Don't ask why... Not especially well written,
but I figure what's the point of these old essays sitting on my desktop? Maybe
some student can make use of it? The next few essays will be random pieces I wrote a long time ago on history or art. These weren't written for the sake of writing and they're severely less eloquent I feel than I am capable of now.
24-10-2006
To what
extent are Gledhill’s five features of noir evident in Laura? At what points in
your view do they diverge from Gledhill’s model?
Film noir is a fairly recognisable
style but much harder to explain. Gledhill outlines in the 1980 publication, Women
in Film Noir that in her opinion, there are five common features of
film noir. Gledhill’s article is accurate of the general trends in noirs
although the emphasis is on feminism and females in noirs. I will outline these
features and then evaluate how well (or not so well) the 1944 Otto Preminger
film Laura fits these five features.
The first feature of film
noir outlined by Gledhill is ‘Investigative narrative structure’. Essentially,
this is the ways in which the male lead, often a detective investigates in
search of the truth.[1] This
is done through neutral questioning of the characters in the film. The
detective character usually works out who the culprit is before the audience
does and goes on an elaborate scheme to expose him. This adds to the suspense
of film noirs.
The second feature of film noir is flash-backs and voiceovers. The voiceover is
often from the point of view of the protagonist. The voice of the protagonist
gives us a linear way of thinking and allows us to see the thoughts and
reactions of the character. We are given the opportunity to see if the events
we see are any different to the events that the voiceover character describes. The
flash-back device is used to disrupt the linear flowing plot. It is an
effective device for suspense as the character may seem in a certain mood and
we are left wondering what will happen in the flashback to take the character
to where he is.
The third feature of noir
is point of view. Point of view often works with voiceovers as we often
automatically relate better to the voiceover character. There is often a
struggle for dominance within the more technical aspects of the film (like
screen time, camera angles, etc) in an attempt to give a certain individual’s
point of view. Often since we do not see the entire picture, we only get
fragments of characters or events that have happened from different people’s
subjective stories.
The next feature of noir
is the characterisation of the heroine. She is often portrayed as a beautiful
femme fatale who is independent. Usually, at least more than one male character
(if not all), desires her. Since sexuality was strictly forbidden to be shown
literally, a lot more subtle suggestions and hints have to be used. The femme
fatale often distracts the straight-arrow detective who is trying to piece the
clues together. This character contrasts with the good housewives, the victims
and in some noirs, the evil money-hungry girlfriends[2].
Since Gledhill’s article is from a feminist perspective, I would assume from a
neutral perspective, this feature of noir would just be ‘characterisation’.
Detective characters are lone rangers who are often straight arrows that also
become obsessed with the heroine. They usually are flawed emotionally in
someway. The culprit is usually well hidden as the culprit throughout the film,
although there are visual clues. Often everyone in the film has a reason for
the murder.
The final aspect of noir
is the visual style. This includes things like lighting schemes and
camera-angles. This often goes with the other features such as
characterisation, in which the femme fatale is often always bathed in light and
point of view, where the angles are often from the protagonist’s view. The
lighting is also important for the more shady characters that are often in the
shadows. A character that is higher up the social ladder is often seen to be on
a higher plane literally than other characters and take up more of the screen
during shots. Obviously, these are just general trends that Gledhill has
noticed and are not the tick-lists in which film noir has to follow. Because of
this, each noir follows the features in some ways, but also has its own
defining uniqueness.
Laura contains all the five features to different extents. The investigative
narrative structure is clearly evident through the detective, Mark McPherson
played by Dana Andrews. Throughout the film, this character questions and plays
games with the other characters. His questioning of all the characters is quite
forward since he’s there to do his job and not care what other people think, as
shown by him not being phased by Lydecker’s forward suggestions. “Did it
ever strike you that you're acting very strangely? It's a wonder you don't come
here like a suitor with roses and a box of candy - drugstore candy, of course.
Have you ever dreamed of Laura as your wife, by your side at the Policeman's
Ball or in the bleachers? Or listening to the heroic story of how you got a
silver shinbone from a gun battle with a gangster?[3] Since
we do not have his voiceover, often the audience is also left in the dark to
wonder what his intentions and next actions are going to be. Because of the
lack of voiceover, we do loose some sense of the investigative narrative as we
do not have an insight to McPherson’s thoughts. He doesn’t take sides until he
truly falls for Laura. When Vince Price comes in and says that he has not slept
a wink since it happened, McPherson responds with "Is that a sign of
guilt or innocence, McPherson?" [4] The
narrative on the whole is effective with some epic lines amidst the common
pleasantries. “And thus, as history has proved, Love is Eternal. It has been
the strongest motivation for human actions throughout centuries. Love is
stronger than Life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of Death. I close this
evening's broadcast with some favourite lines...Brief Life - They are not long,
the weeping and the laughter, love and desire and hate. I think they have no
portion in us after we pass the gate...They are not long, the days of wine and
roses. Out of a misty dream, our path emerges for a while, then closes within a
dream..”[5] The
lines uttered in the pre-recorded radio broadcast that plays while the real
Lydecker gets a shotgun to kill his love. This ambiguous speech sums up not
only Laura, but the majority of noirs that deal with the sexual and love
relationships between man and woman.
There is only
one main flashback in Laura where Lydecker describes his history with Laura.
Since we are told from Lydecker’s perspective, we really get a sense of his
feelings for Laura. Every scene she is in, in the flashbacks, she seems like an
idealized exaggeration. “But it was her own talent and imagination that
enabled her to rise to the top of her profession and stay there. She had an
eager mind always. She was always quick to seize upon anything that would
improve her mind or her appearance. Laura had innate breeding. But she deferred
to my judgment and taste.”[6] He
speaks of her fondly, but also as more of a disciple or possession than a
partner. Lydecker seems to be the character that we are led to believe as the
protagonist for the first few minutes. He starts the film with a voiceover; the
flashback is from his point of view, again with a voiceover. This may have been
done to make him seem like a less obvious suspect. Despite being the voiceover
character, it is hard to identify with him as he has an aura of uneasiness. He
watches McPherson like a voyeur in the opening scene and invites him into his
bathroom. It also ties in with point of view as it is Lydecker’s point of view
for a small proportion of the film. Laura for half the film is only ever given
to us from different people’s point of view, whether it is Lydecker, Price, the
maid or Anne. And since all these characters idealize Laura to some level, we
do not get a glimpse of the real Laura until she returns.
Laura is not really
a femme fatale in the traditional sense of the phrase. She is quite timid and
refrains from being rude. She does possess qualities of a femme fatale like the
independence, ambitiousness and (willingly or unwillingly) infatuating all the
main male characters in the film. All the other main characters are quite
stereotypical; there’s the rich, snobbish, jealous old man, the playboy
boyfriend, the maid who would go to any lengths to protect Laura and her
desperate aunt. Jealousy is a common theme in noirs and one that is often the
cause of the murder as in the case with Laura. Lydecker destroys painter that
Laura was with and eventually the thought of her with anyone else drives him to
murder. “Do you think I'm going to leave it to the vulgar pawing of a
second-rate detective who thinks you're a dame?”[7] Some
of the characters also have some link with objects. Lydecker for example owns
the grandfather clock and dies just as the face of the clock shatters.
McPherson has a little toy he plays with when he is stressed out. These subtle
differences are probably put in to differentiate the characters from their
similar counterparts from other films, and to also add a metaphorical
relationship to the objects.
The
visual style is something that is very apparent in Laura. The sharp contrasts
and dramatic lighting is blatant throughout the film. Laura is often bathed in
light, which there is a small parody off within the film where McPherson
questions Laura with a heavy lamp in her face which she objects to. Even when
the Lamp is turned off, her face is still illuminated. This scene contrasts
with the final scene where Lydecker is hiding in the shadows in the kitchen
where he is in shadow waiting. These small details help us form the personality
of characters on a more subconscious level. Another scene that stands out in a
surreal way is the scene when Laura returns after the detective falls asleep
mesmerised by her portrait. You are left wondering if it is McPherson’s dream
or reality.
So in conclusion,
although Laura contains elements of all five features of noir in someway, it
does go beyond enough to make it not completely formulaic and unoriginal. One
of the strongest divergences is that the heroine is not a real femme fatale.
The dream-like quality of the whole film is also very progressive of future
more ambitious films to come. The necorphilic love relationship between
McPherson and the assumed-to-be-dead Laura also pushes boundaries. The film was
not made to be a noir so you can tell that there are no actual guidelines that
Otto Preminger has gone through to produce this film. He did not make this film
to fit Gledhill’s five features 36 years later. Despite this, the film
obviously had things in common with other mystery-type thrillers of the time
which show through; the snappy wise-cracking detective, jealousy, harsh
lighting, the playboy boyfriend, the confident heroine, flashbacks, voiceovers
and subtle sexuality.
Filmography
Laura (1944) – Otto Preminger
Bibliography
Women in Film Noir ed. E.Ann Kaplan
(1980), Klute 1: A contemporary film noir and feminist criticism – Christine
Gledhill.
I made use of it, so thanks Schism
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