Maltese Falcon

By understanding Film Noir under the Italian Neorealism category, I will attempt to study about Film Noir through the film Maltese Falcon. I will study the characteristics of Film Noir in terms of visuals.

Film Noir comes under Italian Neorealism, it is a type of cinematography which focuses on the type of characters, story and mise-en-scene. This traits are similar with Film Noir as it also focuses on the visuals, characters and Narrative. Film Noir is under the category of dark films, this means the story tends to be dark, visually dark or evil characters. 

Film Noir tends to be dark visually as in it could be visually suffocating, effect of shadow, lines and angles of shots. This effect of shadow seen in Film Noir are representing good and evil, this could be seen throughout Maltese falcon as some of the scene takes place at night and the shadow are highly visible. This tells the people that the characters that may look good on the outside has a very evil side as well.

The effect of lines could be cause by using the effect of shadows as well. The effect of the lines causes distortion to make it seem that everything is distorted and out of place. This makes it feel like there is always something not right as if it is a warning that something bad is going to happen.

Low angle shots are used in the scene where Sam Spade finds the "fat man" known as Humphrey Bogart. The low angle shot gives the impression that Humphrey is a very rich and powerful or very evilly powerful man. His big sized body further compliments the character as it makes him look even bigger.

Film Noir is all about blurred morals, this is why they are categorized under Dark Films. There are not one good character in the film, even the detective is bad. The detective, Sam Spade is the main character with flaws, he is the protagonist and an anti hero of the film. He could be seen extorting money from O'Shaughnessy and framing Wilmer to cover up the crime. In the end, he even calls the police to arrest O'Shaughnessy despite his feelings for her.

Film Noir also features strong women as the character O'Shaughnessy is shown to be strong enough to even plot out to murder Archer and even take down her accomplice Thursby so she could have the full value of the maltese falcon. She could be seen telling all the lies and manipulating Sam Spade the detective to do all her bidding.