Schrader's Film Noir and Polanski's Chinatown

In his piece, “Notes on Film Noir”, Paul Schrader comments on genre by discussing the Influences, Stylistics, Themes, and Phases of Film Noir. For the most part, films are labeled as Noir Films based on certain reoccurring visual elements and themes. Schrader discusses these visual elements and themes in detail. According to Schrader, seven stylistic techniques exist for Noir films. These seven stylistic icons of Film Noir that define the genre are as follows:

1. Dark or dim lighting. This lighting helps to create the mood of Noir films and contributes to the air of mystery and suspense.
2. Oblique lines, most often in the form of light entering the scene from a window. Offices and rooms are often filled with light in the form of jagged lines or obscure geometric shapes such as trapezoids or obtuse triangles. This breaks up the scene visually and further contributes to the uneasiness of the mood or the unsettling mystery
3. Lack of distinction between character lighting and scenic lighting. Whereas most films draw the viewers attention to the characters by concentrating the lighting on their faces and bodies more so than the scenery, Noir films tend to light the characters with the same intensity as the scenery. The characters are often seen in the shadows of the buildings rather than casting their own shadows upon the buildings. According to Schrader, this “creates a fatalistic, hopeless mood”.
4. “Compositional tension is preferred to physical action”. In other words, there is less movement of the characters around the camera and more movement of the camera around the characters.
5. An unconscious focus on and attachment to water. Visually, the dark streets of a city in Noir films often glisten as a result of rain on the pavement. Additionally, rain tends to go hand in hand with Noir scenes with the highest level of tension or drama.
6. “There is a love of romantic narration”. The way Noir films are narrated often contributes greatly to the mood. Schrader mentions “temps perdu”, which is a mood of “irretrievable past, a predetermined fate, and an all-enveloping hopelessness”.
7. Complex chronological order. This contributes to feelings of “hopelessness and lost time’. By presenting scenes out of chronological order, the film disorients the viewer and instills these sentiments of uneasiness while viewing.

Based on these seven techniques, which define Film Noir, it is difficult for me to label Roman Polanski’s 1974 film, Chinatown, as a Film Noir. The film fails to utilize the majority of the visual and thematic elements, which make up the Noir genre.

1. Chinatown consists of an equal number (if not more) of scenes that occur during the day and at night. This lack of a dark and dreary atmosphere takes away from the mystery of the film. In my opinion, the dark or dim lighting of noir films is the most recognizable visual element, placing it in the category of Film Noir.
2. Only one example of this comes to mind when I think back to my viewing of Chinatown. There is one scene in which Gittes is on the phone in his office and light enters the room in the form of oblique lines, cutting up the scene visually. This one instance does not have me sold on Chinatown as Noir. The majority of the scenes are clearly-lit in a way that is comparable to films that fall under a number of other genres.
3. While I would agree that the lighting in Chinatown is not particularly vibrant or extreme, I would never venture to say that the characters are lit in the same way that the scenery is lit. Even in the Night scenes, characters’ are lit in a way that clearly allows the viewer to experience their facial expressions. For the most part, the characters are kept WAY out of the shadows.
4. To be honest, I was not looking out for this technique when I was watching the film, so I cannot make a definitive claim about it. However, the movement of the camera around the characters as opposed to the movement of the characters around the camera is not something that stood out to me by any means.
5. This technique was absolutely not used. While water clearly present throughout the entire film, it was not so in the way that Schrader discusses. The film is set in Los Angeles during a drought. I cant think of a scene in which it is raining and there is most definitely not a sense of water glistening off of the pavement.
6. The original script for Chinatown was narrated by Gittes as a voiceover, however Polanski decided not to include that form of narration in the final product. Because of this, the viewer is able to discover the clues throughout the film as Gittes discovers them. I did not get a sense of “temps perdu” when I watched Chinatown.
7. Aside from verbal references to the past, I cannot recall a scene that took place out of chronological order.

While I can see why Chinatown could be considered a Film Noir based on certain criteria, it does not follow the seven stylistic techniques of the genre as outlined by Paul Schrader.

REAR WINDOW: Voyeurism and the Object of the Male Gaze

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, Rear Window, gives us an inside look at the life of injured photojournalist, LB Jeffries, who as a result of his injury is bound to a wheelchair. Because our protagonist is unable to leave his apartment, he passes the time by observing, or spying on, his neighbors out of the rear window of his apartment. The entire plot is centered around Jeffries’ discoveries as a “Peeping Tom” and therefore, the film has a strong underlying theme of voyeurism.

In her piece, “From the Woman Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory”, Tania Modleski analyzes the relationship between Jeffries and his girlfriend. She discusses the exhibitionist behavior of Lisa and the voyeuristic actions of Jeffries. Modleski makes the point that although Lisa is an exhibitionist, she is also portrayed in a confident and superior manner to Jeffries. She notes most significantly Lisa’s physical presence in each shot as compared to that of Jeffrey’s. On page 727, she makes the observation that, “in Rear Window, however, the woman is continually shown to be physically superior to the hero, not only in her physical movements but also in her dominance within the frame…” While these are notable characteristics of our two protagonists, I do not think that this is the voyeuristic relationship that must be analyzed.

I would like to discuss voyeurism in terms of the object of the male gaze as it relates to Rear Window. When considering the male gaze in relation to Hitchcock’s film, I found the most interesting voyeuristic relationship to be that of our protagonist, Jeffries, as a “Peeping Tom” looking into the windows of his neighbors while they are unaware. At first, we see him observing all of the neighbors and taking equal interest in each of their actions. Two neighbors are females who live alone, one being particularly attractive and desirable, the stereotypical object of the male gaze, and there are couples in the other apartments. At no point is he focused specifically on the attractive female neighbor, as would be expected. As the plot progresses and as Jeffries continues to “peep”, he becomes fixated on the actions of Mr. Thorwald. In film, the vast majority of the time, the object of the male gaze is a woman who is desirable to the man and therefore becomes desirable to us as the audience. Modleski briefly discusses Laura Mulveys views on voyeurism in relation to Hitchcock films and she states that they are “tailored to the fears and fantasies of the male spectator, who…needs to see her fetishized and controlled in the course of the narrative…The film spectator apparently has no choice but to identify with the male protagonist, who exerts an active controlling gaze over a passive female object.” As Modleski stated, Lisa is most certainly not a “passive female object” and in my opinion, she is also not the primary object of Jeffries’ gaze. So, in the case of Rear Window, the object of the male gaze is not a woman, rather, from Jeffries’ perspective as a voyeur, or “Peeping Tom”, it is Thorwald. This interest in Thorwald comes about due to Jeffries’ suspicion that Thorwald has murdered his wife. Although Jeffries is not “peeping” on Thorwald in a sexual context, he still chooses to focus on and become obsessed with the actions of this male individual over the actions of his other neighbors, which is worth noting. His interest in Lisa as a visual subject becomes clearly secondary to his desire to view Thorwald in an effort to find evidence of murder.