Chapter 10 Blog Question #2

Film Noir feature many different narrative techniques. The first of which are what is temporal movements of remembered and real time. One of first films to execute this technique is the film Double Identity. The film begins with the main character arriving at his work place in the middle of the night to deliver a confession of killing a man for money and the love of a woman. These words trigger a voice flash back this narrated by the main characters confession voice. Slowly the film brings the real time and memory time together. One of the most well known films that use this technique is Saving Private Ryan. Many of the begging battle scene switch back and for between the aged soldier and the soldier engaging in battle in real time. Temporal movement of remembered and real time have been used by films young and old.

The next of the most recognizable narrative elements of film noir is flashbacks. Flashbacks allow the film viewer to look back at the previous events of a prevalent characters life. Often looking back at the events of a character life can give the viewer deep insights into the type of person a character really is. A modern day film that uses the idea of flashbacks is the comedy Click staring Adam Sandler. The main character is a grumpy architect designer that has had a less than perfect past. The flash backs take a look back into Sandler’s less than perfect childhood and bad choices he made in his life. These flash backs allow Sandler to look at the reason why he has become the person he is. He takes what he has learned from the mistakes in his past and applies them to his life as a father and a husband. Flashbacks serve a very important role in the development of Film Noir

The last narrative technique used by film noir is used voice over. Voice over occurs when another voice over takes that of another in a conversation. You can most notably find voice over’s in any type of animation films, such as Madagascar, The Little Mermaid, or The Jungle. The voice over’s allow animated characters to talk and interact on a movie screen like real characters. The voices or allow for drawings on a piece of paper to become life like images.

Works Cited

Mills, M. (2007). Narrative Innovations In Film Noir. Retrieved September 28, 2007, from Modern Times: http://www.moderntimes.com/style/