Out of the Past- Film Noir

Out of the Past is a classic piece of film noir. The characters, devious and mysterious play an important part to the film noir cinematography. In Out of the Past, the main protagonist, Jeff Bailey(Robert Mitchum) plays the audience with this double persona identity all the while trying to capture the complex femme fatale, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). He tries to escape his gangster past by completing some unfinished business to hopefully come full circle and retreat back into his new sedentary lifestyle. Certain cinematic effects truly make this a great film noir. First, the movie is in all black and white which makes the contrast between light and dark very prevalent throughout the movie. By constantly moving from day to night scenes, director Jacques Tourneur not only creates a chronological path to the movie, he also shows how the two parts of a 24 hour cycle differ. For example, in the beginning where Jeff and Kathie are in Mexico, they only decide to meet at night time and at Kathies will, thus hinting at her dark personality or even dark motives. The day time is reserved solely for personal time or innocent activity. Also, a main characteristic of noir exemplified in Out of the Past is the costume. Noir is all about the 40's and early 50's making the clothing only appropriate for that time frame. The gangsters wear suits and hats and the women wear long dresses. Bailey is only depicted in a decked out suit other than the one scene where he is fishing with his present girlfriend. Bailey's nemesis Whit (Kirk Douglas), is the pinnacle of noir gangster, with his gigantic house, intelligent swagger, and unlawful decision making. Another noir-esque theme in Out of the Past is the fear of the future, or the unknowing of what lies ahead. Bailey seems to have a decent idea of how his fate will end up becuase he makes poor decisions throughout the film but there is still an aspect of 'will Jeff get out unscathed?' and 'is Kathie on Whit's or Jeff's side as the femme fatale?'. All of these aspects general aspects of film noir are what makes the movie fall into the noir category. Overall, Tourneau makes a film which pushes the limits of society acceptance and creates a picture of everlasting relevance.