The Dark Style of Se7en
Abstract
This paper centers on the dark style of the film Se7en,which is christened as “film noir”.What Se7en interests and impresses me most is its film noir characters, surreal,nightmarish atmasphere and its disturbing visual style.This paper introduces some basic knowledge of film noir and emphasizes on the analysis of the dark style of Se7en from several aspects,including lighting,setting, and angle.
Key Words
film onir;dark; unease
1.Introduction
Se7en, a dark, grisly, horrifying and intelligent thriller, may be too disturbing for many people, I imagine. But if you can bear to watch it, you will see filmmaking of a high order. It tells the story of two detectives - one ready to retire, the other at the start of his career - and their attempts to capture a perverted serial killer who is using the Seven Deadly Sins as his scenario. Director David Fincher doesn't want his audience to be comfortable for a moment while watching "Seven." Shaky camera shots, dark sets and a disturbing script that takes its characters to the extremes of emotion all contribute to the film creating a unsettled feeling that stays with you for a couple hours after the credits roll.
2.literature review
The concept of film noir first emerged in 1940s France.Having been deprived of Hollywood films during the Germa occupation,French critics were finally able to see an numble of Hollywood films that had been made during the war years.The group of films that they saw shared a common visual style and a mood of cynicism,pessimism,and darkness,and they christened them “film noir”.
Film noir characters are morally ambivalent,that is to say ,it is often impossible to draw clear lines between the “good” and the “bad”,and the traditional distinctions(cops=good/criminals=bad)no longer apply.Police and law enforcers are
frequently corrupt,or at least corruptible; criminals and lawbreakers may emerge as sympathetic figures;and victims are often themselves also villains.The protagonist is no hero;instead,he is an all-too-human figure who may both perpetrate(as well as suffer)some appalling abuse in the course of the film.
A surreal,nightmarish atmasphere characterizes film noir film.This mood is fostered by unexplained motives and confusing plot twists.It is often difficult to establish motives for characters’actions,and equally difficult to predict in which direction the plot will spin. The audience experiences the kind of uncertainty and disorientation,feeling in a dream.
The overriding theme of film noir is a fear of the future..The mood of film noir is that of loss,nostalgia,and trepidation.
3.Own analysis
Much of the distinctiveness of Se7en can be attributed to its skillful adaption of the conventions of film noir to the contemporary world.There is a common moral ambiguity,which casts heroes as potential villains and villains as potential heroes;a trepidation about the future and nostalgia for a more civilized world that exists only in the imagination;a puzzling and disturding narrative which andermines one’s expectations;and the characteristic noir style of perpetual rainfall,low-key lighting,and a subdued colour palette dominated by dullish grays,murky browns,and putrid.It is a classic film noir,but with a twist—a serial-killer narrative that raises import contemporary questions about the respective roles of morality,culture,and the media in our postmodern urban world.
A central feature of most film noir and neo-noir is moral contradiction.It is frequently difficult to draw clear lines between good and bad,or state with certainty who it is that occupies the high maral ground.This is certainly the case with Se7en,in that neither Mills nor Somerset demonstrates unimpeachable standards.In their professional lives,for example,both are prepared to take immoral (and even illegal)measures to achieve their goal of arresting and prosecuting John Doe.Somerset bribes an associate in the FBI for access to the library records of borrowers—of course,the fact that the FBI even keeps such records is of questionable legality—and together they use this illegally gathered information to find out Doe’s address.When they reach his apartment,Mills simply kicksopen the door,rather than follow the correct and legal procedures,and first get hold of a search warrant.Aware that illegally gathered information would be invalid in a court of law,they then proceed to bribe an poor local resident to make up a story that will exculpate them.
The victims of Doe’s cruel crimes are definitely no better.The obscenely fat man is an insult to human dignity;the greed of Elias Gould is fed by the money earned from defending rapists and murderers in court;Theodore Allen,punished for sloth,is actually a drug dealer and maker of horrific sexual crimes;the blonde woman is a prostitute in a seedy sex club;and the model was so vain that she could not live without her good looks.
“The over-riding noir theme is a passion for the past and the present,but also a fear of the future.The noir hero dreads to look ahead,but instead tries to survive by the
