Film Noir + Casino Royale

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas. The term ‘Film Noir’ in English means ‘black or dark film’. Though the noir mode was originally identified among American productions, films now customarily described as noir have been made around the world. For example, the starting scene of James Bond – Casino Royale. Although the first Noir films were filmed in the early 1940’s, the black and white picture made a big deal to the emotion of the film. For example a scene from the Big Combo (1955). We see two silhouettes in the picture (not capturing their faces maybe to create mystery etc.) and smoke in the background (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BigComboTrailer.jpg) .

As we see at the beginning of Casino Royale, there is a lot of flashbacks. Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involving flashbacks and other editing techniques that disrupt the narrative sequence. For example, the scene where Bond is fighting another character in the toilets. The flashback is shown clearly as the lighting has changed, and there is some dramatic music playing along with it to add tension.

Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor. For example, when we see a shot of the two characters in Casino Royale, the light is shone through the window (which includes Venetian blinds). The bad guy face is usually obscured by darkness - a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. Whereas as the good guys face (James Bond) is lit up almost completely. I think this is to capture the emotions on his face. Whereas the bad guys emotions would be more of a mystery. Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide-angle lenses. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects. There aren’t a lot of different camera angles used in the opening scene of Casino Royale, however, when we first see Bond, it is through a mirror that the bad guy looks through. And for the rest of the scene, Bond is filmed with a low-angled shot to make him look more powerful. Also his posture makes him seem calm and more dominant than the other character.

Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all film noirs. For example, the flashback of Bond and the other character fighting. We see this as a flashback as its change in colour with the other opening scene (to add suspense and maybe to separate the mood of the two scenes. At the end of the scene there is a murder where Bond kills the Bad guy with his own gun, this shows that Bond is thinking a few steps ahead of the other character (knowing where the bad guy keeps his gun etc.)