Courtney Smith Media Coursework Blog: October 2010

NEO-NOIR. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?

The typical femme fatale, Jessica Rabbit.

Venetian Blind effect.

Who framed Roger Rabbit was directed by Robert Zemeckis and was released in 1988. The story follows a private detective called Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), as he tries uncovering the truth behind the murder of Marvin Acme, the owner of ToonTown. What makes this movie different from many others is that it features live action as well as animation combined into one film.

Rumor has it that Jessica Rabbit, the wife of famous cartoon actor Roger Rabbit, is having an affair. R.K. Maroon, concerned about his top actor Rogers recent dip in performance, hires a private detective (Valiant) to snoop on Jessica Rabbit. Valiant captures pictures of Jessica Rabbit playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme, the core owner of ToonTown, a place where all the toons live.

Valiant used to have a brother but he was unfortunately killed by an evil toon some years previous, this has led the detective to despise toons and acquire a fondness for Wild Turkey. Having no compassion for the toons, he has no trouble releasing the photographs to R.K. Maroon and Roger Rabbit. Having seen the pictures Roger gets mad as holy hell and flees the office, which in turn, makes him the prime suspect when Marvin Acme is found dead the next day. A safe dropped on his head. Toon style.

Roger turns up at Valiants office not soon after and after initial disagreement with housing and protecting Roger, the weasels pay a visit. .

NOTES

Eddie Valant - Private Detective
screencap of venetian blind effect
Drink - Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels
Dark Alley, with a backdoor entrence to private club
CLUB - Valiant is paranoid about the toons because one killed his brother

Jessica Rabbit - Femme Fatale
Frosted Glass on door to Valiants office
Valiant lives and works out of his office
Judge doom uses weasels as his henchmen
Car chase
Eddit calls Deloris to collect his belongings (paranoia)

NEO-NOIR. TAXI DRIVER.

Taxi Driver was directed by Martin Scorsese and was released in 1976. It follows Travis Bickle ( Robert De Niro), a Vietnam veteran with a low opinion of the world. He suffers from insomnia so gets a job at a taxi rank working long 14 hour night shifts. One of his fairs, Betsy (Cybill Shepard), catches the eye of Bickle and he manages to arrange a date with her. Being so detached from the world, both emotionally and socially, he takes her to his favourite day light past time, the porno theatre. Betsy is extremely offended and leaves right away. Being disgusted with what he sees on the streets, Bickle becomes vigilante, he plans to kill the senator. A theme from a typical film noir is paranoia and Bickle being a Vietnam veteran, it's understandable why he would be paranoid. In Vietnam some of the soldiers took drugs such as Speed to stay awake long periods of time in fear of getting poked to death by a big nasty Vietnamese bayonet, that along with all the booby traps the Vietnamese laid down it's easy to see why Bickle flees the Senators rally at first sign of agents detecting him and his murderous intentions.

A young prostitute gets into his cab one night, trying to flee from her pimp, but instead of driving off he waits for the pimp to catch up. The pimp makes the young girl get out of the car and hands Bickle a screwed up twenty dollar bill. This man is now marked and Bickle returns later in the film to take him out. Upon his executions he tries to find a bullet for himself but is unable to, he slumps on a couch waiting for the feds to show up and throw him in the slammer, but he is hailed as a hero. Like filme noir after the second world war, this neo noir uses the pessimism from the Vietnam war to accurately portray a disturbed veteran, the lust for fire power that our main character has only shows us that he is not only mentally unstable, but is mentally unstable and has four shooters. Iris is the femme fatale in this film, Bickle risks his life to save her, not out of sympathy or sexual desire; but just because it's what Bickle has trained to do. Wash the streets clean.

NEO-NOIR

As time changed so did Film Noir, it developed into Neo Noir. Neo Noir took the codes and conventions of Film Noir but modernized aspects of the genre; soundtrack, story lines and themes were updated to apply to a new modern audience. Directors now have a lot more freedom to express themes then in the past, this has allowed Neo Noir to include scenes that were possibly too controversial in the past. Below are examples of a few Neo Noirs from 1970 to present.