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Week 3, Jan 20 th Noir and Existentialism Slide 2 Modernism & Blood Melodrama Screening: Scarlet Street (1945) Fritz Lang; The Third Man, Carol Reed (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Houston; Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles Readings: James Naremore Modernism and Blood Melodrama: Three Case Studies pp 40-95 (recommended text). Slide 3 Existentialism & Noir Soren Kirkegaard Nietzsche if God does not exist then man must become god. Overman = Ubermensch Heidegger the question of being dasein/ mitsein Sartre being for others or being for one self? Existence precedes essence I am another (to myself) Slide 4 Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900 Slide 5 Jean Paul Sartre 1905 -1980 Slide 6 The Void Slide 7 A residual surrealism French discussion of film noir conditioned by concerns of Parisian Left Bank intellectuals. Existentialism as a residual surrealism? Publisher Galimards Serie Noire conceived & edited by Marcel Duchamel one of the authors of the exquisite corpse game and Freudian surrealist research into sexuality during the 1930s. Re: Naremore More than Night Chpt 1: 17 Slide 8 The initial discourse on Hollywood's dark cinema coincides with the one of the last important moments in the history of international modernism As previously noted, Nino Frank is attributed the first application of Film Noir to American Thrillers of the post war period Slide 9 Existential alienation despair angst absurdity alienation boredom [Obstacles to living an authentic life] The choice is being for oneself or being for others (J-P Sartre) Slide 10 Existential noir themes Life is meaningless Life is endlessly repetitive There is no higher purpose to life therefore one must get on with it. The self is the only knowable entity Individual subjectivity Slide 11 Slide 12 The quotidian angst For the existentialist the responsibility therefore is of giving ones own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely in spite of the many alienating obstacles and frustrations. Slide 13 The noir anti-heroes as existentialists Are Hammets Sam Spade or Chandlers Philip Marlow existentialists? A case of Hollywood's appropriation of existentialism c.w. Freudianism? The femme fatale as an existential position? The self as the only knowable thing? Solipsism? If man [woman] wills him/herself to be? Slide 14 Four Exemplary Noir Films with existential themes Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder Scarlet Street (1945) Fritz Lang The Third Man (1949) Carol Reed The Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Huston Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles Slide 15 Scarlet Street Fritz Lang (1945) Slide 16 Slide 17 Slide 18 Slide 19 Slide 20 Slide 21 The Third Man Carol Reed Slide 22 The Third Man (1949) Director: Carol Reed. Written by Graham Greene. Photographed by Robert Krasker. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles. 104 minutes Slide 23