Visual and Performing Arts

X-ray visions: Radiography, chiaroscuro, and the fantasy of unsuspicion in film noir

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Immediately recognizable even to the film noir neophyte is the lighting technique known as chiaroscuro, the angular alternation of dark shadows and stark fields of light across various on-screen surfaces in films such as Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946), Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948), and many others. Whereas critics have long suggested that chiaroscuro fittingly evokes the postwar milieu, furnishing a backdrop for tales of psychological imprisonment1 while creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and duplicity,2 this essay seeks to focus our critical gaze a little less deeply. Instead of arguing about what chiaroscuro is supposed to represent historically (in terms of German Expressionism, the advent of the Cold War, existentialism, and so forth), I attempt a more basic inquiry into what the technique tends to present spatially, calling into question the sources of light from which its intricate patterns emerge and the apertures through which they are traced. More specifically, I argue that in working to theorize noir style, it is important to account for chiaroscuro not solely in terms of affect or mood, but as representing a specific kind of optical structure—the structure of the X-ray—as well as a particular brand of criminal deception

Publication Title

Film Criticism

Publication Date

2007

Volume

32

Issue

2

First Page

2

Last Page

27

ISSN

0163-5069

Keywords

film lighting, chiaroscuro, film noir, cinematography

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