Deconstruction of Female Actors

 

Film Noir Female Characters

Lead Female actor:The main lead woman is known as the 'femme fatale'.The femme fatale's role is to block the male lead in his pursuit of solving a crime/problem. They are promiscuous women who are seductresses for the male characters, they are glamourised as the sultry, dramatic double-dealing women who are the cause of an issue- either through a betrayal or double-crossing. When working against the femme fatale she is normally stopped, or destroys the main lead man, resulting in a not so happy ending.  

The 'Good Girl': To contrast with the 'femme fatale' the view of the traditional family woman is introduced. A 'normal' reinforces the innocence of the 'Good girl' and highlights the allure of the femme fatale which draw the audience towards her. She is often depicted out of place and a damsel in distress and the victim of circumstance.

Veronica Lake

  In 'Blue Dahlia' Lake's appeared as Joyce the estranged wife of Eddie Haywood, she plays the femme fatale who ends up helping the protagonist in his pursuit to fix an issue and leaves with him at the end, and it's suggested that their characters have a romantic relationship. 

Deconstruction of Characters in Sin City:

Sin City is one of few largely known, well received, contemporary examples of film noir movies, that very firmly sits within the film noir genre. For that reason I believe it will be a good example to deconstruct the characters of.

Marv:

 Marv is one of the male protagonists of the movie, played by Mickey Rourke. He conforms to the following conventions:

• Violent nature/history of violence: This character is often shown with some kind of injury and regularly threatens violence.
• Code of honor: Despite his violent history and difficulty with people, he refuses to hurt innocent people or animals.
• Vengeance: A common convention in film noir is the theme of revenge, justice or punishment. Marv strongly disagrees with harming women, and so deals with anyone guilty of these things with violence.

 Dwight McCarthy:

 

Conventions that Dwight, another male protagonist in the movie, follows:

•  Private investigator: Detectives or private investigators are extremely common for male protagonists in film noir. It gives them a reason to analyse the plot, deconstructing it in their monologue for the viewer to understand better, but also a reason for them to investigate it.
• Extremely cynical/nihilistic: Film noir movies are always set in dark, depressing settings. It could be argued that this is because it is reflective of the highly cynical, pessimistic worldview, but it could also be argued that the character is cynical and nihilistic because of the dark, depressing environment in which the narrative takes place. Regardless, Dwight fits in to this convention, often having a defeatist attitude or being completely unsurprised when something tragic happens.

Goldie and Wendy:

Goldie and Wendy, played by Jaime King, are two of female leads in the film. They conform to the following conventions:

• Prostitute: Goldie and Wendy are prostitutes, and film noir plots often revolve around a woman, sex and lust. 
• Film noir often has a theme of "learning too much" or "ignorance is bliss"; characters often get into trouble or even die for learning too much about the wrong people, or intruding on matters that don't concern them. This is usually the male detective character, but can be others. In this instance it is Goldie, who dies after she learns another character's secret.
• Femme Fatale: Goldie and Wendy are powerful women with a large section of the city under their control. This along with other aspects, such as their involvement with sex, and a tendency to wear red, make them Femme Fatale characters.

Deconstruction of Male Actors

Film Noir Actors and Characters 

 

Lead Male actor: In film noir the usual conventions are a lead male actor, usually depicted as a cynical, cold hearted and realistic man. They are usually detectives, private eyes, or policeman and often are involved in a story line and attempt to solve a crime/problem.They cross paths with the 'femme fatale' who hinder their investigation of some kind. 

Anti-hero: Sometimes the 'anti-hero' and the detective/private eye/policemen are the same people but when they're characters who lack heroic attributes of a typical hero, but the audience identifies as the hero of the movie. The character is often conflicted with some questionable morals and is defected in some way, sometimes even lacking courage, honesty and loyalty which are the common attributes of a heroic character. They are tough but compassionate and often displays vulnerability and weakness but challenges the society he lives in.  

 

Humphrey Bogart

 



In one of lead role in 'The Big Sleep' Bogart played a hard-boiled private detectives, with a complicated case and once it's over he gets blackmail and threats. 

 

 

Evaluation:

 

A key point to take away from this deconstruction, would be that the perfect candidate should be modelled around the actor Humphrey Bogart. In order to fulfil the role as a 'hard-boiled' private detective, the actor must be middle aged man who is mature looking.