Textual Analysis - Gilda (1946)

Textual analysis: Gilda

Charles Vidor’s 1946 black and white film Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth, is a glamorous, high-octane film noir set in an Argentinean casino. The film is significant in its genre for the more polished and “Hollywood” aspect it possesses for a noir film, although many of the themes and codes it includes are the same. The opening credits and sweeping score are cinematic and powerful, with “Gilda” appearing across the entirety of the screen in huge letters, precluding the iconic and powerful nature of the starring character and the powerful orchestral music demonstrating the forthcoming dramatic elements of the film. Gilda is recounted as a flashback from an external narrative voice, Johnny Farrell, also the male protagonist in the plot, an implicit feature of noir. The serious, grave voice with which Johnny tells the audience the story lends the film a sense of introspection and melodrama, setting the dark tone for the film while establishing a clear relationship between his character and the audience.

Rita Hayworth, the Hollywood actress playing the starring role as the eponymous Gilda, is to be seen in costumes such as the above black strapless dress and revealing gowns with long arm-gloves and voluminous hair. This depiction of strong, female sensuality acknowledges feminine sexual power in the characters of the film through Gilda and is perhaps an indirect connotation of the male weakness/masculine flaw in the protagonist Johnny.

Textual Analysis - The Good German (2006)

Textual Analysis:

The Good German

Screen shots of:

Actors & costume

Props/codes

Subterranean sets

Lighting/shadow

The Good German, a visually compelling neo-noir by director Martin Soderberghe, has a wealth of features to analyse and take inspiration from in the planning of our own noir film. George Clooney and Cate Blanchett, both mature actors in their late 30s or 40s, with theatrical, strong and attractive faces, are cast as the classic figures of male protagonist and femme fatale. Actors around this age appear frequently as the main characters in film noir to create a certain sense of jaded cynicism and darkness which would perhaps be less achievable with younger actors lacking in conviction. Set in post-war Berlin, a city devastated by bombings, the characters’ costumes are appropriate for the era, with Clooney’s character Jake dressed in a captain’s uniform throughout most of the film and Cate Blanchett’s Lena in longer 40s dresses or austere skirts with jackets. Already the location of the film denotes the dark side of human nature and its capacity for self-destruction by immediately confronting the audience with the consequences of war. While fitting for the decade, both costumes have connotations of repression and confinement, with the uniform and the strong presence of men in long coats and fedora hats symbolising a lost identity and anxious sense of displaced masculinity.

Soderberghe’s use of props offer recognisable, strong visual codes for film noir, and it is becoming more and more apparent to us that a key component in creating meaning in this type of film is to make the audience explicitly aware of its genre, so our audience can use a general knowledge of noir’s themes and moods as a subtext informing their interpretation. In this case, a list of notable codes used includes pistols, low-brimmed hats, cigarettes and dark, old-fashioned cars. In combination with these props, the sets used for filming are archetypically noir-esque, with some examples being cellar bars, underground clubs, underneath bridges and sewer tunnels creating a subterranean world of corruption, immorality and mystery. Lighting in The Good German reinforces these connotations, as the harsh divide of bright white light and deep shadow, often fractured or split through blinds or bars is suggestive of the ongoing internal struggle between the good and the bad, reflecting inner anguish and turmoil, while remaining highly stylised.

An interesting feature of The Good German is Soderberghe’s distinctive cinematography, bearing many of the hallmarks of old film noir and showing an unwillingness to adopt the more modern styles of camerawork seen in most contemporary neo-noirs with their ‘homogenised’ approach to noir. The editing employs vintage scene transition techniques such as screen wipes and slow fades to black, as well as stilted versions of shot/reverse shot whereby the camera only shows the character when he is speaking. While pertaining to the style of old noir and serving as a nod to classic filmmaking, the meaning created in these decisions includes a lack of cohesion in the screenwipe and shot/reverse shot, suggesting a disjointed sense of time and a difficulty in communication between characters, and a sense of resolve and purpose in the protagonist as seen in old detective pulp fiction and comic books. (<- Image)The film was unusually shot with 32mm lenses and shown in a 1.33:1 ratio, rebuffing the accepted currency of widescreen cinema, as a steadicam glides slowly through car windows and along pavements following the footsteps of the protagonist, or slowly moving upwards with the use of a crane to reveal a broader scene from above. This slow and roving mobility of the camera and thus the audience’s eye creates an uneasy sense of omniscience, paranoia and covert knowledge. Overall the unique visual impression and the conventions Soderberghe has chosen to adopt in The Good German creates a dark underworld of misery and compulsion, and certain elements of this modern noir will be an inspiration to our own film.

Textual Analysis - Empire March 2010, 'Wings of Desire'

In Empire’s film review by Ian Freer, “Wings of Desire” (March, 2010) there are three main features – colour scheme, layout and photography. Over fifty percent of the article space is filled by a striking, black-and-white movie still with a more minor image to the lower right of the page, making review far more attractive and readable while making the subject of the article instantly identifiable for the audience. The clean, masculine layout of boxes and straight lines signifies the straightforward, earnest and informative nature of the article. Also, while being a common feature of film reviews, this type of wide large shot with text beneath it looks similar to the view of the cinema-goer with the big screen and the audience beneath it, connoting greatness and the “silver-screen”.

The bold grey, white and black colour scheme is indicative of the film noir/classic film genre, referencing the film’s themes of bleakness, hope versus corruption, oppression and the focus on the limitations of perspective. The stylised and visually striking look of the colour design also signifies the direct, confident and informed nature of the writer’s review. The inclusion of the bright blue subtly modernises the look of the page, showing it is a reviewers modern take on a classic film and it is a retrospective tribute, and co-ordinates with the colour of in the DVD cover thumbnail. The strong visual style reflects and emulates that of the film, with a stark, noir-esque feel and a pared-down, retro look, which again informs the audience about the type of film being reviewed.

This is reinforced with the main image choice being a woman with wings sitting on a vintage car with an urban cityscape as her backdrop, allowing the audience to quickly identify the film’s era, location and perhaps even certain themes within it. The technique of imitating the aesthetics of the film within the article aligns the publication with the director of the film in a gesture of tribute and admiration to the auteur.

The choice of typefaces used are a simple combination of three or four basic fonts, a bold, upper-case ‘arial’ for the headline, a serif/italic font for the subhead (connoting the publication’s opinion/comment on the film) and a standard serif typeface for the main body of text, giving the article a sense of sincerity and directness. The white used on the headline and subhead is mainly to allow them to stand out boldly against the dark background of the image, but could connote the supernatural theme of angels within the film. The bold blue ‘arial’ font of the first line grabs the attention of the reader and makes an instant impact and the circular arrow symbol – the only spot of yellow on the entire page aside from the pull quote – draws the eye to this very point where the review begins. Similarly, powerful, emotive language is lifted from the text for the pull quote, where words such as “life” “love” and “filmmaking” are showcased in bright yellow and blue to entice readers. Empire clearly consider it important to use these techniques as extra nudges to encourage the audience to engage with the text.

The inclusion of the DVD thumbnail demonstrates instantly that the subject of the article is a product, and the star-ratings at the bottom of the page allow for a quick-reference appraisal of the DVD (the film and its extras respectively). The black caption beneath the main shot includes a brief fact or piece of information about the photos and their position, a common convention in magazine articles. Overall this review seems to follow a basic, minimalist layout and mimic the visual style of the film being reviewed, use image as a main feature as a nod to cinema and adopt a masculine look to connote seriousness and style, perhaps targeting a male-dominated audience.

Textual Analysis - The Third Man (1949)

Hannah - The first media I analysed was the film 'The Third Man' released in 1949 and directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. This film is in the genre of 'Film Noir', which is the genre we want to emulate and I analysed the first five minutes. Throughout the first five minutes there is a male narrative voice-over who takes us through what is happening in each frame and introduces the audience to the male protagonist. This voice-over is a feature that is commonly used in films of this time and genre. Emily and I have come to the decision that we want to use a male voice-over in our film noir so it is important to analyse a film which also has the feature we want to use and see if there are any other features that we want to emulate. 

The establishing shot of the film 'The Third Man' shows Big Ben which is a very iconic british monument in London. The overcast background and clouds connotes darkness and perhaps mystery. The font is in an old style of writing which shows the period of time. This combines with the image of Big Ben to establish the context of the film company. The actual film is not set in London, but it is produced by a British Film company called 'London Film Production'. After this frame it then fades to black, which is a classic effect used in film noirs.

 

The slow rolling credits build up tension for the action of the film to begin.
The music is classical with strings which are in time to the plucking of the strings on the screen. The strings are being played by unseen hands which connotes mystery and suspense.
It is a slightly contrapuntal sound sound as it is a very happy little tune with quite spooky visuals. 

                                                                                                                                                             
This establishing shot shows Vienna and the dark murky streets. This connotes darkness and spookiness. 
The classic font shows the time period and classical nature of the film.
When the image goes it fades to black, which gives a slow and eerie feel.

This is the shot that occurs when  the male voiceover mentions the 'damages' that happen. This image of a dead body in the water shows the dark underbelly to the city and the after effects of the bad goings on.  
The high contrast lighting used makes the dark body in the water more 

This is a shot that happens in the sequence when we are first introduced to the male protagonist 'martin'. His name is said by the voiceover as soon as we see him.
The way he emerges out of the train with his head down, obscuring his face and the smoke from the train also clouds the first sight of him. This has the effect of connoting mystery surrounding his character and intrigue as to what he looks like. 

The use of lighting and camera angle here shows the male protagonist being looked down on. This connotes that he is being watched and someone is further up the stairs looking down on him. The shadow which is significantly larger than him looks daunting and spooky and makes him look small in comparison. The large shadow and high angle suggests to the audience that he is up against something. 
The shadows on the stairs are visually appealing and add another piece of interest to the frame. 

This is shot which is a close up on the face of the male protagonist showing the importance of his emotion. Most of his face is in the light and less than a quarter in shadow connotes another dark side to his personality. The way he takes up the whole of the frame shows that he is the focus and a very important part of the film.