Film noir and LA

In my Core class, "Detective in the City," we are discussing the sort of crime and detective aspect about LA and surrounding areas. A lot of what we talk about relates to the sort of shady, film noir portrayals of the city and how the city itself makes those images possible. Much of the old 1950’s or so glamour of Los Angeles really lends itself towards being depicted in a film noir type vision, which is why many of the classics are. In our class, we discussed the architecture of LA and the sort of fantastical visage it often takes on, such as restaurants, hotels and Disneyland. These different facades of buildings lead to the fantasy as reality idea, which then supports the noir idea with the sort of fantastical ideas as real, hard crime. Also, just the setting of LA and the close proximity of “bad” neighborhoods to “good” neighborhoods, as we discussed with the FHA. The busy streets of Los Angeles allow for crime to easily take place and the fast paced setting of it all allows for the criminals to sneak away.
We have talked about how often times in noir, it will be the ritzy, glamorous folk who have their lives turned upside down by those of a lesser status from somewhere dark in the city. The issue of transportation is also a big one, which includes the ideas of the freeways. Almost all noir includes the stereotypical scene of one car being followed by another and how important it is to easily be able to move from one place to another, such as on the freeways.
Another very important aspect of the film noir subject and Los Angeles is those people who make the films. One very important director in the film noir category was Jules Dassin. Dassin was the director of many famous noir films, such as “Brute Force, “Rififi,” and “The Naked City.” Dassin did much of his later work in Hollywood, where he was a part of the Hollywood Communist Party. During the time period, many people affiliated with Communism worked in Hollywood. With that idea in mind, much of film noir may have been influenced by communistic type ideals. It is interesting that the ideology of communism would be one present within film noir when oppression is so present within all the movies. This leads to the idea that oppression and such is inherent within life and is something criminal, as suggested by the criminal outlook stemming from film noir.