I want to talk about the film noir mood of despair and upset in the film Christ in Concrete directed by Edward Dmytryk.
The noir mood of despair keeps recurring throughout the whole film. At the opening, Geremio(Sam Wanamaker) is drunken and upset. His face is in shadow, which intensify his upset mood and internal struggle of not knowing what he should do. As he gets back to his tenement, he finds that the door is locked and he knocks on the door but no one answers, so later he breaks into the tenement. Here, the closed door symbolizes the conflict between him and his wife Annunziata (Lea Padovani) because Annunziata is so crazy about house but Geremio cannot offer it and feel stressful and guilty (He has promised Annunziata a house 9 years ago). When the door is opened, we can see furious and despair Annuanziata standing still and staring at unfaithful Geremio; and then, she is yelling at Geremio and ask him to leave. At this moment, the music is fast and tight; it does not stop until Geremio smacks Annuanziata. The silence heightens the tension and stands for their almost broken relationship; however, shortly, the silence is intruded by their children’s singing of birthday song to Geremio. The immediate dissolving of silence between Geremio and Annuanziata that result from children’s appearance also suggests that the family will not break up.
Even though eventually Geremio and Annuanziata’s relationship recovers and everyone (if not everyone, at least me) expect a harmonious ending, Geremio dies accidently. Despair comes to Annuanziata again; this time, She loses his husband completely. Although she gets compensation ultimately and is able to buy the house, she is not exciting anymore because this price is too high.
Rather ironic, the original American dream finally turns into a nightmare. It seems that this film is telling people that there is no American dream and there is no hope. Maybe it is the result of the depression and it is the reason why film noir is different from other genres.
