Lost and Found: The World of Film Noir
Film noir as a genre is notoriously difficult to define, in part because the term was coined and applied retroactively by French film critics who identified stylistic commonalities among several American crime dramas produced in the early 1940s. Few, if any, of the artists crafting these films would have referred to them as “noir” at the time, but the storytelling approach practiced by directors such as John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Otto Preminger ushered in a completely new cinematic aesthetic. Influenced by German Expressionism and often adapted from hard-boiled crime fiction and pulp novels, these films were highly stylized and inherently ominous, creating an atmosphere rife with shadows, cynicism, and moral ambiguity.
The general consensus among scholars situates the arrival of film noir with the release of The Maltese Falcon in 1941. Starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, the movie marked a distinct shift in the portrayal of a leading detective character. Unlike prior fictional sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes—who, though he was able to identify with the criminal mind, managed to stay above reproach—Spade becomes deeply entangled in a web of lies. Stone, the intrepid investigator in City of Angels, follows the same dangerous path as Spade. At the behest of an intoxicating woman, they both find themselves in an enigmatic world where truth is elusive, trust is a luxury, and the line between right and wrong blurs into a haunting chiaroscuro.
In many ways, film noir is a twentieth-century version of Victorian melodrama. The genre is highly theatrical and replete with stock characters who are present in almost every movie: the anti-hero protagonist, the femme fatale figure (who serves as the antagonist), the person (usually male) from whom the femme fatale is trying to escape, and a cop or investigator who attempts to reinforce moral order. And yet, despite the seemingly reductive character types, many of these films offer a complex exploration of human nature. The protagonists of film noir tread the same path as the leading characters in classical Greek tragedy—they are mostly good but certainly not perfect, and through chance or moral lapse they make a significant misjudgment that seals their fate. Driven equally by their desire to prove themselves and their libidos, City of Angels sees both Stone and his creator Stine put their trust in the wrong people and subsequently suffer the consequences. Luckily for them, however, their story is a musical rather than a Greek tragedy, and ultimately both the characters and audience are treated to a quintessential “Hollywood ending.”
—Dr. Megan Stahl
