Sean Maher Thesis
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NOIR AND THE URBAN IMAGINARY By Sean Maher B.C.A (Film/TV), MA (Film/Theatre), MA.hons. by Research (First Class) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy (Research) School of Film and Television, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology 2010 Principal Supervisor: D.Prof. Stuart Cunningham Associate Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Geoff Portmann KEY WORDS Blade Runner Modernism Brisbane Line Modernity Chinatown Neo Noir Cinematic City Postmodernism Film Noir Postmodernity Historiography Urban Imaginary Urbanism Los Angeles Urban Theory SHORT ABSTRACT Noir and the Urban Imaginary is creative practice based PhD research comprising critical analysis (40%) exegesis (10%) and a twenty-six minute film, The Brisbane Line (50%). The research investigates intersection of four elements; the city, the cinema, history and postmodernity. The thesis discusses relationships between each of the four elements and what cinematic representation of cities reveals about modern and postmodern urban experience and historicisation. Key concepts in the research include, „urbanism‟, „historiography, „modernity‟ „postmodernity‟, „neo-noir‟. ii TABLE of CONTENTS Supplementary Material………………………………………………………….……….….vi Statement of Original Authorship……………………………………………….….…….…vii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..………….……….…viii Preface………………………………………………………………………….…………...xii Introduction…………………………………………………..………………..……….……15 Praxis…………………………………………………………………………………16 Methodological approach and Thesis Structure………….………………….……….19 Chapter One: Making Imaginary Sense of the Rational City Introduction………………………………..…………..…………..…...…………….22 Urban Culture and the City…………………………………………………………..23 From Urban Studies to Urban Theory………………………………………………..25 Rise of the Symbolic Economy of Cities………………………………………...…..28 New Urban Economy…………………………………..…………………………….30 Interpretative Approaches: Implications of the Los Angeles School of Urbanism…..32 Spatial City……………………………………………………...……………………36 Cinematic Intersections………………………………………..……………………..37 The City as Image…………………………………………………………………....40 The Cinematic City as History…………………………………………………….....42 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………45 iii Chapter Two: Film Noir and Los Angeles: Imagining History in the Most Contemporary City Introduction….………….................................….…………………..……………….47 Los Angeles the Non-Conformist……………………………………………………49 The Historical Void…………………………………………………………….…….52 Los Angeles Hollywood‟s Blank Screen…………………………………………….55 In the Shadow of HOLLYWOOD…………………………….………………….….57 Dark Crystal: Los Angeles and Reservoirs of Noir…………………………….....…59 Film Noir as Historiography: Inventing Place in Los Angeles………………...…….61 The Specifi-city of Noir…………………………………………………….………..65 Political and Cold Noir……………………………………………………………….71 Los Angeles the Dark Mirrored Labyrinth…………………………….……………..73 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………75 Chapter Three: Neo Noir the Postmodern Genre Introduction …………………………..………………………………………….…..77 Film Noir Style to Neo Noir Genre…………………………………………..………79 From Out of the Past…………………………………………………………....……81 Post Hollywood……………………………………………………………….….…..82 From B-Movie to Art Film: Godard‟s Gun Play…………………………………..…85 The Progeny of Film Noir: 1970s Neo Noir……………………………….…………87 Centrifugal Neo Noir…………………………………………………………………89 iv Neo Noir as the Los Angeles Genre…………………………………….……………91 Los Angeles the Frontdrop…………………………………………………...………92 Neo Noir Textual Play……………………………………………………….……….93 Simulations and Simulacrum: Jameson‟s End of History, Baudrilliard‟s End of Reality………………………………………………..……………………………96 Temporal Twin Cities: Chinatown and Blade Runner ………………………………99 The Anti-Nostalgia of Chinatown………………………………………………..…100 Los Angeles Reel……………………………………………………...……………104 Blade Runner: The Los Angeles of Past-Present-Future Tense……………...……..107 Quiet on the Set of Simulacra!...................................................................................110 Celluloid Materiality and Reality…………………………………………….……..112 Los Angeles and the Psychogeography of Noir………………………...…………..114 Conclusion……………………………………………………………..……………119 Chapter Four: The Brisbane Line and Creative Practice Research Introduction................................................................................................................121 Critical and Creative Pathways…………………………………………………..…121 Australian Noir?.........................................................................................................123 Built Environment Shadows……………………………………………………...…127 Sydney Simulacrum………………………………………………………………...128 Historical Research as Textual Resonance……………………………………….…129 Four Social History Influences…………………………………………………..….133 v The City in Australian Film – Imaginary or Imagined?.............................................142 Studio Cities…………………………………………………………….…….…….145 Archival Memory………………………………………………………….………..147 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….………….153 Conclusion……………………………………………….…………………………………155 Bibliography…………....…………………………………...………….…………….…….158 Filmography…………………………………………………..…….………………...……168 Appendix Ethical Clearance……………………………………………………...…………….176 Supplementary Material 1 X DVD The Brisbane Line (28mins.) vi Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made. Signature Date: 16/11/10 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As with all PhD journeys this has been a long one. A key moment occurred as far back as 1994 when I was studying for my Masters degree at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). I attended a seminar where Stuart Cunningham discussed his latest publication, Framing Culture at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and both Stuart and his presentation left a lasting impression on me. By the end of 1994 when I was accepted into the Masters Honours program at UNSW my then supervisor, Assoc. Prof Dr Peter Gerdes and I devised a thesis inspired by Stuart‟s cogent argument in Framing Culture on the need for greater intellectual engagement of cultural policy and policy making by cultural theorists, arts practitioners and arts and humanities researchers. Three years later the result was my Masters honours thesis, Structural Reorganisation of Australian Feature Film Funding Policy under Division 10BA. Within a year of completing that research I was employed by Jock Given at the Communications Law Centre (CLC) as a policy researcher, the same place where Stuart had written Framing Culture. Funded by the Australian Film Commission my task at the CLC was to write a report on the internationalisation of the Australian television production sector. In 2001 I presented the report‟s findings at the Australian Broadcasting Authority‟s annual conference in Canberra where I once again met Stuart Cunningham. By the end of 2001 I was working at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney where I was lecturing in Australian film and media policy as well as co- ordinating visits of personnel from the various film funding bodies. In this production intensive environment I also reconnected to my filmmaking practice. Working alongside PhD candidate Richard Smith and Dr Jane Roscoe the topic of me commencing a PhD was constant. At AFTRS I again came across Stuart and the developments occurring in Brisbane at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Browsing the QUT website I gazed enviously northward to Queensland and the fusion of theory, practice, policy and research that was occurring under the innovative title of the newly launched Creative Industries Faculty that had been jointly engineered by Stuart Cunningham and John Hartley. In 2005, it was then announced that Stuart had received Centre of Excellence funding for Australia‟s first research centre into Creative Industries Innovation, the only centre of its kind in viii Australia not Science and Technology based, which it remains. With this development I could postpone my PhD no longer and I immediately called Stuart and requested he supervise me as a PhD student at QUT. In 2006, thanks to Stuart‟s acceptance of my PhD proposal I relocated to Brisbane with my wife Emma and two children, Charlotte and Isabelle, and the rest, as they say is history. Ever since I arrived at QUT Stuart Cunningham has provided me with unwavering supervisory support that would be the envy of any PhD candidate. Fulfilling all my expectations I have benefited enormously from Stuart‟s advice, expertise, mentoring, rigor, breadth of knowledge and ideas. His relentless schedule has never compromised his commitment to both me and my research. Stuart has always been available and his feedback has been poignant, challenging, insightful and while sometimes relentless and unforgiving, always of the highest intellectual calibre. I am eternally grateful to have been in his orbit these past four years and to have been the beneficiary of his razor sharp intellect and warm generosity. Stuart, I had a lot of expectations you may not have been aware of but you easily exceeded them. You are a true mentor and inspiration. Thank you! My Associate Supervisor and now colleague, Assoc. Prof. Geoff Portmann, has had the patience of a Saint with this resource hungry filmmaker, teaching colleague and occasional vanishing researcher.