Film Studies - The Black Dahlia (0)

How genre and narrative
makes meaning in ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘
When analyzing a film , people understand the movie is much more complicated than it seems . To make a difference, to give a meaning to the film, film- makers have used different visual and thematic features . There are macro features (genre, narrative) as well as micro features (mise en scene , cinematography) and they are linked together in many ways. I have chosen to analyse the closing sequence of ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘, directed by Brian de Palma, and I will focus on macro features in this essay.
Brian de Palma is well known director , who is focused on noir area through his career (he was once considered as a Hitchcock imitator) ‘‘The Black Dahlia“ can be classified as Film Noir. The genre is called Film Noir due to the ‘serie noir‘ books , which were publised in France (bethween 1940s and 1950s). These books were translations of American novels by authors like Dashiel Hammet, Raimond Chandler and James M. Cain. The novels usually talked about a strong , violent hero (anti-hero?) who moves through a corrupt dangerous world. ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ is based on a novel by James Ellroy and not on a true Black Dahlia ( murder ) case . The theme of murder/ crime /violence is one of the most important themes in Film Noir. In Film Noir morality is less clear (than in Western, for example, where there are simply to sides : good vs evil). There exists a feeling of paranoia about society, as we can clearly see in this film. At first , there is not explanation, why the horrible murder has taken place , at the end, the reasons , why come out, but they are mad and frightening. Sex is the other big theme in Noir. As the years have gone by, the more the audience sees it. In the early Noir movies , like ‘‘The Big Sleep ‘‘ there were only clues, in ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ there is one sex scene and characters are talking about it straightly, it is not a hidden part in Noir anymore. For example there is a part of the dialogue in closing scene, Madeline : ‘‘You‘d rather fuck me than kill me.‘‘
The film was made in 2006, however , set in 1947. Because of this, houses and design of the rooms depict the time. There are certain behaviour rules , formality. In the closing scene the audience sees much restriction of the rules.
Codes and conventions connected to this genre are easily distinguisable. Still , ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ is playing , developing the noir style.
Two of the most important conventions in Film Noir are anti-hero and femme fatale. Anti-hero, detective Bucky Bleichert, in this particular case is played by Josh Hartnett. In older Noir movies, anti-hero is usually a detective, dominant , commited, confident and he has a personal motivator why he needs to sort out the mystery within the story. (Mystery is one of the conventions, though.) Especially in this sequence we see that Bucky is really confident, he has the power over Madeline and her father (they tell half of the truth ), his personal motivator is the murder of his own partner . He is able to shoot a woman (Madeline) In well-known Noir films like ‘‘The Big Sleep‘‘ and ‘‘ Chinatown ‘‘ anti-hero doesn’t really look like pretty-boy Bucky but a bit older and macho. Also, when in ‘‘The Big Sleep‘‘ Marlowe, as an anti-hero, is really unemotional, in the closing sequence of ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ we see that Bucky is almost crying. This may lead us to the point that in old times men didn’t show much emotions in films but nowadays it is ok, even if it is Film Noir and an anti-hero. Even though, the general dress codes (suits, hats) are still exactly the same .
The femme fatale in this film is Madeline Linscott (played by Hilary Swank). Before Noir genre, women were quite inactive figures in Hollywood films. They were wives, mothers or whores and they didn’t have much rights . In this gerne, role of women has changed. Through the film Madeline played one of the central roles and even at the end it seems like she could manipulate and control Bucky. She has the right to say what she wants. In this case, however, the anti-hero has the power and femme fatale gets shot. As well as in this sequence, we also see guns in almost every other Film Noir. The Dialogue replicates to the corruption , to violence. Bucky words ‘‘ I have been pointing my gun at a lot of people this week. I haven’t had the chance to shoot anybody yet. What do you think?‘‘ have more than just clear connection to the guns and the fact that he is an anti-hero. Smoking is also one of the Noir codes. The detail that the woman smokes is also expressing the independence of woman, femme fatale.
The visual style in Film Noir is used to replicate the nature of the world in which the films are set. Particularly in the closing sequence, there are many shadows, scene is set at night , darkness is all over the action . By these conventions, the audience can feel the dissorientation, confusion as the characters does. Madeline’s mother is in the shadows all the time in the closing sequence. She is mad, confused, we could even say she IS dark , even though her costume is bright. When Bucky and Madeline are in the little room , there are shadows from blinds. In Film Noir blinds usually express restriction and make the audience feel that the room is like cage /prison. The lightning is surrealistic in many ways, it is used to create mood, not to represent life. It fuses expressionism. Developments in Noir include the fact that ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ is set in colour , but usually, many Film Noirs were black and white.
The closing scene (and this film in general) is narrated by Bucky and there is used much flashbacks like in the opening scene of ‘‘LA Confidential‘‘, in ‘‘LA Confidential‘‘ the narrator is a news reporter Sid Hudgens (played by Danny DeVito). The use of narrator, as an narrative device , is used in previous Film Noir-s like ‘‘ Double Indemnity ‘‘, too. The narrator is there to help audience to understand, what is going on and also to sympathise with the anti-hero, to be able to see his point of view and even be on his side. There is more than one similarity between the film I analysed and ‘‘LA Confidential‘‘. The music, during the films is also quite similar , even though they don’t have the same music ( songs ). These films are based on novels which have the same author (James Ellroy). In ‘‘LA Confidential‘‘ there are three cops, who are all after truth but they have all different styles, in ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ there are two cops and it comes out that their reasons to solve the murder are really different (as Lee Blanchard , played by Aaron Eckhart, gets too obsessed with the case). The shooting part of the closing scene in ‘‘The Black Dahlia‘‘ is really similar to the ending of ‘‘Double indemnity‘‘. The use of blinds, smoking femme fatale (in ‘‘Double indemnity‘‘ Phyllis , played by Barbara Stanwyck), finding solution to the crime and anti-hero (in ‘‘Double indemnity‘‘ Walter Neff, played by Fred MacMurray) shooting the femme fatale are all in both of the films.
Narrative is as important part of macro features as genre. The film, as a whole , has a linear structure, the events happen one after another as they occur. In the closing scene, as I mentioned before, is used a lot of flash -backs, which change the scene non-linear. The flash-backs help the audience to draw connections bethween previous sequences, also to find the conclusion to the story. As a narrative device, there is used dramatic tension as the plot progresses. It is really clear in the last scene, when Madeline’s strange mother is telling the whole story, which the audience never would be thought about. The tension rises, when Bucky threathens to kill Madeline. There is a question, will he shoot the woman? Can Madeline manipulate Bucky?
The analysed sequence shows that the genre codes, conventions and narrative devices in it are unique and recognisable for Film Noir. Changes take place in films, because society is changing , the audience expectations are changing. People know more, people have seen more, so films have to be able to give more to them . Every genre is developing all the time, new directors bring in new detailes, plots are very different from the previous ones, however, some important connections with the older versions of genres stay the same for a very long time.
Word count : 1440
Edith Epler
Film Studies