The aspect of Film Noir that I’d like to focus on is the directorial style: antitraditional mise-en-scene. I found this particularly intriguing, because through my interior design eye and in general, I usually vote for asymmetry. To explain what I mean by this, Film Noir is all about throwing off those “harmonious triangular three-shots” as Place and Peterson point out. I find this aspect of Film Noir refreshing, because I feel like it acts as the Beatles of the film industry. It pushes the limits and standards to create something new and easily controversial.
Also regarding this antitradional mise-en-scene, I’d like to touch on the claustrophobic framing devices that are involved. The idea of other items and big distracting frames overshadowing the character seems absurd, and I feel like a lot of people want to give this style significance to the character or the mood. For example, in the Pawnbroker, in the scenes where he is working in his shop, people claim that the camera style of shooting in front of the bars represents his loneliness and his isolation. However, I think Film Noir is beyond that. Like the reading states, in Film Noir, “the visual style shaped by camera movement, lenses, lighting, and composition retains a fundamental and astonishingly poorly documented importance.”
In Christ in Concrete (1949), there’s a perfect example of this shot that I’m such a fan of. In the scene where Julio reads Luigi the letter, there is a shot where we get an awkward angle of Luigi’s head and face as Geremio is reading the letter (21:58). The minute I saw this shot, I thought it screamed Film Noir when it comes to the antitraditional mise-en-scene. In my opinion, the balance is a little off here too, so that element adds even more to my point.
The second shot that stood out to me is the discourse between the two of them again where Geremio is telling Luigi that he hasn’t told her about the house (30:05). This shot is similar to the Pawnbroker style, because there is a large fence-like decorative piece that the camera shoots in front of. This brings out the claustrophobic framing device that is so prevalent in Film Noir.
The use of imbalance and strange angles that is presented in Film Noir has struck my interest and definitely stood out as I watched Christ in Concrete.
