DRIVE NOIR CONVENTIONS

                                     What NOIR conventions are present in the film 'Drive'?


Mise en scene/iconography

In this 25 minute text, one of the first noir conventions to do with Mise en scene we see is the use of cigarettes. An unnamed woman is shown smoking a cigarette with a depressed expression and is wearing un-revealing clothing, whilst three men discuss their plan for a robbery. This signifies the lack of positivity and hope that she holds. It also suggests that she is not the stereotypical femme fatale, therefore her role in the film is immediately established as something other than the dependent and sexualised female. Further evidence of film noir conventions would be the setting of the location.

Technical conventions

In the very first scene of the film, Ryan Gosling, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Mulligan and her son are seen sitting around a kitchen table. During the scene, Oscar is telling the story of how he and his wife (Carrie Mulligan) first met. One would assume that this should signify happiness, however the non diagetic music playing in the background has a sinister feel to it. This has been done in order to suggest that something bad is going to happen. In the duration of the scene, there is use of low key lighting and shadows are cast on the characters' faces, this is a film noir convention, it is used to portray the bleakness of the film and the dull atmosphere of their current situation, and events to come.
In a further scene, Gosling and the woman in the earlier scene are in a motel room hiding after they are spotted at a robbery scene, after Gosling finds out she is against him, she goes into the bathroom to wash her face after crying, we then see shadows from Venetian blinds on the wall, emphasising the shadows in the room, also, dim lighting.

Character roles

The character roles are crucial in portraying film noir conventions. From the beginning we see that Gosling is a criminal, he steals a car, robs a pawn shop and kills various men brutally. This is the noir convention of a corrupt protagonist. In most of the close-ups and camera angles aimed at his face, his facial expression is a look of depression and confusion.