Paranoia Noir: The Hidden Reality of Film Noir
Patrycja Włodek
patrycja.wlodek@gmail.comPedagogical University of Krakow (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4019-3727
Abstract
Paranoia is a frequent cinematic subject in movies depicting both representations of paranoid personalities and conspiracy theories. It might be not only part of the plot (events), but also an important factor influencing the narrative structure and other filmic devices. It might also serve as a metaphor. This happens in film noir, where paranoia is both a subject and an element influencing the general vibe. In three categories of film noir – gothic noir, puzzle/mind-game films and stoner noir – filmmakers use subjectivisation and other narrative devices in order to introduce paranoia both as a metaphor and a commentary on contemporary social reality.
Keywords:
paranoia, subjectivisation, film noir, gothic noir, puzzle films, stoner noirReferences
Adlerberg, S. (2018, 11 grudnia). Literary Stoner Noir, dosomedamage.com. http://www.dosomedamage.com/2018/12/literary-stoner-noir.html
Google Scholar
Baker, P. C. (2019, 4 listopada). The Men Who Still Love Fight Club. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-men-who-still-love-fight-club.
Google Scholar
Basinger, J. (1993). A Women’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960. New York: Knopf.
Google Scholar
Dixon, W. W. (2009). Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474467766
Google Scholar
Doane, M. A. (1987). The Desire to Desire: The Woman’s Film of the 1940s. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19145-1
Google Scholar
Eco, U. (1987). Dopiski na marginesie „Imienia róży” (tłum. A. Szymanowski). W: U. Eco, Imię róży (ss. 593-623). Warszawa: PIW.
Google Scholar
Elias, T. (2003). Paranoia. W: P. Knight (red.), Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara – Denver – Oxford: ABC Clio.
Google Scholar
Ellias, A. J. (2012). History. W: I. H. Dalsgaard, L. Herman, B. McHale (red.). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Pynchon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521769747.012
Google Scholar
Elsaesser, T. (2009). The Mind-Game Film. W: W. Buckland (red.), Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Google Scholar
Elsaesser, T. (2018). Kino gier umysłowych (tłum. M. Przylipiak). W: T. Elsaesser, Kino – maszyna myślenia. Refleksje nad kinem epoki cyfrowej (ss. 29-56). Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.
Google Scholar
Gardiner, D., Walker, K. S. (red.) (1983). Mówi Chandler (tłum. E. Budrewicz). Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Google Scholar
Marche, S. (2014, 3 grudnia). „Inherent Vice” and the Glorious Cool of the Stoner Detective. Esquire. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/reviews/a31430/inherent-vice-stoner-detective/
Google Scholar
Ostaszewski, J. (2018). Historia myśli filmowej. Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Porfirio, R. (1977). Motywy egzystencjalne w hollywoodzkim „czarnym filmie” (tłum. P. Kamiński). Dialog, (5), ss. 14-150.
Google Scholar
Pynchon, T. (2015). Vineland (tłum. J. Polak). Warszawa: Albatros.
Google Scholar
Szczekała B. (2018). Mind-game films. Gry z narracją i widzem. Łódź: Narodowe Centrum Kultury Filmowej.
Google Scholar
Authors
Patrycja Włodekpatrycja.wlodek@gmail.com
Pedagogical University of Krakow Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4019-3727
PhD, Jagiellonian University graduate (film studies and sociology), Assistant Professor at the Pedagogical University of Krakow; she specializes in the history of American cinema. Film critic and author, contributor to many magazines, periodicals and books. Author of the books “Świat był przemoczoną pustką”. Czarny kryminał Raymonda Chandlera w literaturze i filmie [“The World Was a Wet Emptiness”: Raymond Chandler, Hard-boiled Fiction and Film Noir] (2015) and Kres niewinności. Obraz i upamiętnienie ery Eisenhowera w amerykańskich filmach i serialach – pomiędzy reprezentacją, nostalgią a krytycznym retro [The End of Innocence: Depiction and Commemoration of the Eisenhower Era in American Cinema and Television – Representation, Nostalgia and Critical Retro] (2018).
Statistics
Abstract views: 451PDF downloads: 401
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Patrycja Włodek
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Patrycja Włodek, Netflix: The Future Is Now? , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 124 (2023): Streaming
- Patrycja Włodek, American Suburbs in the Long Shadow of the Big City , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 109 (2020): Architectural Space in Film
- Patrycja Włodek, National Cinema of Authors at the End of the Century , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 107 (2019): Journey, (E)migration, Pilgrimage
- Patrycja Włodek, Journey to Emancipation. On the Ambivalent Meaning of the Motif of the Road Using the Example of the Theme of Race in American Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 107 (2019): Journey, (E)migration, Pilgrimage
- Patrycja Włodek, The Empire Is Not Shaking at Its Foundations: Neo-Heritage in British Cinema and Television of the 21st Century , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 101-102 (2018): European Cinema of 21st Century
- Patrycja Włodek, Time on Hold – The American Nostalgia for the Rock and Roll Era , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 86 (2014): Dimensions of Time
- Patrycja Włodek, Post-Irony and Three Faces of Melodrama , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 100 (2017): On Celebrating
- Patrycja Włodek, Hanna Schygulla – Trapped by Fassbinder , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 96 (2016): Film and Metaphysics
- Patrycja Włodek, Hollywood on the Cold War Frontline , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Patrycja Włodek, Rock’n’Roll and the “New Lost Generation” of American Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
