Sin City

Sin City

Sin City is a cross genre film which contains characteristics of both the Noir genre and the Comic Book Genre. One way that Sin city conforms to the Noir genre is the constant use of low key lighting and cold wet locations. This use of pathetic fallacy helps to enforce the cold bleak out look of the 50s when original Noir was made. We can see this used in the opening scene where the women is standing on the roof of the building. We can see the city skyline of night time American city in the pouring rain this helps set the mood of the film being a dark and harsh film this is all typical of the Noir genre. 

Another way that Sin City is typical of the Noir genre is the way that the film uses a male narrator. This is common in Noir films as the protagonist in the story is always male and takes a dominant role. However in Noir films the men often fall for a women (Femme Fatal) who often uses them for personal gain. One example of Male narration in Sin City is were one of the male protagonists Marv talks about how he will avenge the dead prostitute Goldie. Also the character John Hartigan constantly puts him self down during his narration and uses this to motivate himself "an old man dies little girl lives" and Marv refers to himself as a "two time loser". 

One way that this film conforms to the conventions of the comic book genre is the use of over the top violence. In Sin City all of the protagonists are at some points extremely violent which is trait not often found in Noir films one example of this is the scene where escapes from the police and punches a door which shatters like glass and then dives down an entire stairwell. This helps re-enforce the cross genres of the film and highlights it as being a hybrid film.

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

My chosen text is fish tank. It is a social realism film and is very typical to its genre. One way it is a social realism film is by the way the film uses technical conventions to made the audience empathise with the characters in the movie, for example the film uses shallow focus, natural lighting and hand held camera. These all give the film a feeling of a realistic environment and help put the audience into the scene. An example of where technical codes are used is when Mia chases after Connor down the stairs of the apartment. The shot is one continuous tracking shot using a hand held camera through a low key corridor and then when Connor drives away the shot is in shallow focus which reflects how the human eye works. 

 The film itself portrays a realistic view of modern under class Britain and shows the social conditions of inner city life in the UK. the film is set it London, we can tell this because of the characters accents and the establishing shots of the city skyline. Towards the beginning of the film we see the protagonist, Mia,  is shown in a non stereotypical way because she is represented as being confrontational and aggressive.