This is NOT me seeking to engage in a Style vs Substance debate about which is better or more important. This is about how when labeling something as either an ancestor or descendant of the Film Noir movies of the 40s, the superficial cosmetic aesthetics is all most people are really looking at.
What I mean by defining the Film Noir superficially is largely a matter of time period. A notion that something can't be a true Film Noir unless it's set in the 40s, or some weird fantastical hybrid of the 40s and some modern and/or futuristic setting (like Cyber Punk), or at least feature people weirdly pretending it's the 40s, though that's mainly a thing in parodies.
In my opinion, a Sub Genre or even specific franchise only needs to be in it's original time period if it was a period piece originally, and maybe not even always when it is. I've read articles trying to argue why old Pulp Heroes can't work in a modern setting, but the truth is the reason they faded into relative obscurity while the Comic Book Superheros who were inspired by them have thrived is that Pulps didn't change with the times the way Comics did.
The 40s Film Noirs worked at the time because they were about the present, they only became exotic period pieces to us watching them later. They were often adapted from source material, some of which was written all the way back in the 20s like the earliest Hammett stories. Bogart's The Maltese Falcon which is one of 3 or 4 different films I've seen refereed to as the first Film Noir, wasn't even the first adaptation of that novel, one was made a full decade before. And plenty of those novels were drawing on even older literature. But the movies still adapted them as contemporary.
But most of what are considered descendants of the Film Noir are not then contemporary stories dealing with contemporary versions of the same themes and issues, but movies trying to appeal to Nostalgia for 40s Film Noirs.
Mother's Basement suggested that you need to watch Roman Polanski's Chinatown to understand the Film Noir genre, well sorry but no I haven't seen that movie and I never will and I understand the genre just fine. But in Geek culture what has really filtered one's perception of the Film Noir is Blade Runner, another movie I haven't seen myself yet but this one I do want to see when I can.
I praised Pretty Little Liars's Shadow Play as the best Noir Episode of a TV show I've seen, but it did that so well because the show was kind of always a modern Noir. The Egyptian is I feel a very good Film Noir set in Ancient Egypt. I can't say I feel The Wolverine was that good at trying to feel like a modern Film Noir, but it is still the only FoX-Men movie I particularly like.
On YouTube Filmmaker IQ did a video called Origins of Film Noir which was an interesting informative video.
But when it comes to talking about foreign influences on this presumably American genre, it only discussed German Expressionism, and not you know the country who's language provides the name of the genre, and some of it's distinctive tropes, France. Fortunately I have my own posts on the french roots of the genre, The French History of The Femme Fatale and The Mysteries of Gotham.
I can't help but wonder how often failures to understand this genre come from a desire to see it as more uniquely American then it actually is. I can assure you that the term "Femme Fatale" is not gratuitous French, it was a French literary term before any Americans associated it with our urban crime stories. For example La Femme Fatale was the name of a few french silent films that are sadly probably lost.
One thing I do like about that Filmmaker IQ video is the collection of clips from later films influenced by Film Noir, and in that area it escapes what I'm talking about here a bit by including films like The Dark Knight. Batman89 may look more like it wants to be a Film Noir, but The Dark Knight has more of the substance.
And that makes me want to some day make my own collection of Anime clips that I feel have a Noir influence. Of course talking about Anime and this genre is something that tends to trigger Razorfist, he has some pretty interesting videos about film Noirs. But his understanding on the genre has been criticized, like in this video.
I have expressed my general disagreement with Show Don't Tell already. But it definitely shows ignorance of the Film Noir genre to say they are show don't tell. Film Noirs were like Shakespeare in that they were basically all dialogue driven. They thrived on the notion that what you'd don't see can be more impact-full then what you do. So Razorfist saying certain movies fail to be Film Noir like because they didn't adhere to "show don't tell" really ruins his credibility on the genre in my eyes.
Back to Anime, number 1, I also recommend that video responding to Razorfist for it's section on Akira's relationship to Blade Runner.
My absolute favorite Anime of all time is one called Noir which was made by Studio Bee Train. Perhaps Noir is more of a nephew then a descendant of American Film Noir, since it's more direct inspirations were French films like Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita and Leon. But the fact remains it's appeal to me has a lot to do with how it's like a true modern Film Noir. I already talked about that a bit in yesterday's Sakuga post.
Witch Hunter Robin also has some nice Film Noir elements here and there, but I hesitate to call the show as a whole one.
Kara No Kyoukai is a very atmospheric urban mystery saga.
Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is a period piece, but it's set in the 60s.
Naturally there is a lot of overlap between what I'd consider to be an Anime Noir and what Anime I think is a good model for how to do Batman in Anime. Which reminds me, Batman Ninja sucks.
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