Why is this listed as a Film-noir?
I don't get it
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MovieChat Forums > Leave Her to Heaven Discussion > Why is this listed as a Film-noir?
Isnt it "film noir"; black film, there is no black and white photography but there is some chiaroscuro here. It is exceedingly "dark" when all around is beautiful and the Technicolour just blinds you further that you somehow are removed from the darkness of her character. The suspense is awesome, and Tierney is one of the all time great "femme fatales"
shareMaybe this is another of those "TECH NOIR" films.....
(reference to night club in a 1984 film...)
I agree totally, film critics and fans are so eager to jump on the bandwagon and label anything slightly dark as 'film noir'. Film noir is not even a real genre, it was invented by French film critics.
BTW, this movie is amazing!
This movie does contain some of the elements of film noir: the music, the shadows. Most film noir is made up of unsympathetic characters, out for their own selfish means. The characters of Ellen and Russell Quinton fit this type, but Ruth, Danny, and the others do not. In reviews, this movie has been called the first film noir in color, later represented by "Body Heat" and "Chinatown".
shareit makes sense to me, except the ending is so nice I wouldn't call it a noir. My own opinion is that a noir doesn't have a happy ending, but of course that's debatable.
I would like to know: does a character like Ellen really qualify as a femme-fatale? She seems a bit mentally off, is she still a "bad girl" or just sick, or rather the better question, do we viewers differentiate between "evil" and "sick" like the courts do?
What about Marilyn Monroe in "Don't Bother to Knock?" -- taking the question to the next level, to see where the line is..
If I'm right, film noir doesn't have anything to do with black and white, but more bout corrupt cynical characters, some low key lighting and bleak urban settings.. therefore, this film, though dark in theme, isn't really noir.
shareFrom wikipedia on film noir:
Film noir is harder to define specifically than "classic" genres like the Western or the Musical, mostly because the filmmakers most responsible for the genre's creation were unaware they were part of a stylistic trend. Some movies, therefore, are considered noir by some but not by others. For example, Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Niagara (1953), and Vertigo (1958) were shot in (desaturated) color but are sometimes considered noir. Films considered to be noir usually contain some, if not all, of the following:
Character elements
Femme fatale or an homme fatal (male version of a femme fatale)
Morally ambiguous protagonist(s)
Alienated protagonist(s)
Fall guy (male or female)
Violence relative to character development/interaction
Protagonist's presence in virtually every scene
Plot/screenwriting elements
Convoluted story line
Use of flashbacks
Murder or heist at the center of the story
Spoken narratives
Betrayal or double-cross
Story told from criminal's perspective
Inevitability of protagonist's doom
False accusation (or fear of same)
Sexual relationships vs. plot development
Hard-boiled dialogue/repartee
Bleak ending. While some critics insist that for a noir to be truly authentic it must have a bleak ending—e.g., Scarlet Street—many widely acknowledged classics of the genre have definitively happy endings, such as the seminal Stranger on the Third Floor, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and The Dark Corner. The tone of many noir endings is ambivalent, e.g., Pitfall, in which the protagonist survives but his marriage is badly damaged.
Whether intentionally or not, the Leave Her to Heaven filmmakers have subverted the film noir conventions — both thematically and esthetically — while remaining faithful to the dark spirit of the genre.
Whether one calls it film noir, women's film, shameless potboiler, gaudy kitsch, or what-have-you, Leave Her to Heaven is one of the best Hollywood films of the 1940s — one that showed (inner) pitch-black shadows looming in even the brightest corners of the "safe for peace" post-World War II era.
I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money... and I didn't get the woman.
This is not a noir, regardless of what Wikipedia says. Good grief, Wikipedia is not written by professionals.
Neither "Niagara" nor "Vertigo" are noirs.
Ludicrous.
please enlighten us, since you are claiming that wikipedia is wrong
shareLeave Her to Heaven is considered noir by film scholars and critics. Do some research.
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http://viverdecinema.blogspot.com.br/
"Wikipedia is not written by professionals."
So what? Many true experts on all subjects are amateurs, while "professionals" write some of the most ridiculous drivel there is. It is the simple-minded who are taken in by credentialism.
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Without Peter Lore, there is no film noir!