to perdition or redemption.   The corruption of one's self,  what they stand for or represent.  

Or to absolve from a past,  to try and right a wrong.   An extreme representation of the conflicting  duality of human nature. That both light and   darkness can inhabit the same person. That we  are both capable of destruction and restoration.  

A person can be a breaker and the broken. The unforgiving and the merciful.   A hero and a vigilante. "Where are you heading?"

"Far away from here..." When discussing neo-noir, it's important to keep in mind its two cycles. The first being the modernist period that started  

in the late 1960s with movies like Point Blank or  Bonnie and Clyde. This period embraced its genre   and explored its limits with crueler  crimes and more sexual undertones.   The second is the postmodern cycle that started  in the 80s and expanded into different genres,  

they also became much more self-referential  and experimental with the medium.   What I find interesting is that it  doesn't seem like this cycle has ended   or perhaps it has morphed into something  else and just doesn't have a name yet.  

But one thing is clear that over 50 years of the  evolution of neo-noir...we keep being pulled in   by these stories of crime and mystery. Just like the genre's characters...   When we were exploring the neo-western  genre, we spoke about characters living  

in the outskirts and in the frontiers of America  but in neo-noir, the setting is quite different,   it takes place in very populated areas  and most of the times in a variant of LA.   And here the threat is shown to be  much closer, maybe just under our  

noses or around the next corner. All you have to do is scratch   the surface and it will lead you to  something you didn't know was hiding.   In Pulp Fiction one bad turn into  a shop leads Butch and Marsellus  

to an unforgettable encounter. In Collateral Max's next passenger   take him on a night of murder and mayhem. In Blue Velvet the discovery of a severed ear will   give Jeffrey a peek into the criminal underworld. In Chinatown a seemingly mundane case of  

infidelity leads private investigator Jake  Gittes to uncover a large-scale corruption.   Giving us a sense that even in our daily routine  we are in close proximity to a random darkness.   The neo-noir protagonist is charged to navigate  this mystery and to unearth the threat, to collect  

the clues, find the killer and solve the case. But as the detectives keep searching,   the paths become more confusing and the mystery  has lured them into a city-wide complex maze.   Jake Gittes is successful in finding out how  all the different dots connect to each other  

but for some reason he's also being diverted. At first, just like him,   we don't even notice it. The name of the movie is Chinatown,   but for a while we don't know why... since none  of the events of the movie are happening at that  

location. Then little by little we're clued in  that Chinatown is part of Jake's past as a cop.   For him, it represents a no-win scenario and  sadly no matter how much he has advanced and   moved on in life he is brought back to the  place where he's always been defeated.  

"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown." In Se7en Somerset is also trying to   escape. He's had a long career as  a detective, and he's had enough.   "I don't understand this place any longer." "It's the way it's always been."  

"Maybe you're right." He even tries to sober his   new optimistic partner to the  reality of the nameless city...   that there is no winning. That even if you find the clues,  

catch the killer... You still end up failing. Somerset's pessimism is later painfully   asserted... that there seems  to be no exit from the maze.   "Where you going to be?" "... around."  

Memento takes this concept a step further by  internalizing the maze. Here we see the postmodern   narrative at work. Presented in an unchronological  order showing the complicated mind of Leonard.   "I know who I am, I know  all about myself, I just...  

since my injury I cant make new memories." Neo-noir has a lot of examples of afflicted   psyches like in You Were Never Really Here  where the movie is intercut with flashback   to represent the character's PTSD that makes  him relive traumatic moments of his life. Or  

in Nocturnal Animals where the narrative is mixed  with a secondary story representing a metaphor of   the pain the character caused her ex-husband in  the past. Or like in the Chinese film Long Day's   Journey into Night where we see a dream like  introspection of the main character's regret.  

In Memento it's to heighten a stagnation. Leonard  is a man that is trying to solve the murder of his   wife, but he is hindered by the fact that he  can't make new memories. So, he is constantly   re-exploring the same case for an unknown amount  of time and for god knows how many iterations.  

Leonard is stuck reliving this internal  maze nurtured by a past he can't let go.   And just like the other characters of  neo-noir either in city-space or inner-space   they are expected to loop back to defeat.

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"You may think you know what you are dealing  with... but believe me you don't."   Most neo-noir characters are  searching for the truth.   Or what they think it might be. The interesting thing is that the  

neo-noir stories don't always try to withhold  the truth from the characters or the viewers.   It can even try to confuse you  by making you realise that maybe   you can't trust what you are being told. In The Usual Suspects, while being interrogated,  

Verbal is recounting the story of events leading  up to a deadly gunfight but by the end we realize   that he is an unreliable narrator and everything  we've heard could just be a longwinded fiction.   In Gone Girl, it's about not  trusting what you can see.  

What starts as a movie about a husband possibly  murdering his wife turns into an exploration   on appearances and counter narratives. A fight for the most convincing lie because   the truth is far too complicated. We don't  really want the truth; we want a good story.  

In Blade Runner appearances can also be  misleading. Deckard is blade runner that must   capture four escaped replicants, androids that  look exactly like humans but as things progress,   it turns into a re-examination  of what he tough was real.  

A truth that is hard to accept. Or even worse in OldBoy Oh Dae-su has lived with   a 15-year itch for the truth of who imprisoned him  for so long and why but once all is revealed...   it's so disturbing he wishes he could forget it. Here, what's worse than searching for the truth  

is actually finding it. Like in Memento the truth for Leonard   is that he can't tell who he is anymore. But one  thing for sure is that he is far gone from who he   used to be. Rather than accepting that his wife's  killer is already dead and that he's murdered  

several people that had nothing to do with it,  he decides to reset into a comforting lie.   The truth can be too hard to handle  because it can change who we think we are.   "So, you lie to yourself to be happy  there is nothing wrong with that.  

We all do it. Who cares if there's a few  little details you'd rather not remember."   A great symbol that can summarize  this concept is actually a very   simple one hiding in plain sight as  decorative item of the noir genre.  

I'm sure you've seen them before. It's something as innocuous as the blinds:   "They want to announce the themes of the movie,  that the movie will be about light and darkness,   knowledge and evasion of knowledge, the search  for knowledge and the cost of knowledge, [...]."  

That the shadows are a bit more comforting  than the blinding glare of the light.   The neo-noir protagonist,  their search for the truth,   the duality of the city and the characters, the  return of the past and the lie we tell-ourselves  

turns into a metaphor for an identity crisis. The consciousness is trying to uncover a trauma   but the subconscious is suppressing our efforts;  we can catch glimpses of it but as we get close,   it quickly disappears because to fully  view who we are can be too much to bear.  

I hope you liked our broad look into Neo-Noir!  Honestly, I feel like we only scratched the   surface of this very interesting genre. If you  would like to learn more definitely read the very   helpful book The Philosophy of Neo-Noir. Next week we will give you a non-spoiler  

list of movies you should watch  but we also want your opinion.   So, let us know down in the comments what are  your favourite Neo-Noir films and why! And your   comment might be featured in the next video. Before you go make sure to be notified so you  

don't miss out on any videos or community posts. Don't forget to like, share with a friend and   subscribe to the film club  so it can keep on growing.   The music was made by Eduardo  Gonzalez if you liked his work check  

his information down in the description. See you next week at the Film Club.