Film Noir

This week I viewed the film 'Out of the past', directed by Jacques Tourneur. 'Out of the past' (1947) is a classic example of 'Film Noir', made during a period in which filmmakers leaned toward more realistic, and grittier films. As I watched the film, I compared it to the examples of Film Noir laid out by a KCET miniseries by the name of 'American Cinema.'

As I was watching 'Out of the Past' I was constantly reminded of a quote from a director interviewed in 'American Cinema'. Describing the protagonist in a typical Noir Film, Director Kathryn Bigelow said "The more he tries to eradicate the situation, the worse it gets." This quote can be easily applied to the protagonist of 'Out of the Past', Jeff Bailey. After being hired to track down a gangster's moll, he finds himself embroiled in a murder.

Jeff tries to extricate himself from the situation by hiding out, but to no avail, as soon his past catches up to him. As he tries to clear his name for the first murder he was framed for, he finds himself caught up in another. Since that clearly wasn't enough, he finds himself ensnared by the mobster's girl-who incidentally orchestrated all the events thus far, and has both the law and the mob against him. Jeff's struggles really showcase Director Bigelow's statement, in that no matter how hard he tried to outrun his past and live a normal life, he was was still caught up in that web.

One thing I noticed in the film was the Femme Fatale Kathie Moffat. In 'Out of the past' she singlehandedly gets Jeff Bailey framed for two murders and is the eventual cause of his death. Director Bigelow commented in the documentary that "There's a certain male fantasy to this violent woman who is uncontrollable, kind of like an untamed animal." In 'Out of the Past', both Jeff and Sterling(the mobster) cannot break their attraction to her even though Kathie has physically or emotionally hurt them. She is portrayed as the male fantasy, deadly but yet alluring, leaving a trail of men in her wake.

Kathie is a dangerous woman whose beauty causes many men to underestimate her. Even the very sight of her causes Jeff to forget all about his other girlfriend. She uses her cunning to get away with murder and grand theft, and be able to proclaim her innocence with a straight face. However, I do think to a point, she didn't view Jeff as just a tool. Sure she wanted the money, but she also realized that she really did like Bailey. Just before the end, she implied that they 'deserved each other', two people on the run might last longer than if they were seperated. I think it was a combination of pragmatism and love for Bailey that persuaded her to leave with him.

In 'Out of the Past', director Jacques Touneur uses all the methods at his disposal to impress upon the viewer the world of 'noir'. The shadows are oppressive continually through the film, and there are very few constant light sources. Sometimes, the director has a setting where there is only one solitary source of light in a room, often at an obscure corner or to the side-but never in the center. Often, the light would be turned off when a character was double crossing another, and only turned back on when the deed was done. This was particularly noticeable when Kathie shot Bailey's partner. I especially thought that moment was well done because she then runs from the bastion of the light, deep in the wilderness, and into the uncharted blackness.

There was one shot in the movie that I thought was very impressive and it had to do with the use of wide angle lens. The scene in particular was the climax, where Bailey leads Kathie into a deadly ambush. Here, the viewer sees inside of the car, the side of the car, and both directions of the road. This is the one scene in the movie that I felt really gave the viewer the sense of seeing the action from all angles possible. Panning out for a wide angle-and then zooming in for a deep focus on the two in the car... it creates that effect wherein the audience realizes that this is as close as the director can get.

As for the locations, I really liked the diversity of settings that the director chose to include. True to 'Noir' fashion, there is no place really designated as 'safe' from the everyday brutal reality. Sterling found that out to his cost, slain in the midst of his huge gated castle, strategically located on the outskirts of town. In 'Film Noir', it is the enclosed, narrow spaces that are dangerous. In 'Out of the Past' however, the director goes a step farther, directly contrasting open spaces versus constricted space.

For example, take the Mexican restaurant as compared to the Mexican Bar. The Mexican Restaurant is open and roomy, and has wide open doors to the outside. The Mexican bar however, is a 'hole in the wall' type place, with restricted space to move. The restaurant is frequented during the daytime, and the crowd that shows up is generally reputable. The bar on the other hand, serves cheap beer, has godawful 'american music' and is only frequented at night by drunks and the seedy underbelly of the town. (Well... who else would be there at three am?)

So which one would Kathie Moffat prefer to meet Bailey in? If there's anything I noticed in 'Out of the Past' she seemed reluctant to talk in the restaurant, and made Bailey wait out two nights in a seedy bar like a chump. Bailey even mentions it later in the movie, that while they were in Mexico, he would never see Kathie in the daytime, only in the last gleams of sunlight or as night began to fall. Open space is only utilized in the beginning of the film, or when it is night. After the beginning of the film, there is no need to use open space in the daytime, the veneer of Bailey's 'pristine all-american' life has already been shown to be shallow.