The stereotypical costume
for film noir characters for women is very tight fitted clothing, in particular
red clothing which connotes sex and desire. Women in film noir’s are usually
very seductive and therefore use their sexual attractiveness in order to gain
power and manipulate people until they get exactly what they want. An example of
this could be money and wealth. The women in film noirs are dressed in this way
to show off their personality, and to suggest to the audience that they use
their good looks to their advantage into manipulating things to make sure they
get what they want.
Men
are usually seen in trench coats and hats; they look like the stereotypical
detective. By having these male characters hidden behind clothing suggests that
they are a mysterious character. The men often wear hats, I think this is to
hide their facial expressions and emotions to the audience, which therefore
makes the audience wonder what the character is doing. They often wear dark
clothing, suggesting to the audience that they are perhaps they are evil and up
to no good. These male characters usually end up becoming sexually attracted to
these women in the film.
Lighting-
Low
key lighting is the main lighting which is used throughout film noirs. The
lighting in film noirs is sometimes either
dark or light contrasts in order to use dramatic shadowing effects. This is known
also as the chiaroscuro style. One classic cliché is the shadows of venetian
blinds on the wall or across the face of the characters. By using these
venetian blinds it creates a feeling of
imprisonment on the characters. Since window blinds only give a partial view of
what is going on, the audience is left to wonder which of these characters are
good and which are evil. By having light and also shadows, I think the light
could represent the protagonist and the dark could represent the antagonist in
the film. They use dark lighting with lots of
shadows to build tension and to create eerie atmosphere. It also creates an unstable or ambivalent mood which is
often found in film noir themes.
By Amy Thrush
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