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Women in Film Noir - 02:
Weakening Female Images

Femme fatale is one of the most representative figures in film noir. From 1941 to 1958, portrayals of female characters in film noir experienced changes and femme fatales were disappearing by 1958, the last year of film noir golden age. This shift could be decoded by the analysis of women's social position within the specific socio-historical context before and after World War II.

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By 李辛吾 Lee Hsin-wu 

On Film - 02/22/2022

Until the last year of the film noir golden age, the disappearance of femme fatale was reflected by the changed relationship with men, weakened power as a domestic woman, as well as decreased portrayals of women’s sexuality. Losing the weapon of sexual attractiveness, female figures became less independent and more reliant on men. The female protagonist Suzie (Janet Leigh) in Touch of Evil (1958) “exhibits some of the characteristics of the classic femme fatale of earlier movies”  and is considered as the source of danger and violence. However, from Orson Welles’s narrations and depictions of Suzie in film languages, Suzie’s helplessness and reliance facing crime and violence challenges classic femme fatale figures. She ends up trapping in danger waiting to be rescued by man.

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Touch of Evil (1958)

​The first appearance of Suzie demonstrates the changed relationship between woman and man in Touch of Evil compared with classic film noirs. The dominant and submissive mutual relationship displayed in classic film noirs has been reversed. With woman’s role shifted from the dominant one to the reliant one as the counterpart of man in a marriage, the male and female relationship becomes more traditional and gets closer to the core family model promoted on the screen of Hollywood prior to the war. Suzie appears in the first shot of Touch of Evil along with her husband Vargas (Charlton Heston). This shot is considered as one of the most famous openings in film history because of its concise and excellent visual representation to introduce characters and create suspense: A time bomb is put into the trunk of a car parked on an empty lot (Figure 07) and then this car is driven by a man and woman to a busy street encountering Suzie and Vargas there. As Suzie and her husband step into the frame together in this shot, the stable marriage relationship between them is established simultaneously from the visual image. The director chooses full shot to bring more interactions between people and environment meanwhile to increase the level of suspense. As car passes by Suzie and Vargas and then stops so that the couple walks past it again, the danger from the bomb further helps tightening the bond of destiny within this couple (Figure 08). The camera keeps building up their relationship by zooming from full shot to medium shot while they talk about their honeymoon schedule. When they start to kiss, the explosion happens off the camera. After the explosion, there is a shot of Vargas persuading Suzie to go back to hotel. In images of this shot, Suzie is sheltered by Vargas in the frame (Figure 09) and even pushed by Vargas out of frame (Figure 10). From visual representations, we could read that Vargas takes the dominant position in this relationship and Suzie becomes the woman to be protected.

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Figure 07-08 Opening shot of Touch of Evil

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Figure 09-10 The shot after explosion (Famous Tracking Long Shot)

As the changed relationship established from the opening sequence, the narrative pattern of Touch of Evil further reinforces the changed relationship by portraying female character as a domestic woman with weakened power. Touch of Evil remains the male point of view as classic film noirs. However, the female storyline becomes different with more depictions demonstrating the struggles and violence in the domestic world. The plot of the film follows two clear parallel narrative threads. One is Vargas investigating the explosion case and the other one is Suzie staying at hotel which is her domestic world during their honeymoon trip while crime and danger are chasing after her. In Suzie’s storyline, she is no longer as active in participating crime as other femme fatales. Instead, she becomes a passive tool of antagonist to make threats on her husband throughout the film.

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Decreased portrayals of woman’s sexuality responds to the comeback of domestic woman figure on the screen of film noir and contributes to render woman’s helpless and reliant position towards crime and violence manipulated by man. Lighting design in Touch of Evil does not serve for increasing women’s sexual allure any more but emphasizes this contrast between the power of man and woman. The lighting in the murder scene is a great example. From this scene, we could still see Suzie naked lying on the bed. However, she is not releasing her sexual attractiveness actively, instead, she is drugged and about to be framed for the murder. The director uses high contrast lighting in the parallel editing between man committing violent murder and woman having painful nightmare. This visual juxtaposition, along with the high contrast lighting, further emphasizes the weakness and vulnerability of female characters facing masculine power. The shining light from the street projects on Suzie’s face is a reflection of her unsteady and nervous emotion, and also creates the strange and irony eye contact between Suzie and the dead body: even the dead man with weaker power losing the fight just now has the superior position over woman.

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Figure 11-12 Murder scene

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Figure 13-14 “Eye contact” between Suzie and the dead body

The ending sequence of Touch of Evil returns to the theme of promoting domestic value. Echoing the opening sequence, Suzie who steppes onto the stage as a wife, ends up coming back to her husband’s embracement. In terms of film languages, the last shot of Suzie and Vargas inherits elements discussed above from the visual composition in the opening sequence to the lighting design. After Vargas kills the antagonist Captain Quinlan (Orson Welles), he comes back to their car symbolizing their home and stable relationship. Soft and uniform lighting in this shot also reinforce the stability of their marriage relationship within their “shelter”. The last frame of Suzie hiding her head behind Vargas freezes Suzie’s reliant female figure on the screen.

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Figure 15-16 Last shot of Suzie and Vargas

Notes
5. Janet J Reekers, “Representations of Women in Film Noir”, A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills

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