Film noir

Film Noir (translated from French into “black film”) is made up of various elements to create a different style of film. This area of film is pointed to the 1940’s throughout the 1950’s which is known as the “classic period.” Film noir stems from novels written in a time period where they were not accepted at first. With plots that were controversial to the American public and were not talked about.

Film noir ranges from the gangster movie to a murder mystery, but whichever genre it is, it is filled with twists, turns, backstabbing and anything you can think of.  With the detective and the femme fatale and a plot line filled with crime and fights comes the style of film noir. The femme fatale is a seductive woman who uses her sexuality to get what she wants.  A murder is normally the center of any noir film where the plot line is told through the detectives’ perspective, where he looks for the murder and gets caught up within the story.

Many visual aspects go into the making of the film that gives a movie a film noir feel to it. Those being; staircases, bars, camera angles, the dark settings, silhouettes, and shadows. Directors and writers make every scene a scene where it has noir qualities. The images were not done by accident; it takes time and effort to create every scene where it takes on the characteristics of film noir. The black and white film gave the movies a “dark” feel to them which created suspense and added mystery to the plot. These movies were usually created with low budgets and didn’t have well known actors.

 

The movie The Killers is an example of noir film because of its lighting and the femme fat ale; Kitty Collins. The story of this movie, which is based off the short story written by Ernest Hemmingway, is of two hit men who were sent out to go and kill a man. The rest of the film is told though the detective who is out trying to close the case and find the killers. As the detective learns more of the history of the murder victim it leads to a path of numerous twists and turns on his road to finding the men responsible.

 

Film noir didn’t stop in the 1950’s it has continued on today and has become more popular. Having the same qualities but with more updated technology, film noir continues to live on. Movies such as; Sin City, Batman Begins, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang along with many others take on the film noir role.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

The play Long Day’s Journey into Night written by Eugene O’Neill is a story of a family that takes place in one day. Behind the dialogue of the play are the representations of O’Neill, his older brother, and their parents in their own home. The characters in the play take on the roles on the O’Neill family and portray they O’Neill story in roughly twelve hours. Mary, the mother in the play signifies O’Neill’s mother, a morphine addict who hides her addiction behind her rheumatism in her hands. James Tyrone takes the role of the father, who use to be an actor and is very cheap in all matters of life. Jamie is the brother who is a drunk, and also an actor because his father got him into the business. Edmond represents Eugene, the younger son who has learned his has tuberculosis. Within the long day the lives of this family are exposed and go deep into the backgrounds of each family member. This piece is considered to be O’Neill’s masterpiece and the play itself is filled with fighting, resentment, and although it’s had to see right away there is love within the family.

Throughout the plays problems continue to become clear within the family and they are even some new problems that come into play.  Mary runs up into the spear bedroom when ever she faces these problems but is unable to admit the problem goes further than the pain in her hands.

     Edmund For God’s sake, Mama! You can’t trust her! Do you want everyone on earth to know?

    Mary Know what? That I suffer from rheumatism in my hands and have to take medicine to kill the   pain? Why should I be ashamed of that?

The family also faces the problem of Jamie, who is a drunk and spends all of his money on drinks and women. It is clear that the family is seeing him as a problem and they are unable as to how long they can take. His attitude about life doesn’t see eye to eye with the rest of his family. Another problem in the family is Tyrone being to cheap, every when it came to his own sons health.

     Tyrone …If you mean I can’t afford one of those fine society doctors who prey on the rich summer people-

     Jamie Can’t afford? You’re one of the biggest property owners around here.

    Tyrone That doesn’t mean I’m rich. It’s all mortgaged-

     Jamie Because you always buy more instead of paying off mortgages. If Edmund was a lousy acre of land you wanted, the sky would be the limit!

Although it was able to be seen because the play does only take place in one day, the ending is left open like a good amount of O’Neill’s pieces. In this play the characters are introduced and the audience is able to connect to the family in some way or another. As the audience continues to relate to the Tyrone family, its over, the play ends in a rant that Mary goes off in.  She ends the scene with her last lines being;

• I never dreamed Holy Mother would give me such advice! I was really shocked. I said, of course, I would do anything she suggested, but I knew it was simply a waste of time. After I left her, I felt all mixed up, so I went to the shrine and prayed to the Blessed Virgin and found peace again because I knew she heard my prayer and would always love me and see no harm ever came to so long as I never lost my faith in her. ..That was in the winter of senior year. Then in the spring something happened to me. Yes, I remember. I fell in love with James Tyrone and was so happy for a time.

As the audience is exposed to the problems that this family is going through the ending leaves countless possibilities that the family can encounter. It leaves so many doors open that the audience can pick and choose the fate for each character. Questions such as, how long does the family last with the mother resorting to morphine for all her needs? Does Edmund go to the sanitarium? How long does Jamie continue to sponge off of his parents? The countless problems this family faced was due to years of circling between drinking and the morphine, did it ever end?

Desire Under the Elms

When it comes to the play, Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill, it is truly crazy as to how many attributes of modernist literature are present within it. The most clear attribute is the open ending. Once again a piece of modernist literature leaves the reader is a frenzy due to the fact all the problems within the play are left unresolved.

EBEN–(suddenly calls) I lied this mornin’, Jim. I helped her do it. Ye kin take me, too.

ABBIE–(brokenly) No!

CABOT–Take ’em both. (He comes forward–stares at Eben with a trace of grudging admiration.) Putty good–fur yew! Waal, I got t’ round up the stock. Good-by.

EBEN–Good-by.

ABBIE–Good-by. (Cabot turns and strides past the men–comes out and around the corner of the house, his shoulders squared, his face stony, and stalks grimly toward the barn. In the meantime the sheriff and men have come into the room.)

SHERIFF–(embarrassedly) Waal–we’d best start.

ABBIE–Wait, (turns to Eben) I love ye, Eben.

EBEN–I love ye, Abbie. (They kiss. The three men grin and shuffle embarrassedly. Eben takes Abbie’s hand. They go out the door in rear, the men following, and come from the house, walking hand in hand to the gate. Eben stops there and points to the sunrise sky.) Sun’s a-rizin’. Purty, hain’t it?

ABBIE–Ay-eh. (They both stand for a moment looking up raptly in attitudes strangely aloof and devout.)

SHERIFF–(looking around at the farm enviously–to his companion) It’s a jim-dandy farm, no denyin’. Wished I owned it!

This is what the readers are left with in the end of the play. This wasn’t picked from the middle of the play, this is how O’Neill leaves it . Don’t worry, that’s not all we are left with, we are also left with the countless questions racing through our heads.  What ever happened to Simeon and Peter? What about Cabot, is he still living, in a farm that isn’t even his to begin with? What about Eben and Abbie, did Abbie step up and admit she did everything by herself? No one knows the answers to these questions.  There are so many ways to go about trying to find any solution that will give the reader some relief and comfort to the future of the characters.

Along with the open ending there are other attributes. Such as the use of language, the entire play is told through dialogue and with the use of this it allows the readers to see right past the use of words into the reality within the play. It makes this fiction play come alive, it gives the sense of its sincerity with all the emotions taking place. The reader is caught up in all the drama that this one family faces throughout a small period of time. Also with the use of dialogue it allows to see the characters are people, not just fictional characters.  This gives the play a sense of reality within it. It is a drama filled play and it allows the readers to relate and to be able to get the authenticity it holds.

The the continuous twists and turns within this play and the jaw dropping actions that take place, this play is a perfect example of what modernist literature is all about. After a period of time where this type of writing was unheard of the modernist literature became a popular classification of writing.

The Glass Menagerie

As my English class experienced The Glass Menagerieby Tennessee Williams through the film version when it came to the conclusion of the story the entire class was filled with the same “joy.” To be serious the entire class was filled with the confusion to the ending of the play. When the last scene ended, the class was filled with comments such as, “are you kidding me?” and comments along the same disappointing line. The ending of this play was unseen and left numerous question the the viewer or reader.

A different approach to a Tennessee Williams play-write, the film version wasn’t taken like the play as A Streetcar Named Desire.  While in the film version of Streetcar the setting and appearance was like that of a stage set up The Glass Menageriewas anything but. What the two settings have in common was the cramp, small area where the entire plays took place. It is obvious that the two plays come from the same writer because they are so similar. They both deal with families who live in cramp areas who both have problems, that unfortunately, can be compared to the lives of everyday people. Both plays give off a sense of reality that hits the reader hard. The reader is able to feel what the characters are going  how they have to go through their lives. Some readers are even able to compare their own lives to the lives of the people in Streetcar and Glass Menagerie. The use of language is also very important in both plays, how the characters portray what they are going through, through their dialogue sets the entire plot of each play. Both plays also deal with families who are falling apart. Whether Stanley enjoys it or not, Blanche is a member of his family and she lost her mind and was sent away from her family. In the end of Glass Tom ends up leaving his family altogether. Both plays are so similar yet the plot is so different.

Another attribute of modernist literature that both plays have in common is the open ending.  We are introduced to the Wingfield family, a mother and her two children, Tom and Laura. As the play gets started it is clear that the mother is the head of the household, since her husband left. She wants everything to go her way and everything to be perfect. While her son and daughter take different approaches towards their mothers ways it is clear the son Tom is destined to leave. We are then introduced to a man who seemed to be a gentleman caller for Laura, which made her mother very happy because Laura had never had a gentleman caller. But although sparks fly between Laura and Jim, the gentleman caller, Jim announces he is engaged to be married. As Jim and Tom begin to talk, Tom explains that he has many things he wants to do with his life that don’t involve him staying where he is. After Jim leaves, the mother is very upset with Tom for not telling her and Laura that Jim was engaged. As words fly back and forth and voices become louder Tom leaves the house.

The viewer or reader then finds themselves with a speech from Tom with what is going on back in the Wingfield household. As Tom says his goodbyes to Laura, she leans over and blows out the candles that were lighting the room. With this ending it leaves so many doors open as to what may be going on inside the readers head. With so many questions left unanswered it leaves countless possibilities.  The reader has to use what the little amount of information the author has left them with and take it into their own hands. They now have the task of coming to their own conclusions.

As I go through modernist literature,  open endings is becoming a pattern in most works. Modernist works leave so many questions unanswered, and the reader unsatisfied.  Everyone can take the ending into their own hands and do with it what they wish but it will never be clear as to the true outcome of the characters we meet in modernist literature.

The Ending of Streetcar

Throughout the play it is plan to see that Blanche is heading towards a serious downfall in her life. With all that she has been through it is obvious to the viewer that Blanche is not okay. Blanche lived a life filled with death, blame and loneliness. She then became a fan of drinking, which she refused to admit. Getting married at such a young age with a man later to find out had this big secret that in the end caused his death was not an easy thing for Blanche to live through. Blanche then realized that due to the fact she was unable to help the life of her husband she was to help the lives of boys she met in life who reminded her of the life of her late husband. Loosing all her family and her home Blanche then went to go stay with her pregnant sister Stella and her husband Stanley. While the lives of Blanche and Stanley clashed, the mental state of Blanche suffered. After Stanley took advantage of Blanche while Stella was at the hospital about to give birth Blanche finally cracked. It was an accident waiting to happen, that Blanche would finally hit the bottom, and Stanley was the final cause of it.

Stella did not believe the news when Blanche told her of what happened, She sided with Stanley, who of course, denied it. As Blanche was packing her things in the belief she was going to leave with a long time friend, to her surprise arriving at the door was not her friend, but a doctor and a nurse. Stella and Stanley believed it was best for Blanche to get the help she deserved. When the truth is Blanche would have never gone over the edge if it wasn’t for the treatment she received from Stanley. Since the first day Blanche arrived, the way she was treated by Stanley was uneasy to deal with.  While it is plain to see Stanley is a man with a temper, which can be seen from when he hit his pregnant wife. Blanche was the victim in the relationship between her and Stanley. Stella, who was able to go back to her husband after he striked her, took the side of Stanley over her sister. Because of this, although Blanche was telling the truth, Blanche was sentenced to a mental hospital, at the hands of Stella and Stanley. The readers are left to Blanche taking the kindness of strangers and agreeing to leave with the doctor, after a fit, and driving away into the night.

We are never told the outcome of Blanche after she left, and we are never told whether everything Blanche said was true or not. Was there really a Mr. Huntley? Did Blanche really do all the things she was accused of? Or did Stanley inflict what he heard into Blanche and everyone else? The reader is left with an open ending to explore what may have happened by themselves. The reader finds themselves in the end of this play with question after question and with a lack of closure from the ending. Williams leaves the outcome of the characters into the hands of the reader. The reader is also left with weather to take the side of Stanley or Blanche. While what Stanley finds out from his “sources” it is never clear as to whether it is true, or rumors.

Streetcar

In life we are faced with open ending everyday considering the fact life doesn’t have a ‘closed ending’ to it. In reading the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” written by Tennessee Williams, towards the end of each scene the reader is left to wonder were they will be taken next. The continuous twists and turns keep the reader on their feet and keep them guessing with will occur next. Considering the fact I have yet to conclude the play itself, it is an unknown as of right now whether or not the play will end with an open ending. But as for the individual chapters themselves on the surface they seem to end but although it concludes what is going on it does make you want to continue to find out what is going to happen in the future.

The Killers by Ernest Hemingway

Another author that uses attributes of modernist literature and also tends to follow my attribute of leaving open endings is Ernest Hemingway. Although Hemingway isn’t as ‘out there’ as Eliot is, he is still a modernist writer. The works of Hemingway are simple and an easy read and  the short stories are normally straight forward. Like Eliot, Hemingway tends to leave his works of literature in open endings.

In The Killers the ending leaves the reader disappointed because the story line in the end is only the thoughts of two men on the man who the believe is going to be killed and their own thoughts on the reason why. The reader is left unknown as to the true reason why the man is going to be killed if he truly is going to be killed in the first place. This short story is left unclear and the reader is left disturbed wrapped up in their own thoughts on the conclusion.

Hemingway states that they were going to kill the man;

“What’s he going to do?”
“Nothing.”
“They’ll kill him.”
“I guess they will.”

The in the end Hemingway draws back the attention towards the killing in a matter to make the reader think of how he was killed.“I can’t stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he’s going to get it. It’s too damned awful.” The reply was then: “Well,” said George, “you better not think about it.” because of this the reader doesn’t know what to think. Being told ‘you better not think about it’ leaves the reader, thinking about it. The ending is clearly not resolved.

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

Once again T.S. Eliot leaves the reader unsatisfied in yet another poem. This one is of The Waste Land. In the conclusion of this poem, T.S.Eliot leaves another open ending to his work.

The Waste Land is one of those poems you have to read very carefully and if you miss something you will be lost reading the rest of it. It is also one of those poems you have to pick apart the entire thing in order to understand the meaning of it, which I have no been able to do yet. Although the true meaning still remains a mystery to me it is still clear that the ending results in another open ending. Even skipping to the very end of the poem and reading the ending it leaves the reader asking “what?”

The reader may find themselves asking the question “what?” a lot throughout this poem. As most endings in writing clear up issues within the work, The Waste Landdoes not. With the last strophe made up of a different language and two sentences in English which are , “These fragments I have shored against my ruins Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe. ” the ending is not resolved. It is an open ending that remains a mystery.

The Hollow Men by T.S Eliot

Although the very ending of this poem does result in a complete conclusion with;

“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Back under Roman Numeral III in the beginning of the second stanza a question is being asked and no question mark follows. It questions;

“Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone”

As T.S Eliot describes “death’s other kingdom” hes leaves the question “Is it like this In death’s other kingdom” open. Is there a “death’s other kingdom”?

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot

As the poem written by T.S Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock comes to an end, it is unclear what the meaning of the last strophe is. The reader finds them-self in a situation as to how to take in the last strophe. The last strophe is:

“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” (T.S Eliot)

Here, Eliot has left the reader puzzled. Did the narrator end his life? Or did the narrator drown himself within his own mind? As an element of modernist literature, an open or ambiguous ending gives the sense of reality to the reader. Matters are not resolved or ended in the conclusion of the poem, which gives the reader a realization that life isn’t as simple as a poem; it doesn’t have a beginning , a middle, and a ending. Open endings leave the reader to use their own thoughts with what they have collected from the reading to venture off and come to a conclusion on their own.