Hard-boiled, luz e sombras : o design do cartaz do Film Noir dos anos quarenta e cinquenta do século XX

Abstract

The present investigation has as main objective the analysis and critical reflection of the graphic design of film noir posters, developed in the United States of America, in the forties and fifties of the twentieth century, seeking to contextualize, interpret and understand its influence on the universe of contemporary visual culture. In this sense, will be developed a deconstruction of these printed formats, in the most diverse aspects, formal and symbolic. In a first phase, will be explored the North American sociocultural and historical question, during the forties and fifties, where will be analyzed historical and social factors of great impact, in order to allow a broader understanding of the contextual territory that circumscribed and influenced the visual expression and graphic languages presented in film noir posters. In the next phase, we will explore what is the Film Noir genre, its influences and characteristics, as well as the history and evolution of the cinematographic poster, in particular the posters created in the United States of America, in the period mentioned above, when the classic period of film noir is inserted. Another objective of this investigation is to establish a parallelism between the posters of film noir, in its original or classic examples, in contrast with most recent examples, to allow a critical understanding about the influence of these printed objects in the past and currently. Finally, it should be noted that the choice of this theme was due to the fact that film noir presents the particularity of assuming itself as a cinematographic genre with a capacity of significant transformation in the course of cinema history, evolving to updated versions and variations of the genre (such as neo-noir), that adapted (like the posters created for this type of movies) with great versatility to contemporary visual culture