Drive and Film Noir

Throughout the film 'Drive' directed by Nicolas Winding Refn you can see conventions of the genre  'Film Noir'. These can be see through the characters, mise-en-scene and cinematography.

The characters in the film are typical of the noir genre. The main protagonist, Driver, portrayed by Ryan Gosling, is a cynical character within the film- a character linked with the Noir genre. He's represented as hard heated, lonely, a 'cold' character and physically tough, these representations are seen through the mise-en-scene.  During the scene where Driver is having dinner with Irene, her son and her husband you see through the mise-en-scene that Driver is represented as a 'cold' character. He is captured using a mid-shot capturing him sitting at the dinner table, the wallpaper behind him is a light blue colour which reflects a tone of blue onto him representing him as a cold character. This representation also links with the cynical protagonist common in the noir genre as they can be described as 'cold-hearted'. Irene is captured differently in this scene, she is captured as a warmer person. Through the use of mise-en-scene and the lighting a brown/ red, warm light is reflected onto her showing a contrast between the two.

Here you can see that Driver is a cold character and Irene a warmer character (mise-en-scene of the wallpaper and the light)

Another character captured in Film Noir is the 'femme fatale,' Blanche can be considered as the femme fatale in Drive, through the mise-en-scene you can see conventions of a femme fatale. Blanch is introduced whilst Driver is talking and organising the robbing of the pawn shop, (they need $10,000 in order to protect Irene and her son and to get Standard out of this area of work). Blanche (femme fatale) is captured using a slight low angle showing she is a character with power. Conventions of a femme fatale have been projected onto Blanche through the use of mise-en-scene. She is seen smoking, wearing red lipstick and also has red-hair, the colour red has connotations of passion and danger, connotations which are found in femme fatale's from the 1950s- 60s.

Close-up is used to capture the femme fatale smoking 

Femme fatale's can be seen in 2005 film 'Sin City' directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (guest director). During the opening scene of Sin City you see a typical femme fatale found in the noir genre. You can see this through the use of mise-en-scene, she is captured using a high-angle as she walks to the end of the balcony of the skyscraper- you can tell this is the location as the high angle also shows other skyscrapers and urban life. This scene (and the whole film) has been edited into black and white filter to resemble that of a comic book however, bold colours are seen in appropriate places. In this scene you can see an example of this use of colour as to capture the femme fatale and her characteristics her dress is bright  red- connotations of passion and danger, then a close-up is used to capture her smoking and here you see she is wearing red lipstick another convention of the femme fatale in noir.

Close-up used to capture the femme fatale smoking also see red lipstick, similar to the shot used in 'Drive' to capture Blanche (example of shot above).

This is the high angle used to capture femme fatale on the balcony on the skyscraper.

During the scene in Drive where the robbery of the pawn shop takes place, another convention of noir can be seen- the use of neon lights/ signs. The sets of film noir films have a gloomy feel, low key lighting, venesian-blinds used to keep out the sunlight, dark alleys and streets are conventions of the film noir genre. These contrast with the neon signs which were a popular aspect within the genre.
Neon signs can be found in urban environments. In this particular scene (in Drive) they are shown in a shop window which is located in a grimy location. In Sin City neon lights can be seen in shop windows however they are most commonly seen as signs to strip-clubs and pubs within the city. There locations are also grimy and urban like the location of the pawn shop in Drive.