Friday 4 January 2013

What features of film noir do we see in L.A. noire?

L.A. Noire, a video game released in 2011 set in Los Angeles during 1947, uses many features of film noir that can be seen in films such as 'LA confidential' and 'Chinatown'.

The player will become the role of detective Cole Phelps who works his way through different police departments such as, homicide, solving cases. A detective is seen as one of the main characters used throughout film noir, an example of this is in the 1941 'The Maltese Falcon'. He is easily distinguished as a detective by his outfit, Cole Phelps is seen to be wearing a suit and hat in dark colours, he and other characters are also seen to be smoking, this is major prop used by both male and female in film noir.


 L.A. Noire is set in an urban setting, these are more notorious for crime than rural areas, the city appears to be very dark with many elongated shadows, this adds enigma to the game and was also used in 'The Third Man'. While the character is driving around the city, film noir films are seen to be advertised on the outside of cinemas, this advertises to gamers the film noir style.
A voiceover is used to explain a scenario, character or location while this isn't being used, expressionist jazz music is being played, a voiceover is used in film noir as it is able to describe the situation a lot more effectively.

Once a case started more features were provided, the font appeared in an old style and at an angle, this fitted in with the time period of 1947. The landscape as mentioned above, appeared but at night time providing more shadows and the city appeared dirtier.
The detective and his companion are using a torch to look for clues on one of the scenes, this only reveals part of the scene, this was used in 'The Third Man'. The camera is always seen to always be moving and using a lot of different angles, this is typical of a film noir. An example can be seen on the right.

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