Noir conventions in Drive

         Noir conventions promenant in "Drive" 

2011's film "Drive" holds various conventions of the film noir. The conventions are demonstrated through the narrative structure, technical conventions and character roles. As the text is modern, set in a sunny city with fast modern cars, the text doesn't hold the mise en scene conventions of a typical noir film. 

In the first scene we viewed of the text we witness a family at a dinner table with the fathers friend present. At this particular point the mother and father are talking about how they met in which is a positive subject. However a binary opposition is made due to the use of the non diegetic sound of sinister music. This is a convention of a noir film as the themes usually base around fear, violence and paranoia which conjures  up these feelings due to the music. This binary opposition is created to foreshadow the sinister events later to come in the text. During the same scene the camera pans on to the fathers friend, the protagonist, who is shown in a low key lighting. the low key lighting allows a shadow to form on his face which shows half of his face lit and the other half not lit up. This is conventional of a noir film as the low key lighting highlights the themes of depression and sadness that are usually present in noir film. The lighting used in this scene also portrays the good side and the bad side of the cynical protagonist present in the text. The use of the low camera angle facing up to the protagonist gives the character a sense of power and shows his importance in the text as this is the first low camera angle we see. 

In oir film the protagonist is usually very cynical with a fatal flaw. In the next scene we very the protagonist breaking into a car in the city whilst people are around, this gives the audience a sense of not caring. This is shown in noir film as at the time when noir film was set it was the time of the cold war 1950's, people started to care less as they felt they were going to die anyway.The fact that the character was breaking into a car, therefore showing he is a criminal, it becomes his fatal flaw in the text. The noir film themes are also shown in this text through the narrative. After the male dies, when he and the woman attempt to rob a shop, the protagonist questions whether woman did the right thing by walking out in the other male. This raises the themes of paranoia and mistrust in the text.