Fight Club and NeoNoir
On the Dark Side: Fight Club & Neo-Noir In "Fight Club" (David Fincher, 1999) the director, Fincher, presents the elements that are essential in a Neo-Noir film. The most obvious of the characteristics is the dark overtone of the film. "Fight Club" is mostly set in night or in shadows as are most noir films. The other obvious characteristic of Neo-Noir is the voice over narration. Voice over narration is when a voice off screen is doing a narration of what is happening on screen. This narration is provided by the protagonist of "Fight Club," "Jack." Edward Norton plays the ambivalent protagonist, who only refers to himself as "Jack." An ambivalent protagonist, usually the main character, is someone the audience likes, but who possesses character flaws. This brings us to the use of doubles and splits in noir and neo-noir films. "Jack" (Edward Norton) unknowingly develops an alter ego by the name of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). However, this turns out to be only one of "Jack's" flaws as "Fight Club's" ambivalent protagonist. For every protagonist in Neo-Noir films there is a femme fatale, which is the leading lady who eventually leads the protagonist to his doom. "Jack's" femme fatale is Marla Singer (Helena Bonham-Car
In low-key lighting, most of the picture is under-lit while other portions of the image area are adequately exposed. Life isn't so simple in a good noir. The use of shadows and low-key lighting give "Fight Club" a genuine neo-noir feel. Even though Marla Singer could be interpreted differently as a femme fatale, "Fight Club" still best fits the characteristic style of a neo-noir film. These are not regular actions for a femme fatale. "Fight Club" is also almost completely a flashback up until the very last scene. " Low-key lighting is characterized in this way:Low-key lighting features a relatively bright key light compared with little fill light. " However, the element that secured "Fight Club" as a neo-noir film is the ambiguous ending. The audience now knows that Marla Singer had something to do with "Jack's" current state. "Jack" even admits it; "And suddenly I realized that all of this, the gun, the bombs, the revolution has got something to do with a girl named Marla Singer. The voice-over narration also brings in another characteristic of film noir even before she has appeared on screen, the femme fatale, Marla Singer. (Prince 56)Fincher uses low-key lighting efficiently. This voice over narration basically tells what is happening right as the movie picks up and will soon dive back into the recent past to bring the audience up to date on the events that led to this situation. Although things may appear to be on the up swing, which would lead some to classify "Fight Club" as a film gris (a film done in noir style but "spoiled" by a happy ending), the true ending is still unseen.
Common topics in this essay:
Fight Club,
Tyler Durden,
Edward Norton,
Tyler Durden's,
Singer Jack's,
Marla Singer,
Fight Club's,
fight club,
Flippo Marla,
Flippo Characteristic,
David Fincher,
femme fatale,
ambivalent protagonist,
marla singer,
voice narration,
neo-noir film,
low-key lighting,
fatale marla singer,
edward norton,
dark lighting,
fatale marla,
femme fatale marla,
fight club neo-noir,
femme fatale effect,
shadows noir films,
|
Acceptance Essays
