' Blade Runner ' ( Ridley Scott, 1982: Director's cut )
How film noir influenced Blade Runner’s beautiful darkness
1. Name both of Ridley Scott's iconic career defining films
Alien and Blade Runner
2. To what aesthetic does Blade Runner owe its aesthetic?
The film owes much of its sombre philosophy and pitch-black aesthetic to 1930s and 40s film noir.
3. Find Examples of the film noir aesthetic in Blade runner - use screen grabs if you prefer.
4. What is a neo-noir?
Neo-noir is a contraction of the phrase new film noir.
5. Identify the themes that Ridley Scott developed in Blade Runner.
6. How did Ridley Scott blend genres? - identify elements.
Widescreen shots of an endless, decaying metropolis, crowded, dark and diseased with societal discord; high-contrast venetian blinds; people perennially smoking cigarettes and monsoon levels of rainfall are all elements that define the genre.
7. What does Davis say that Ridley Scott has done with Film Noir?
The film has rebooted, updated and colourised a lot of the tropes of film noir which pushes the embryo of noir top give birth to something new (Neo-Noir).
. How does the production design relate to chronology?
The production design features has quite specific nods to classic noir locations, such as the use of the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles for J. F. Sebastian’s apartment building, which people did not really think about the future as a decaying carcass.
9. How do the lead characters in Blade Runner reference Film Noir?
Femme Fatale: Rachael is certainly modelled on a 40s look – the veil, the pillbox hat, the shoulder pads, the mascara, the continual smoking – it’s classic 1940s noir.
0. Who is a character you won't find in Film Noir?
