Femme Fatale
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the cinematic flâneur manifestations of modernity in the male protagonist of 1940s film noir Petra Désirée Nolan Submitted in Total Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2004 The School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology The University of Melbourne Abstract The hardboiled hero is recognised as a central trope in the film noir cycle, and particularly in the ‘classic’ noir texts produced in Hollywood in the 1940s. Like the films themselves, this protagonist has largely been understood as an allegorical embodiment of a bleak post-World War Two mood of anxiety and disillusionment. Theorists have consistently attributed his pessimism, alienation, paranoia and fatalism to the concurrent American cultural climate. With its themes of murder, illicit desire, betrayal, obsession and moral dissolution, the noir canon also proves conducive to psychoanalytic interpretation. By oedipalising the noir hero and the cinematic text in which he is embedded, this approach at best has produced exemplary noir criticism, but at worst a tendency to universalise his trajectory. This thesis proposes a complementary and newly historicised critical paradigm with which to interpret the noir hero. Such an exegesis encompasses a number of social, aesthetic, demographic and political forces reaching back to the nineteenth century. This will reveal the centrality of modernity in shaping the noir hero’s ontology. The noir hero will also be connected to the flâneur, a figure who embodied the changes of modernity and who emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as both an historical entity and a critical metaphor for the new subject. As a rehistoricised approach will reveal, this nineteenth century—or classic—flâneur provides a potent template for the noir hero. Several modalities of the noir protagonist will be interrogated to elucidate their modernist dimensions. These include his perambulatory impulses, his ability to navigate the metropolis (both figuratively and literally) and his observations therein. Steeped in cynicism and irony, his wisecracking, deadpan voice is historically determined. It can be genealogically connected to the emergence of other modern voices in a number of art forms including pulp fiction, comic strips and the tabloid press. Finally, the noir hero’s desire for the evil and destructive femme fatale is analogous to that experienced by the nineteenth century subject who encountered the disturbing and highly visible new woman and prostitute of the metropolis. The modernist tenets of ephemerality, scopophilia and artifice are axiomatic to a flâneuristic obsession with the destructive temptress. Methodologically, this thesis necessarily embraces archival data and historical material. It also draws heavily from the seminal writings of cultural philosophers Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Georg Simmel, and from the œuvres of proto-modernists such as Charles Baudelaire, Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant. All sought to investigate and capture the essence of living in the modern world. Analysis of the celebrated Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944, USA) forms the foundation of this project, with other contemporaneous films noirs cited when relevant. In addition to illuminating Double Indemnity’s protagonist, Walter Neff, as a modern subject or cinematic flâneur, this thesis proposes a new interpretative model which can be used examine the entire 1940s film noir canon in order to fully understand the forces of modernity governing its features. Declaration of Authorship This is to certify that: (i) This thesis comprises only my original work, (ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, (iii) This thesis does not exceed 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signature: Date: ………………………………………. …………………………. Petra Désirée Nolan Acknowledgements Many people have assisted throughout the course of my candidature. I would like to thank my supervisor, Associate Professor Barbara Creed, for her dedication and guidance. Professor Creed’s encouragement was matched by her erudition, and our many thought-provoking discussions proved crucial to the formulation and execution of my thesis. My associate supervisor Dr Mark Nicholls also offered incisive and considered comments on the final draft. For input in their various areas of expertise I am indebted to: Dr Alasdair Brooks for discussions on Western philosophy from the Renaissance onwards, Dr Simon Caterson for his cinephilic knowledge of film noir and for generous access to his personal film library, and Elizabeth Lim for nineteenth and twentieth century musical references. Dr Dirk Moses’ meticulous editing of sections of the thesis, along with his intellectual acuity, was much appreciated. Yann Scrimali assisted with translations of French texts, David Ritchie advised on German translations, and Sophie Ewengué of Cahiers du Cinéma, Éditions de l’Étoile in Paris provided archival material relating to the cinéastes and their writings on film noir. I also wish to thank fellow postgraduate students in the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne, who ensured a lively intellectual climate in which to undertake this project. In particular, I would have been adrift without the encouragement and insight of Polona Petek and Maree MacMillan, both of whom demonstrated an abiding interest in my research, willingly discussed my ideas and made valuable suggestions along the way. They also proved to be wonderfully supportive friends. Thank you also to Julie Clarke who kindly gave of her time at a crucial stage in my schedule. Julie’s expert technical assistance with images and other IT issues was much appreciated. Without the financial assistance of the University of Melbourne’s APA scholarship, this project would have been inestimably more difficult. Thank you also to the Faculty of Arts for provision of an office and for the loan of a laptop computer whenever necessary. Sharon Harding provided efficient administrative assistance, and Jane Brown in the Murdoch Library facilitated access to requested resources. Marilyn and Denis Blackett graciously allowed me use of their office in Sydney in 2001. Thank you also to Benjy McNair, Genevieve Petersen and Amanda Roff for their hospitality. I extend my gratitude to friends and family for their encouragement and many kindnesses. Two people deserve special mention—Digby Richards, whose longstanding faith in me is as consistent as his generosity of spirit, and my mother, Wendy Nolan, whose ongoing support, as well as her comments on the final draft, proved invaluable. I dedicate this thesis to my late grandmother, Iris Abbott (1917-2002), who shall always remain a wonderful inspiration. List of Illustrations Figure A: The poeticisation of mobility: Twentieth century flânerie .......................................................................................79 Figure B: Diarising observations via dictaphone: Walter Neff as modern observer and recorder .........................................................101 Figure C: Comic strip image from Crime Does Not Pay #34 1944 copyright Comic House. Art by Charles Biro ..................................................................................................183 Figure D: Comic strip image from Crime Does Not Pay #62 1948 copyright Comic House. Art by George Tuska................................................................................................184 Figure E: The perils of proximity: Hardboiled hero captures modernity’s new woman.................................................185 Figure F: Phyllis as new woman: Occupation of commercialised urban terrain ...........................................................195 Figure G: ‘That’s a honey of an anklet’: Artifice and accoutrement captivate the cinematic flâneur......................................238 Figure H: Modernity’s dimorphism: Love as perversion, desire as violence #1................................................................262 Figure I: Modernity’s dimorphism: Love as perversion, desire as violence #2................................................................263 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................1 1.1 DOUBLE INDEMNITY — PARADIGMATIC NOIR TEXT........................................................1 1.2 THE HARDBOILED NOIR HERO ........................................................................................6 1.2.1 Existing exegetic approaches................................................................................7 1.2.1.1 Navigating the metropolis — flânerie and film noir ......................................................9 1.2.1.2 Neff as hardboiled hero — the new voice of modernity...............................................12 1.2.1.3 A fatal proximity — femme fatale as new woman and modern prostitute ...................14 1.3 METHODOLOGY AND AIM OF THIS THESIS....................................................................18 CHAPTER 2 FILM NOIR’S CRITICAL CORPUS — OVERVIEW...................24 2.1 DOMINANT INTERPRETATIVE MODELS.........................................................................26 2.1.1 Lacanian psychoanalysis and post-structuralist feminism .................................26 2.1.2 Sociological discourse — the zeitgeist approach ...............................................33 2.1.3 Other critical tendencies — universalisation