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The man who wasn't noir (in a movie that was)
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Coen brothers give us plenty to ponder over with their 2001 neo noir "The Man Who Wasn't There." Here's some film food for thought, generated from our CineVerse discussion of the movie last night:
HOW IS THIS MOVIE SIMILAR TO OTHER CLASSIC FILM NOIR
PICTURES OF THE 1940S AND 50S?
- It’s shot in stylistic black and white and features a chiaroscuro (high contrast) lighting scheme that employs deep shadows.
- It presents a downbeat, pessimistic world view and characters that each have sins and flaws.
- It features a prominent voiceover narration, just as noir classics like “Laura” and “Double Indemnity” does.
- Characters in noir often are bound by a predetermined fate or destiny, and to aspire beyond that fate is hubris. As Ebert says: “film noir is rarely about heroes, but about men of small stature who are lured out of their timid routines by dreams of wealth or romance. Their sin is one of hubris: these little worms dare to dream of themselves as rich or happy.” Ed Crane is one of these people. Thus, he must pay for dreaming to be a dry cleaner and to get revenge against his wife’s lover.
- There’s a lot of smoking.
HOW IS “THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE” DIFFERENT FROM ITS NOIR
PREDECESSORS?
- Ed Crane is not a good looking lead like the lead men played by John Garfield, Fed McMurray or Robert Mitchum; he’s plain, ordinary, softspoken and reserved. Unlike most noir male leads, he’s passive, not active. He’s asked twice: “What kind of man are you?” Crane isn’t a self-indulgent opportunist in the classic noir sense—he doesn’t take advantage of the sex that the piano student offers, he doesn’t seek to destroy his wife or her lover but merely to use the blackmail money to fund his dry cleaning dreams.
- The setting is not a gritty urban locale, with dark alleys, tall buildings, underworld hangouts and city sights; it occurs in the vanilla suburbs.
- Many early noirs were paced and scripted as suspense or mystery thrillers; this film’s vibe is, as put by The Guardian critic Phillip French, “one of subdued melodrama” instead.
- The score for the film spotlights Beethoven sonatas and a deep-toned sole piano.
HOW WOULD THIS FILM HAVE BEEN AN IFFY GAMBLE FOR ALL
INVOLVED?
- It’s a 2001 movie shot in black and white—a tough sell in the modern age.
- It’s a period piece set in 1949, 50-plus years removed from when the film was released.
- It features a slow delivery voiceover narration, which became passé long ago.
- The pace is molasses slow and measured for many viewers.
- Ed is, arguably, a boring protagonist: he’s very passive and unemotional—in keeping with the theme of the movie and the way the character contrasts with others in the story.
- The film’s dark tone increases in intensity as the story progresses, and the denouement is somber and gloomy.
- Arguably, the approach feels cold and calculating and emotionally detached. It may be hard for modern viewers to engage with the story and care about these characters.
WHAT THEMES ARE EXAMINED IN THIS MOVIE?
- Man’s inherent alienation from his fellow man. See how Ed is almost always isolated within the movie frame or set off from others within the frame. And consider Ed’s vision of the UFO near the end of the film. Perhaps the filmmakers are commenting on Ed’s inaccessible nature. Blogger Michael Nordine wrote: “Too alien for this world, yet human, all too human for theirs, Ed exists in an unreachable state beyond any rescue, especially from himself.”
- The futility of trying to aspire to something bigger or higher than your current stature.
- The fallacy of the American dream, which has been subverted by greed.
- The flaws within the nuclear family and the revered institution of marriage.
- This picture plays as a variation on a recurring Coen brothers theme: “placing doltish, unreastically drawn, powerless characters in an uncertain, comically brutal universe…the brothers seem to be poking fun at creations they love. In the process of humiliating, damaging, and annihilating these figures, they render them in an extremely vivid and often hilarious way,” wrote blogger Drew Gardner.
- Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and the concept of “the more you look, the less you know” is played up here, too.
- Is it possible that Ed is already “dead” (figuratively and spiritually)? Maybe that’s why he’s so emotionless, is able to tell that the fortune teller is a fake, and why he’s observant of hair continuing to grow after death. Think about how he feels like a ghost and how people sort of look right through/past him, as if he weren’t there; in other words, he isn’t there spiritually—he’s dead to the world.
- Repetition is another theme; consider the motifs and patterns repeated in this film: haircut styles, lighting up/smoking of his cigarettes, shaving of legs, driving in the car with women (and how both driving scenes are framed the same way), and the recurrent question “What kind of man are you?” The point here is: life is repetitive, monotonous and ironic.
DOES THIS PICTURE BRING OTHER MOVIES TO MIND?
- Scarlett Street (Ed Crane resembled Edward G. Robinson)
- Night of the Hunter (both films have a dead person behind the wheel of a convertible)
- Double Indemnity (a side character is referred to as “Diedrickson”, and the murder plots of both films are slightly similar)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice
- Shadow of a Doubt (both films are set in Santa Rosa, Calif.)
- Other neo noir films by the Coens, including Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing
OTHER NOTABLE FILMS BY THE COEN BROTHERS
- 1984 Blood Simple
- 1987 Raising Arizona
- 1990 Miller's Crossing
- 1991 Barton Fink
- 1996 Fargo
- 1998 The Big Lebowski
- 2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- 2007 No Country for Old Men
- 2010 True Grit
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