Film Noir Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Film Noir - Essay Example Hence, the significance of film neo-noir is that they draw upon or relate the image, the notion and the putative rules of film noir. The approach of the research paper is to identify the attributes that Spicer argues â€Å"neo-noir has remained a form that continues to accommodate complex, difficult ideas whereby existentialist attitudes continue to flourish.† Using the film Memento (Nolan), I can present how these neo-noir attributes have been presented in the film. Perhaps Memento has the most complex neo-noir feature as it provides a space in which the audience can, if not force, to deliberate the nature of identity. Though the question of identity is a repeated theme in neo-noir films, it is in Memento that has directly addressed this concern. The film depicts an antihero whose memory maybe or is faulty and his experience of time is confusing and is uncertain about his past and not sure about the meaning of the present activity he has engaged in and the very fabric of his identity (Nolan 217). Therefore, depicting that it consists attributes of neo-noir. The film is much concerned with the dark side that emphasizes loneliness, alienation and the fear that any or all activity being carried out by the character may be futile and meaningless. Therefore, the choices taken by the noir protagonist are never the real ones; lack the opportunity of escaping the bonds of convention, except via a hollow freedom represented by money, power, sex, and pro mise of adventure. Moreover, in the film, Memento, the noir antihero (Leonard) is often acting from desperation instead of rational choice, reacting to an inchoate, contingent world dominated by blind chance, which is often threatening and carries an undercurrent of violence that at any moment they can strike. Therefore, being an instant in the film of attributes stated by Spicer’s in his essay as being a neo-noir. The protagonist in Memento, has anterograde amnesia, and is unable to