“Film Noir” is a cinematographic movement based on German Expressionism and on the Great Depression’s novels. It appeared
in the 1940’s associated with the genre crime fiction. Noir movies became known by their visual contrast and desorientation, the usage of typical characters like the “femme fatale”, the detective or court story, the fatalism and violence, the combination between plot development and sexuality, odd camera angles and visual effects,...One notable film from this era is Double Indemnity (1944) in which the director, Billy Wilder, presents us a recepy of adultery, murder and corruption. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck are Walter Neff and Phyllis
Dietrichson; this assassin couple hopes to achieve lust and financial gain, respectively, through Mr. Dietrichson’s death (Tom Powers). Afterwards the insurance investigator Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) investigates suspiciously Mr. Dietrichson’s deadly “accident” and finally discovers the truth. In the early 60’s, noir period ended nevertheless some modern films are an incorporation of noir properties mostly of visual elements such as key light; and the “femme fatale”and the “victim/seeker heroe”. This was called Neo-noir reflected in movies like Chinatown (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Sin City (2005),... Noir even influenced genres like cyberpunk, scientific fiction (Blade Runner – 1982), melodrama, cartoon (Who Framed Roger Rabbit – 1988), horror and westerns. David Linch is one of the directors more influenced by noir style, for example, in the movies Blue Velvet (1986), Lost
Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001). Particularly in Lost Highway “Linch parodies every film noir from Double Indemnity to The Devil Thumbs a Ride” (Rolling Stone Maganize, March 6, 1997). Its plot is an insight into Fred Madison’s (Bill Pullman) life after he receive two videotapes, one of them showing him killing his wife, Rene (Patricia Arquette). This film has many similarities and few differences relatively to Noir films like Double Indemnity. In terms of visual style, both use shadows and contrasts as well as low key-light which is visible in Lost Hıghway when Rene Madison comes back inside the house after picking up an envelope with a videotape. However, in this area Linch is not a big user of the night-for-night device and the black and white is substıtuted by the use of colour. The archetypal characters like femme fatale are present in both encarnated by Patricia Arquette and Barbara Stanwyck: Phyllis appears wrapped around a towel when she met Walter, she illudes him into commiting a crime, Rene is punished for behaving not according to the status quo and both are more reflections of male characters desires and fears than characters themselves; jealous husbands (Bill Pullman and Tom Powers). In spıte of this there in not any insurance agent in Lost highway. Still about the characters, the protagonist is always ambiguos in terms of morality: Fred Madison doesnt remember the crıme (thinks he ıs ınnocent) and Walter Neff is induced to the murder by the femme fatale; they are trapped in a situation they didnt want nor create and they are most likely condemne. The settings are similar: low-angle shots (for ınstance, when the Madison’s are sitting in the sofa watching the videotape), an urban context and a familiar location (both films take place in cities and specifically these two scenes are shot at the characters’ homes), the set design tends to show alienation (the paintings hung above the sofa where Fred and Rene are watching the tape). When refering to the plot elements, there is an investigative and twisted narrative told from the criminals’ point of view. This narrative is spoken, as we may see in this exerpt from a “lost highway” dialogue: Fred: What''s that?
Renee: A videotape.
Fred: Who''s it from?
Renee: I don''t know..e''s no return address on the envelope... In fact, there''s no address on it.
There are murders but one is perpetrated through jealousy (Fred/Rene) and the other by greed (Phyllis/Mr. Dietrichson) and sexual desire (Walter/Mr Dietrichson); Double Indemnity is obviously a crime movie while Linch’s story is more a “what’s goıng on” crime thriller. On the other hand, both ends seam hopeless and fatalists. Lastly the plot development is combined with sexual relationships however the way both directors do this is very different: indicating modern attitudes, Lost Highway approaches sexuality quite frankly even shooting some sex scenes in a not prejudiced way that may trigger bad reviews (shortchanging of the plot itself, unnecessary exploitation of sexuality,...); while Billy Wilder, subdued to the conditions of his time, used the metaphor as favourite method of sexual engagement through a hiden content in the dialogues as it is visible when Phyllis is in the stairs, standing, wearing only a towel and Walter jokes saying “The insurance ran out on the 15th. I''d hate to think of your having a smashed fender or something while you''re not, uh, fully covered.” Phyllis responds she was taking a sunbath but the insurance agent again observes “no pigeons around, ı hope. These are the most important characteristics Lost Highway and Double Indemnity have in common and also the ones which they dont have or the ones whıch are less close. Lost Highway follows most of the Noir tendencies and should be seen as
A 21st Century Noir Horror Film, a modernist perspective on the movement, closely linked to the neo-noir style.