Using film noir elements in movies set in France might seem like a huge problem but films such as Monsieur Hire, Confidentially Yours and Diva have all made noir elements work in France and done so so well they make it look easy. Which doesn't, of course, prove that it actually is easy; it only proves it is possible.
But you couldn't do a credible film noir in Toronto, Vancouver or Portland, Oregon. I suspect you could do one in Minneapolis or Saint John, New Brunswick.
What places like Paris or Marseilles have going for them is that they look like Paris and Marseilles. There are shots of Toronto that immediately tell you that this is Toronto but most of Toronto looks like just about any other city in the world. If you live outside of Canada, you may not know that Toronto wasted millions upon millions of dollars these last few decades trying to be a 'world class city". The reason it failed is that Toronto's culture is never more than a few inches deep.
But visit a French city and you can walk through block after block after block that are iconic. A shot like this has not a single recognizable landmark in it but you know it's a French city.
This did not occur to me until now, but a big reason men are so attracted to noir films and television series such as Mad Men is that they exist in a world where regional differences still exist.
And here is a couple kissing under a bridge, a scene that is so French.
Anyway, once we have France and we want to establish that our hero is a lonely, overly fastidious bachelor, we can do so with shots of him in his apartment.
One of the interesting character details about M. Hire is that he is a bowling shark and we can see that he has bowling trophies in every room including the kitchen!
We associate Paris with wealth and extreme luxury but most Parisians live a lifestyle that is downscale by our standards. This allows Patrice Leconte to use a lot of scenes that recall a past that is still with us. Bowling is still with us but most French bowling alleys don't make enough money to upgrade much so they still have the same aesthetics they had back in the day.
That shot could be from decades ago even though the movie is clearly set in the late 1980s. Our Hero is bowling shark and he is doing tricks for an audience. And he turns and sees a young woman.
That is the past that still surrounds us. Some young women in France still wear scarves and pearl earings and have their hair cut in bangs but that look is timeless. Our hero approaches her and asks to blindfold him with the scarf so he can do his final trick shot.
France also has cafés. The one in the film is great because it has a ping pong table. Only a real Frenchman would think of that. If you or I set out to create a classic French café we'd never have the nerve to put ping pong tables or video games in the shot. In any case, here is another shot from the present that could be in the past. Cartier-Bresson could have taken this shot.
But you could walk around Paris and find a scene like that today.
Leconte also uses some great old industrial sites to create the mood.
One of the best sequences in a movie full of good sequences, is shot at a boxing match.
You instinctively look for Hemingway in the background don't you?
And here is the brutal spectacle.
Meanwhile, the femme fatale's boyfriend is so wrapped up in the fight that our hero can manœuvre himself behind her ...
... and do something quite intimate ....
... and she reacts.
Like that? I sure did. But here is the thing, that sequence deliberately recalls an old, old, old bit of pornography. There is a famous old story that describes a woman watching the guillotine during the reign of terror. As she and the crowd are absorbed by the horrible spectacle as the heads of the aristocracy are chopped off in front of them, a man behind her slips his hands under her shirt and then tips her forward, lifts her skirt and ...
When you set a movie in Paris, you can draw on an awful lot of culture. Toronto or Portland? Not so much.
But you couldn't do a credible film noir in Toronto, Vancouver or Portland, Oregon. I suspect you could do one in Minneapolis or Saint John, New Brunswick.
What places like Paris or Marseilles have going for them is that they look like Paris and Marseilles. There are shots of Toronto that immediately tell you that this is Toronto but most of Toronto looks like just about any other city in the world. If you live outside of Canada, you may not know that Toronto wasted millions upon millions of dollars these last few decades trying to be a 'world class city". The reason it failed is that Toronto's culture is never more than a few inches deep.
But visit a French city and you can walk through block after block after block that are iconic. A shot like this has not a single recognizable landmark in it but you know it's a French city.
This did not occur to me until now, but a big reason men are so attracted to noir films and television series such as Mad Men is that they exist in a world where regional differences still exist.
And here is a couple kissing under a bridge, a scene that is so French.
Anyway, once we have France and we want to establish that our hero is a lonely, overly fastidious bachelor, we can do so with shots of him in his apartment.
One of the interesting character details about M. Hire is that he is a bowling shark and we can see that he has bowling trophies in every room including the kitchen!
We associate Paris with wealth and extreme luxury but most Parisians live a lifestyle that is downscale by our standards. This allows Patrice Leconte to use a lot of scenes that recall a past that is still with us. Bowling is still with us but most French bowling alleys don't make enough money to upgrade much so they still have the same aesthetics they had back in the day.
That is the past that still surrounds us. Some young women in France still wear scarves and pearl earings and have their hair cut in bangs but that look is timeless. Our hero approaches her and asks to blindfold him with the scarf so he can do his final trick shot.
France also has cafés. The one in the film is great because it has a ping pong table. Only a real Frenchman would think of that. If you or I set out to create a classic French café we'd never have the nerve to put ping pong tables or video games in the shot. In any case, here is another shot from the present that could be in the past. Cartier-Bresson could have taken this shot.
But you could walk around Paris and find a scene like that today.
Leconte also uses some great old industrial sites to create the mood.
One of the best sequences in a movie full of good sequences, is shot at a boxing match.
You instinctively look for Hemingway in the background don't you?
And here is the brutal spectacle.
Meanwhile, the femme fatale's boyfriend is so wrapped up in the fight that our hero can manœuvre himself behind her ...
... and do something quite intimate ....
... and she reacts.
Like that? I sure did. But here is the thing, that sequence deliberately recalls an old, old, old bit of pornography. There is a famous old story that describes a woman watching the guillotine during the reign of terror. As she and the crowd are absorbed by the horrible spectacle as the heads of the aristocracy are chopped off in front of them, a man behind her slips his hands under her shirt and then tips her forward, lifts her skirt and ...
When you set a movie in Paris, you can draw on an awful lot of culture. Toronto or Portland? Not so much.
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