Atelier
Noirs
Women in Film Noir - 03:
Compassionate Female Images - Woman in Love
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.
By 李辛吾 Lee Hsin-wu
On Film - 01/03/2023
In the same year, the disappearance of femme fatale was also displayed in French film noir. However, in depicting female characters, French film noir developed different characteristics from Hollywood on its unique cultural soil across the Atlantic Ocean. From the French film noir Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958), we could see a different cinematic approach in dissolving the image of femme fatale. Although the female protagonist Florence has the typical setting as classic femme fatale characters in this film, the director Louis Malle reduces her femme fatale image by increasing Florence’s subjectivity in the film to create intimacy and compassion between audience and Florence who is portrayed as a woman madly in love.
5
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)
1
The intimacy and compassion are established through a direct visual connection between audience and Florence at the very first shot in this film. The shot begins with Florence’s closed eyes gradually emerging from the frame in black. After black keeps fading away, an extreme close up to the face of Florence (Jeanne Moreau) occupies the entire screen. The camera is so close to the actress that the audience could see her skin texture, feel her breath and even trace her tear. Then she opens her eyes and gazes at the camera directly. Her eyes look so bright with the reflection of light. After taking a few deep breaths, Florence speaks out these words looking at the camera: “I love you”, as if she can not suppress her emotion anymore. In merely thirty seconds, the shot depicts a female character obsessed with love vividly and introduces her into the position communicating with the audience. Geneviève Sellier claims this opening shot to be “against all existing film conventions” by further commenting that “Louis Malle plunges the viewer directly into a woman’s intimacy, baring face and feelings with the indecent proximity of the camera.” After the extreme close up, this shot zooms out to reveal Florence is holding a telephone and then cuts to her lover Julien (Maurice Ronet). The audience starts to realize that she is talking to her lover through the telephone and they are going to escape together after Julien murders her husband. The opening sequence conveys the information of Florence to be fatal to man very efficiently. However, with his experimental visual languages, Louis Malle intentionally makes the audience neglect her immorality of having an affair and conspiring a murder.
Figure 17-18 The first appearance of Florence in Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
The narrative pattern of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud demonstrates the cinematic subjectivity of Florence is adopted to counteract her femme fatale characteristics. In the plot structure of this film, Louis Malle decreases the proportion of depicting Florence’s fatal attractiveness to men: Florence and her lover Julien do not meet with each other throughout the entire film. As the paradigm of femme fatale’s consequence, the murder towards Florence’s husband is carried on calmly in the first ten minutes. The increase of Florence’s subjectivity is represented through the rest plot. Similar to Touch of Evil, the rest plot of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is divided into two clear parallel storylines for male and female protagonists: Julien is trapped in the elevator by accident on his way to meet Florence; Florence is searching for her lover desperately. Different from Hollywood film noir, this film arranges more screen time for Florence’s narrative thread over Julien’s. With further comparisons between Florence’s active searching and Julien’s passive struggling, Florence’s narrative thread is established to play the most dominant role in overall plot structure. This dominant role could be further proved by the female centered narrative perspective, as there are only Florence’s voice-overs in the film. With the help of a variety of efforts in the narrative pattern, the director brings the audience closer to Florence and encourage them to understand the world in this film from the perspective of her.
Evolved by light, women’s independence is replaced by reliance on men in Touch of Evil. Images of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud also represents female character’s reliance on men. However, the emphasis is on emotion rather than on physical interaction. The lighting design also plays an important role in the female representation in Ascenseur pour l'échafaud and this representation recalls sympathy from the audience by capturing Florence’s subjective expression and inward excavation. The sequence of Florence wandering on the street is the most quintessential example to be examined. Desperately having searched everywhere Julien would appear, Florence begins her aimless wandering with the famous jazz score by Miles Davis. Lights out of focus on the street and reflection of the city from showcases of stores merge her figure into the hustle Paris cityscape at night, revealing that her unsteady emotion is represented by her voyage. Nicoleta Bazgan comments her wandering sequence as the visual representation of her subjectivity and inner journey:
6
Florence’s subjectivity thus dictates the movements of the camera and the editing rhythm of the shots, creating visual effects that appeal to the touch as well, marking a transition from the visual to the haptic, from the separation imposed by the gaze to the intimacy of contact, as can be seen when the incriminating photos framing the couple together appear in the developer tray, and Florence dips her fingers into the solution to touch them. In this way, the fluidity of cinematic techniques and the haptic dimension that mark Florence’s inner journey are visually represented.
Figure 19-20 The sequence of Florence wandering on the street
The depiction on Florence in the ending sequence of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is also a paradigm integrating features from opening, narrative pattern and lighting design. Adopting similar film languages corresponding to the opening sequence, the ending sequence reduces the portrayal of Florence to be punished finally as classic femme fatale characters and further fortifies compassionate images of Florence. Although Florence is eventually caught by the police, in the last shot of the film, the director Louis Malle chooses to use a long take still shot to end the film with Florence’s monologue. Her face is half lit by the soft light. With her gazing at the camera directly and murmuring her love to Julien softly, in this shot, Florence’s monologue could also be interpreted as a dialogue with the audience. The film does not end on an image of punished femme fatale, but ends up conveying the compassion for Florence and representing the theme of a universal emotion: love.
Figure 21-22 The ending sequence of Florence’s monologue
Notes
6. Nicoleta Bazgan, Female bodies in Paris: iconic urban femininity and Parisian journeys, Studies in French Cinema, 10:2, 95-109