"Film Noir offers us again and again examples of abnormal or monstous behaviour, which defy the patterns established for human social interaction, and which hint ata series of radical and irresolvable contradistions buried deep within the total system of economic and social interactions that constitute the known world."
- This essay by Sylvia Harvey attempts to understand the depictions of women in Film Noir as reflecting the changing social attitudes with increasing number of women's entry into the Labour market.
- The importance of the woman's position in the family & how it determines her place in society
- Film Noir acts as to challenge the hierarchical structure of the family - father as head, mother as subservient & children as totally dependant - acting as a meaphor for a repressive and authoritarian society.
- The family also acts as the only legitimate arena for the fulfillment of sexual needs/ marriage sanctifies sex - clearly challenged by the femme fatale & her openly sexual nature, linking to Kaplan's theory that Film Noir is a "male fantasy".
- The concept that the family is inevitably linked to marriage & the seek for eduring love of a lifetime - in contrast with absence or dectruction of romantic love and the family of the film Noir structure.
- Visual style - landscape/ lighting/ camera angle/ framing - adds to the absence of romantic love e.g threatening. disturbing mis-en-scene etc.
- The absence of family in Film Noir = absence of a happy -ending
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