Cape Fear

We’ve been proceeding in somewhat a time-based order in our modest look at film noir, from just post – WWII, as in Detour, to the end of the late 50s classic period of American noir, with examples such as Touch Of Evil and Sweet Smell Of Success. Just like humans, we’re now entering an awkward age --- sort of an adolescent gawky phase of noir. The 60s. We’re hovering on adulthood in the genre, nay, one might almost say aged and nostalgic looks back to our salad days when noir was young and green. In other words, we’re almost tripping over neo - noir. Now, if you’ve thought all along that categorizing noir is somewhat tricky, how about the challenge for a subgenre such as neo - noir? What is it? Need a ruling here Eddie Muller! But in his absence, we’ll take a shot --- neo - noir is noir updated to a current timeframe. That may be an actual updating to the late 20th Century/early 21st such as the films Se7en, The Usual Suspects, or Drive. Alternatively, neo - noir may be produced in the current timeframe, but look back to the era of classic noir, such as seen in L.A. Confidential or, a hallmark of the subgenre, Chinatown. Still nihilistic, still paranoid, often rooted in crime or double-dealing, sometimes with a femme fatale, or a protagonist on the way to a fated ending. But now updated to more modern situations and societal mores, drenched in color photography, modern locations and updated film technique. We see a shift from the post – WWII dismay of America in the atomic age and the lurch from wartime patriotism to the realities of the American Century, both good and bad. The cracks in the American Dream are more apparent in neo - noir, but they revolve around a lack of faith in government, in the ability to have a better life that your parents, changes in society with greater liberality and ongoing revolution in social and sexual equality and standards. It’s still paranoid and nihilistic, just from different causes.

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