The Maltese
Falcon – film noir
Film Noir is a style of filmmaking
characterized by elements such as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, and
frequent use of flashbacks, intricate plots.
The Maltese Falcon is a
typical film noir set in the 1940s. It crosses all of the typical codes and
conventions of film noir, as there is a femme fatale who needs the detectives
help, and at the start of the opening sequence the detectives are leering at
her and this is a reoccurring theme in a film noir. In all films at this time
the mise en scene in this film noir the detectives are typically dressed as
they are wearing a trilby hat and an overcoat and in most film noir’s this is
what they wore. This is because in a film noir the women are represented as
weak and that the men always fall for them and this is shown in the first scene
where the detective falls for her and as she is leaving Miles
asserts his salivating interest in the striking, rich, and helpless woman who
hires them to rescue her sister. Also at the start there is an establishing shot of San Francisco and
this is used to show where the film is set in.
The hard-boiled detective films of the
1940s supplied a surprisingly diverse set of heroes, each offering a variation
on the common theme of crime and detection in the dark urban scene and this was
shown in The Maltese Falcon where it transforms the traditional detective film
where they are finding out who killed the man. Also in the film it introduces
the alienated and amoral hero, the femme fatale and the dark disturbed
environment. This is shown when the camera editing dissolves to a street corner
where the other detective has been shot. The
half-smile of recognition on Archer's face as he approaches the camera quickly
turns to a look of disbelieving horror as an unseen assailant pulls a gun and
shoots him dead at close range. Miles is blown backwards through a fence
barrier and he tumbles down a steep hill. In this scene there is a non-diegetic
sound of the gunshot and this portrays what happens and in this scene there is
restricted narration because as the audience we don’t know who shot the
detective and neither does the main detective because he is now being
questioned about who killed him. In this film this is a reoccuring concept for
the enigma as no one knows who killed the detective.
In this opening sequence there wasn’t a lot of editing as it is an old
film noir. The only editing in the scene that was noticeable was at the start and
this was when the titles was going up the screen and this helped the audience
understand the story line. Another editing technique they used was in between
shots as they used a faded editing technique to switch between shots.
Camera shots are important in every film and in this film they used a
medium/close up shots when focusing on the woman in the office. They have done
this because then the audience can see all of the emotion in the face. Also
when they focus on the paper at the end of the opening sequence, they pan up
onto the paper and then zoom in to emphasise the news headline. Also they used
an over the shoulder shot in the office scene allows the audience an insight
into what the character sees from his point in view and by doing this it adds
realism to the shot as they see the same view and in this case when the woman
is speaking to the detective. They also
included a low angle shot where the detective is looking over at the crime
scene where his partner had been killed. This was used as then they could focus
on the emotions of the character and also they can see what they are looking
at.
