Revisiting the Iconic Architecture of Film Noir: The Dark and Mysterious Buildings that Defined a Genre

Film Noir is taken from the French language and means: “black film.” Film Noir is generally used to depict a cinematic genre, but looking broadly, it is more like a style. This style depicts a setting that is quite different from contemporary movies. This style is accompanied by a dark setup, gloomy surroundings, and a play of light and shadows.

Film Noir style came into cinema between the 1940s and 1950s. During this period, many film creators adapted various crime novels. Thus, many crime movies came out during this particular period. The style was focused on creating a tense and eerie atmosphere well suited for thriller movies. The famous authors whose works were depicted are Charles Dickens, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Thus, to bring thriller and suspense to the movies, Film Noir focused on themes like mistrust, Fear, Misery, Insecurity, Disillusionment, etc.

Now the question arrives: How did art and architecture get influenced during this time? How were the buildings built to depict this particular style?

German Expressionism

German Expressionism is a cultural movement that started before the Second World War. This particular movement left a long-lasting impact on the art and culture prevailing at that time. Architecture also bloomed, with many architects coming up with unique and new ideas. The expressionism movement did not last for a long period, but it did leave a long-lasting impact on the culture of that time. This movement looked at things from a different perspective than the common tradition. This objective led many artists and architects to come up and share their views and philosophies on design and art.

This particular movement played a huge role in promoting the Film Noir style not just in Los Angeles,but also in other countries like Germany, the Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, and Iceland. Thus, after the initiation of this movement, several prominent structures were built depicting German Expressionism, such as The Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower in Potsdam, and many other buildings around Germany and Europe. By the 1900s, most of the leading architects had adopted ‘Neue Sachlichkeit,’ also called – New Objectivity, which posed a more practical approach to design than the general characteristics of expressionism. Some prominent structures depicting this particular style have survived the sands of time.

Bradbury Building 

The Bradbury Building is located in downtown Los Angeles, California, in the United States. This five-story office building was built in 1893 and was designed by draftsman John Waymar. The design contract for the building was transferred to Waymar after none of the designs by a prominent architect, Summer P. Hunt, impressed Bradbury. The design inspiration for the building was taken from the popular science fiction novel “Looking Backwards” by Edward Bellamy, published in 1888. The novel describes a utopian society, and the building also does not fail to reflect that particular theme through its design. A passage from the book describes how light penetrates the structure through the windows and an atrium, which is also being infused in the designed building. This, in those days, was considered something related to the future.The passage goes like this:

“A vast hall full of light received not alone from the windows on all sides but from the dome.”

The office building has tan-pressed bricks and terracotta ornaments all over its facade. There are broad piers running from the second to the fourth floors, bordering two or three rectangular windows. The basement floor has shopfronts, each with a single entrance. The fifth floor is the attic story, with an attic consisting of ornamented terracotta cornices. The exterior and interior spaces are distinguished by a huge atrium in the interior of the building. The atrium has a combination of cast-wrought iron balconies and a staircase. The staircase is located at the end of the budling, with two open work elevators alongside it, giving a dramatic effect to the interiors. The atrium also helped in providing a light and shadow effect, which is one of the chief characteristics of film noir style. Thus, with some of these features, the Bradbury Building posed as the perfect location for shooting several Film noir movies, like Blade Runner, Chinatown, and many more.

Park Plaza Hotel

The Park Plaza Hotel, now known as ‘The MacArthur,’ is located at 607 Park View Street near downtown Los Angeles, California. The hotel building was designed by Claud Beelman, an American Architect who designed several beaux-art, Art Deco, and modernist buildings in the Neo Noir era. The building was originally built for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (B.P.O.E.), a social club following the practices of Freemasonry. Thus, the building was planned and designed to cater to all the elk’s activities and events with lavish interiors, a spacious foyer, a pool, a gymnasium, and many other such social spaces.

The building, owing to its Gothic style, depicting grandeur, soon became a hotspot for the shooting of various neo-noir movies. The MacArthur came into view after – ‘North by Northwest’ was shot there in 1959. After the success of the movie, MacArthur became one of the prime shooting locations for many movies. The building, reflecting a mysterious look with elaborate fringes and Greek imagery, posed as a perfect location for Film Noir movies, showcasing a dark setting. 

Conclusion

Thus, Film Noir, despite being a breakthrough in the motion picture industry, also left a footprint in the architecture that prevailed at the time. The most significant impact of this movement can be seen in the buildings and structures in Los Angeles. Thus owing to its dramatic structures and buildings, Los Angeles soon became a major filming location. 

Film Noir brought a new and unique style to the artists as well as the architects of that time. This gradually led to the development of another movement for the artists at that time known as – German Expressionism. This movement gave rise to various expressionist architects and artists who emerged and showcased their talent to the world. This was the time when great architects like – Walter Gropius, Frank Gehry, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright, and artists like – Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Paul Klee, and many more emerged and left their imprints on the sands of time. 

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