![]() ![]() You are encouraged to share your favorites in the comments section. Some of you are going to look at this list and ask where one movie or another is, and that’s fine. There’s really no way to take an all-encompassing look. Now that you’ve got a better sense of what film noir is, you can begin to explore some of cinema’s many takes on the style. The story structure of film noir is informed by early gangster films, but the stylistic presentation has more in common with the German Expressionism of the 1920s many would not incorrectly characterize Fritz Lang’s M. Filmmakers tend to lean on an abundance of high- and low-angle shots mixed with low-key lighting to highlight silhouettes and imbue an otherwise mundane setting with a sense of dread and menace. Usually a dark character, cast in the shadows of night and concealed behind a thick veil of pouring rain. Most well-known examples of film noir cast a large metropolitan space as a character unto itself. These stories are further bound together by a third vital character: the big city. The women of film noir aren’t inherently evil – not always, at any rate – but they are traditionally the deceptively friendly face of trouble. The motivation is typically a selfish one: money, or some treasure that’s as valuable as a pile of cash, or even just straight-up self-preservation. That’s where the female characters come in. Women in these stories often fill the role of beguiling femme fatale. Occasionally they’ll find redemption, but usually not before double-crossing the protagonist or in some other way luring him into a deadly situation. He doesn’t trust easily, and he’s often burned when he does. The film noir protagonist tends to embrace a negative outlook on the world. Cop or crook, it doesn’t matter he’s often not a friendly guy. Instead of power fantasies that highlight a criminal’s gradual rise and rapid fall, you have stories that typically follow a deeply flawed male protagonist, sometimes a cop or private detective and sometimes a criminal, as he navigates his way through a deadly mystery. Image used with permission by copyright holder The violence and cynicism that highlighted the plots of those earlier films, as well as the creative use of light and shadow, carry directly into the hardboiled detective stories that film noir is awash with. The term “ film noir” originates with post-World War II film critics in France it translates directly to “black film” or “dark film,” and it describes certain stylistic and narrative tendencies that are heavily informed by the Hollywood gangster films of the ’20s and ’30s. ![]() Just imagine how much more you’ll appreciate the new story as you take note of the meta-narrative elements that the Irrational team is playing with. Might as well use that time to educate yourself. You might understand that there’s a body of source text being referenced here, but are you actually versed in the style and feel of film noir? Do you know where it comes from? Which shining examples you should check out? We’ve got multiple months to wait before even the first “Burial at Sea” episode is released. The voiceover, the writing, the restrained creepiness of the montage of everyday life in Rapture, the creative use of light and shadow in revealing Elizabeth… all of it owes its existence to Hollywood’s classic hardboiled detective stories even as it mixes in alongside the fantastical elements of Irrational’s utopian metropolis at the bottom of the ocean. The official documentation for the new story doesn’t say this explicitly, but it’s clear enough as soon as you watch the DLC’s reveal trailer: Irrational has embraced the aesthetic stylings of film noir. You can find the trailer at the bottom of this post. But it’s the second one, the two-part, story-driven “Burial at Sea,” that has our attention. The first pack, which releases alongside the announcement, is “Clash in the Clouds,” an arena combat-focused add-on. A Season Pass offering promised three packs that would “continue the player’s journey in the sky-city of Columbia with new stories, characters, abilities and weapons.” Now we’ve got the first details on what form that DLC will take. We’ve known since before BioShock Infinite launched in March 2013 that Irrational Games had post-release downloadable content plans in place. Share Image used with permission by copyright holder ![]()
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