Aesthetic Genre: Film Noir

 

I have chosen this genre, film noir, as it is of interest to me. The stylistic elements employed in film noir are bold and radical, ushering in a new way at looking at films. The essence of film noir is to create a sense of disorientation within its audience. This is done through the lighting; camera angles and creation of a sense of mystery through various devices such as smoke, mirrors and shadows casted on the actors/ actresses. The female fatale and the male detective are common subjects in film noir. The estranged relationship between the two, how the female manipulate the male is being discussed and reviewed in film noir.

 

For the collage, I have chosen to use newspaper and book cuttings to be the backdrop. Specific words such as ‘scream, shots’, ‘desire’ and ‘purity goes to jail’ are being highlighted to hint at the violence and sexual motivation behind the relationship of the female fatale and male detective. Abstraction of the collage is done in a few ways. Firstly, abstraction is done through the omission of identifiable male features to show the lack of control that the male possess in film noir. Secondly, abstraction is done through the enlargement of female features such as the eyes and red lips to portray them as natural weapons that the female fatale use to manipulate the male. Such decision is also made to create a sense of disorientation among viewers as it is not natural to erase a male face with black marker lines and juxtapose enlarged features with the female face. The sense of disorientation is heightened with the repetition of eyes that seems to be ‘watching’ the viewers themselves.

 

Abstract Construction

 

For the box, I have chosen to use objects that my brother and I have to be placed inside it. The reason for doing so is that I feel that the relationship between a brother and sister is subtly similar to that of the female fatale and the male in film noir. The truth of the matter is that sisters would sometimes manipulate their siblings in order to get way and such behavior is particularly observed when they are young. The list of items that are placed in the box is as follows: (Brother’s belongings) a picture of my brother, safety pins, batteries, transformer toy, old shaver and coins; (my belongings) a picture of myself when I was young, shades, paint tubes, broken body parts of the Barbie, pearls and solid rose perfume.

 

I have adopted an all-over composition for the placement of objects. Broken body parts and beads are strewn all over the box to create a dense of disorientation between viewers and signify a broken and dark motive. Coins are being placed to hint at money dealings and possibility of manipulation.