Schrader's "Notes on Film Noir" and Place & Peterson's "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir"

Schrader's piece was simple and straightforward, and helped elucidate for me what exactly film noir is. I've always had this conception of it as more of an aesthetic than anything else, and I'm really interested to learn that it's actually just as much a social commentary. Schrader did a really clear job of walking me through the history of film noir and explaining the three phases it went through. It's also really nice to have a distinct list of stylistic elements to look for as I watch films within the genre. Place and Peterson, on the other hand, emphasize the stylistic elements much more than they do the societal implications as characteristic of noir. Lighting, depth of field, composition, and framing all work together to form "a mise-en-scène designed to unsettle, jar, and disorient the viewer in correlation with the disorientation felt by the noir heroes" (68.) This is really what stuck out to me about this article, the specific application of mise-en-scène techniques to create a particular effect, and the way the authors walked through it felt very useful to me as a burgeoning film student. Overall, both of these readings really helped in building a solid foundational understanding of what film noir is, of taking it from an abstract concept to a clearly identifiable and concrete style.