Declan Cunningham
The term ‘LA Noir’ in itself is a binary opposite. This is because most people recognize the city of LA in a positive light. For example, LA thinks up images of Hollywood, fame, success, endless beaches and dawn to dusk sunshine. Whereas it contradicts itself in the fact that LA noir brings out more of the themes of darkness like crime and criminal activity. This draws the audience into with the film as it seen as a shock to them as it is a different perspective of LA. One film which is representative of the genre of LA noir is ‘LA Confidential’. The title of the film
immediately roots the viewer to the city and therefore the viewer becomes challenged because of the contradiction of ‘LA’ in the title associated with the genre of film noir.
The introduction of the film ‘LA Confidential’ introduces and presents binary opposites such as, black& white, justice & corruption, criminal & police and good & evil. For example in the opening scene the policeman in the car which happens to be outside of a house in which a man is assaulting a woman. This relates to the binary opposite of good & evil as the audience see the policeman as a good guy and the other male character as the bad or evil person judging on what he is doing.
The term ‘LA Noir’ in itself is a binary opposite. This is because most people recognize the city of LA in a positive light. For example, LA thinks up images of Hollywood, fame, success, endless beaches and dawn to dusk sunshine. Whereas it contradicts itself in the fact that LA noir brings out more of the themes of darkness like crime and criminal activity. This draws the audience into with the film as it seen as a shock to them as it is a different perspective of LA. One film which is representative of the genre of LA noir is ‘LA Confidential’. The title of the film
immediately roots the viewer to the city and therefore the viewer becomes challenged because of the contradiction of ‘LA’ in the title associated with the genre of film noir.The introduction of the film ‘LA Confidential’ introduces and presents binary opposites such as, black& white, justice & corruption, criminal & police and good & evil. For example in the opening scene the policeman in the car which happens to be outside of a house in which a man is assaulting a woman. This relates to the binary opposite of good & evil as the audience see the policeman as a good guy and the other male character as the bad or evil person judging on what he is doing.
The police universally are supposedly good people; the audience also could be or are slightly confused on whether the policeman dealing with this problem is a good cop or a bad cop as he has a distinctive look and tone of voice to him which could puzzle the audience in which they have doubt. The way that the policeman looks, talks and acts is very sly and unknown, in the way in the first seen where he tear’s the Christmas lights down to create a disruption to the male who is assaulting. This also creates enigma as it is a mystery to the audience on whether the policeman is a good or bad cop which keeps the audience interested. Another binary opposite that maybe used is justice and corruption as the policeman in this scene may seem corrupt due to the way that he acts and talks.
Binary opposites maybe used as it easier as the city is already seen as an active city, and could also be linked with enigma as it could be the defining characteristic of LA noir as appose to other film noir.
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