A Girl and a Gun

Tyrone Power in a makeup test for NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) via Film Noir Foundation

37 notes / 21.05.12 / Permalink /

[…] through the sound device of police radio that the spectator-auditor is affected by a spatial anxiety through auditory means, in the case of films which, without offering a panoramic view of the city, create fear of the chaotic urban expanse. The feeling associated with this comes from the overwhelming sense of surveilled space—and from the awareness that whatever crime we are shown on screen is being replicated over and again across the city. […] does this not through a panoramic view, but with ground-level shots of the city accompanied by the widespread criminal reports on the radio. […] where the audience can see the milieu of the city in question as well as hear of the city-wide occurrences of crime, [film noir] encapsulates the entire city visually as well as aurally—and captures us within it—as a vision of the dangerous and vice-ridden big city.

Senses of Cinema: Sounds from the City in Film Noir

[…] through the sound device of police radio that the spectator-auditor is affected by a spatial anxiety through auditory means, in the case of films which, without offering a panoramic view of the city, create fear of the chaotic urban expanse. The feeling associated with this comes from the overwhelming sense of surveilled space—and from the awareness that whatever crime we are shown on screen is being replicated over and again across the city. […] does this not through a panoramic view, but with ground-level shots of the city accompanied by the widespread criminal reports on the radio. […] where the audience can see the milieu of the city in question as well as hear of the city-wide occurrences of crime, [film noir] encapsulates the entire city visually as well as aurally—and captures us within it—as a vision of the dangerous and vice-ridden big city.

Senses of Cinema: Sounds from the City in Film Noir

22 notes / 07.05.12 / Permalink /