Blog 6 “Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema” by Jerold Abrams

 From what I understand from what I've just read is that the different between film noir and neo noir is the settings, time, place and who detective is searching for or how he tells the story. Film- noir came first with the black and white films, cynical attitudes, and sexual motivations. Neo- noir is the modern film noir. It has updated style, color and ideas. In both film noir and neo noir you still have your detective figure, a femme fatale and some kind of crime taking place.
 
The detective figure changes from everything taking place in relation to self to the detective himself telling  who is telling the story about his own search for the other as the villain to a detective who ultimately is searching for himself as an other.
 In Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema,by Jerold Abrams it states
"Two things, however, were different and really make neo-noir what it
is today. First is setting: what used to be the contemporary “space” of the
Los Angeles city now becomes the “time” of the distant future and the distant
past. Second is character: rather than looking for a criminal in the city
that surrounds him, now the detective’s search is for himself, for his own
identity and how he may have lost it. Or, to put the same point another way,
the classic noir detective is a hardened stoic—not a flat character (mind
you), but hardly “conflicted” in Shakespeare’s sense. With neo-noir, however,
that is precisely the point. The character is “divided” against himself,
although not so much emotionally, as in Shakespeare, as epistemologically:
divided in time as two selves, and one is looking for the other.”
 
In past Neo-Noir you have films like Angel Heart by Alan Parker or the Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski. Both movies have to do with a detective type figure who ends up dealing with the devil in some way or another. Abrams describes Past Neo-Noir as " usually low-tech, contrasting it with the very high tech future noir, and almost always theological." Both of those movies are definitely theological.


In future Neo- Noir you have detective science fiction and alien noir.

You have movies like Minority Report by Steven Spielberg. It’s the ultimate form of crime prevention: catch the killer before he can even get to his victim. A specialized police department apprehends criminals based on their foreknowledge. It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance.

Another Future Neo-Noir movie would be Blade Runner by Ridley Scott is about a detective and an ex-cop who gets called to finish their last job. A company has manufactured these robots that are hard to distinguish from humans and they have escaped and are now hiding in Los Angeles. So these detectives that are called Blade Runners are on the hunt to find them. Both movies are of the future and technology.

 

Present Neo-Noir as Abrams describes it “these films take place neither in the distant past nor in the distant future. Of course, that’s hardly to say that time is not “of the essence”—far from it. In fact, present neo-noir, in my opinion, offers the best of neo-noir—and particularly for its use of time.” Some movies would be Memento by Christopher Nolan or Bourne Identity by Doug Libman. Memento is shown in black and white with the story in chronological order and then in color in reverse order.Its about a man who is searching for the man who killed his wife and then somehow suffers from a certain type of amnesia who reminds himself of events by writing on himself . In Bourne Identity Jason Bourne also suffers from amnesia. His has to do with the CIA and also has to use his body to figure out what has gone on, where he’s going , who’s after him and why.

 

So what I’ve learned is that Neo-Noir is the newer version of Film-Noir. You still have your detective figure in search of figuring out some type of mystery. I see the crime but in the newer films though I don’t see the femme fatale as I would in Film-Noir.