BRICK
Introduction
Brick is a modern adapation of a Film Noir, the film was created and directed by Rian Johnson. Brick is classed as a neo noir throughout the film it uses some elements of classic noirs but has many updated stylstics to suit the modern world better.
Snyopsis and anaylsist
The film 'Brick' was produced in 2005 and was written and directed by Rian Johnson. This is a film that uses alot of the visual traits of classic film noir and has a deep narrative structure. This film was made on quite a small budget similar to the B-movies that classic noir stemmed from. What is especially distinctive about this movie is its very original using many different cinematography and editing techniques which can be quite visually confusing for the audience at times. The film and its characters are based around an American high school and the plot is centered around a student named Brendan Frye.
His ex-girlfriend emily was murdered and he sets out to find out who done it. During this, he encounters an underworld within the high school with crime, gangs, drug dealing all involved. As the storyline evolves it becomes clear that Emily had familiarised herself with a highly dangerous group of people and this is what led to her death. The mystery of her murder provides the basis for a typical noir storyline and the various gang members and drug dealers reinforce many of the perceptions of noir characters but they fit far more into modern society than the gangsters, detectives etc in classic film noirs.The storyline is complicated, twisting and non-linear starting at the middle with the first part of the story being a flashback similar to many classic noirs and the second part following a more conventional storyline (starting in the middle and finishing at the end).
The opening scene is shot in a storm drain by a tunnel and embodies many noir characteristics. The very first shot we see is an extreme close-up of Brendan's eyes immeadiately giving it an uncomfortable look and feel. We quickly get an idea of what the plot might be when we see a dead girl's body lying next to him. This scene is accompanied by fairly low key lighting and slow, sinister but quite modern sounding music is played. As in many classic noirs this is a scene we revisit on several occasions.
The following scene is set two days previous to the first and involves Brendan in a distressed phonecall with his ex girlfriend emily who is crying and obviously in distress. Here she is talking about how she did not know that 'the brick' was bad and how 'the Pin's on it' making reference to the plot and what happens later in the film . There is the familiar heavy breathing as the characters talk making the audience feel the character's discomfort. In following scenes he gets into a fight with her current boyfriend and then meets up with her. She tells him about 'trouble with the brick' and then leaves him. Lots of close up shots are used here to capture the emotion and obvious distress on the characters faces.
One of the film's most striking shots is used in a dream Brendan is having a dream where he is standing in the same storm drain where Em's body was dumped. The camera is facing the tunnel and something very quickly rises out of the water and engulfs the camera, this is accompanied by a foreboding sound that gets progressively louder. This was one of many unusual cinematography techniques used to shock the viewer or make them jump.
Soon after we return to the tunnel with Brendan next to his ex's body. Here we see some familiar noir lighting techniques as he hears footsteps running towards him and runs down the tunnel. At this point it is shot from inside the tunnel and we see some high contrast in the light as we look toward the end of the tunnel. The sound of footsteps but characters being invisible in the darkness help give the sense of insecurity and claustrophobia to the audience. Sinister and foreboding background music is played everytime we revisit the tunnel.
One of the key sequences in the film is when we are introduced to violent gang member Tug. He is first seen punching Brendan and we see this from the perspective of Brendan himself giving the audience the idea they are being punched. A low angle shot from the perspective of Brendan lying on the ground to emphasise the superior stature of tug. Shortly afterwards we revisit the same character and once again he is punched repeatedly. As he is the picture is sometimes blurred or appears to vibrate which can be quite disorientating for the viewer (I found it made me a bit dizzy) and adds to the sense that they are part of the fight. Afterwards he is taken in the boot of a car to a building to see the gang's ringleader and drug dealer 'the Pin'. He is introduced to us in a poorly lit room from a long shot that is initially blurred as it is from the perspective of Brendan without his glasses on. Moments later he is thrown to the ground and we see an example of a dutch tilt as the camera is shown to be crashing onto its side along with Brendan. This combined with the low key lighting used in this indoor scene probably embodies noir cinematography and lighting more than any other sequence and it is presumably designed to give a disorientating and uncomfortable feel to the audience throughout.
Some of the mise en scene used is typical to the noir genre with characters very regularly smoking cigarettes. There is also a scene where a character is shot dead by the tunnel where a gun appears, incidentally much of this scene was also shot from inside the tunnel giving the same high contrast lighting as mentioned earlier. The clothes the characters wear are typical of the age group and type of people these characters are represented as e.g the main character wearing a jacket and t-shirt most of the time and the tug wearing a white vest showing his muscle. The locations tend to just be simple suburban or school environments.
In conclusion I feel the film follows the common traits of film noir but uses the modern society and the storyline to make it more realistic for modern viewer of today. It is definatly contempory and designed to appeal to a young audience. The film recieved positive reviews and was praised for the originality of some of its visual techniques as well as what the director had managed to produce on a limited budget.
One of the key sequences in the film is when we are introduced to violent gang member Tug. He is first seen punching Brendan and we see this from the perspective of Brendan himself giving the audience the idea they are being punched. A low angle shot from the perspective of Brendan lying on the ground to emphasise the superior stature of tug. Shortly afterwards we revisit the same character and once again he is punched repeatedly. As he is the picture is sometimes blurred or appears to vibrate which can be quite disorientating for the viewer (I found it made me a bit dizzy) and adds to the sense that they are part of the fight. Afterwards he is taken in the boot of a car to a building to see the gang's ringleader and drug dealer 'the Pin'. He is introduced to us in a poorly lit room from a long shot that is initially blurred as it is from the perspective of Brendan without his glasses on. Moments later he is thrown to the ground and we see an example of a dutch tilt as the camera is shown to be crashing onto its side along with Brendan. This combined with the low key lighting used in this indoor scene probably embodies noir cinematography and lighting more than any other sequence and it is presumably designed to give a disorientating and uncomfortable feel to the audience throughout.
Some of the mise en scene used is typical to the noir genre with characters very regularly smoking cigarettes. There is also a scene where a character is shot dead by the tunnel where a gun appears, incidentally much of this scene was also shot from inside the tunnel giving the same high contrast lighting as mentioned earlier. The clothes the characters wear are typical of the age group and type of people these characters are represented as e.g the main character wearing a jacket and t-shirt most of the time and the tug wearing a white vest showing his muscle. The locations tend to just be simple suburban or school environments.
In conclusion I feel the film follows the common traits of film noir but uses the modern society and the storyline to make it more realistic for modern viewer of today. It is definatly contempory and designed to appeal to a young audience. The film recieved positive reviews and was praised for the originality of some of its visual techniques as well as what the director had managed to produce on a limited budget.
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