Queering Noir...

Both Richard Dyer and Chris Straayer provide readers with analyses of the film noir genre that work to disrupt the ways gender is constructed and negotiated by characters that exist as established filmic conventions: particularly considering the relationship masculine protagonists have with femme fatales. Dyer first provides a context from which to understand the genre of film noir by asserting that it is “characterised by a certain anxiety over the existence and definition of masculinity and normality” (Dyer 115). It is those forms of self that are articulated by the characters and, in particular, their actions and behaviors relative to the often seedy twists and turns of the narrative. Yet, in discussing Gilda and Bound, respectively, Dyer and Straayer introduce queer configurations of gender and sexuality that simultaneously go against filmic conventions reinforcing patriarchal dichotomies while also frequently exist in contexts that are far from counterhegemonic.

Gilda, directed by Charles Vifor in 1946, is a clear example of the stylistic choices, techniques, and conventions representative of the film noir genre. It stars Rita Hayworth, one of the most popular and prolific movie stars and sex symbols of the 1940s, as Gilda, the film’s femme fatale placeholder, and Glen Ford as Johnny, the film’s narrator and male protagonist. Yet, while its style may lend greatly to the genre, also referencing the heavy influences of German Expressionism present in the film, the way the narrative plays out and the relationships between the characters is far from normalized film noir. What Dyer asserts is that in the construction of Johnny’s characterization, he is placed as a protagonist that does not fill the genre’s mold, particularly with the queer implications that exist in his relationship with Ballin. As both characters that have relied on Ballin for stability, Johnny and Gilda are equalized. Gilda is also further equalized to Johnny through the camera’s view and its tendencies to give equal framing to each character (watch Gilda' first appearance). Moreoever, Dyer discusses the use of Hayworth - as a prominent film star that hold presence, audience familiarity, and charisma - to explain how she is further displaced from the femme fatale convention. It is in these examples of equalization that Johnny and Gilda’s gender are then also negotiated.

Bound, directed by the Wachowski Brothers in 1996, is a neo-noir thriller that follows similar conventions of the film noir genre, yet disrupt those established notion as the protagonist is a butch queer woman named Corky and played by Gina Gershon. The femme fatale of the film is Violet, played by Jennifer Tilly. Yet, Straayer perceives the film to hold the two characters, and the relationship between them, as an example of the deconstruction of the gender-sex alignment. He sees Bound as an example of the “gender fluidity that now facilitates queer readings of and representations in neo-noir” (Straayer) that was set up by film noir. By utilizing the butch-femme dichotomy of contemporary lesbian discourse, Bound is able to say extrapolate their differences by plugging them into a film noir/neo noir context, yet also asserts the equality that derives from those conventions. At the end of the film, trust has been built between the two women, despite the protaganist/femme fatale dichotomy, and they are allowed to then couple together romantically, ultimately communicating the “sameness” as women.

It is in both of these films that typical film noir conventions are employed to tell stories about the established genderizations of the genre, while still very much so existing in the genre, particularly through style and filmic techniques. Yet, in their disruptions of those gender relationships, and also in their interrogations of the femme fatale characterization, both Gilda and Bound exists to queer the genre through the perspective of non-normative gender and sexuality.

-Kenny Gong