Noir Conventions present in "Drive"

In the 2011 film Drive, there are several different noir genre conventions present throughout. In the 20 minute clip we viewed in lesson, this is clear to the audience. As the clip begins, there is a conversation happening between Ryan Goslings character, Carey Mulligans character, her husband and their son. In this part of the scene, Ryan Goslings character has a flashback of himself, the husband and a man who seems to be a business partner of theirs. This in itself is a classic noir conventions as it shows part of the narrative as being non linear. When the scene switches back to the conversation between the four characters in their home, there is tense non diegetic sound playing over their conversation, even though it is a positive one. This shows the contrast and juxtaposition in the storyline, which is also a noir convention as it is showing that whatever is happening, something bad will soon follow or is already there in the background. 

After this scene the clip carries on to show Ryan Goslings character and the husband, along with a female who is also part of the job they are about to go through with. Again, there is tense non diegetic sound which helps control and influence the motions of the audience as well as foreshadowing the nature of this particular scene and the 'mission' they are on. As the male and female go into the pawn shop, Ryan Goslings character remains in the car and is in the drivers seat. Although the camera does not follow the two characters into the shop, it is clear that a robbery is taking place. As this is happening, the character follows a car into the car park where Ryan Goslings character is waiting. This is shown as threatening to not only the character but the audience as well, even though it is unknown what the other vehicle is there for. The camera begins to zoom on Ryan Goslings characters face, and the non diegetic sound begins to fade, turning to complete silence. 

Throughout this clip, low key shadowing is often used on many characters, especially Ryan Goslings, such as when he is in the car waiting for the arrival of the male and female characters and also at the start when he is in his friends home. This is a classic noir conventions as it indicates the personality of certain characters. For example, when Ryan Gosling is in the car waiting and the camera is shooting a close up of his face, there is a dark shadow on one side of his face, portraying two sides to his character, one being bad and the other being good. This could be to show that although he is prepared to be a criminal and do bad things for money, at the end of it all he is only doing it for one thing and that is for the love of a woman. This, along with the shadowing is another common convention in film noir. It is that every protagonist, whatever the narrative, will always risk himself for a woman and her wellbeing. 

Further on in the scene, after the robbery when the the female and Ryan Goslings character are in the hotel room together, another two conventions of film noir are used. As the female is in the bathroom, there is a clear shadow coming through the window an being shaped like venetian blinds. She then gets shots by a man through the window, who then continues into the hotel room and tries to kill Ryan Goslings character. From this it is clear that the narrative involves mistrust and paranoia as they have been found without knowing how. Mistrust and paranoia is also shown just before the woman is killed as she is found to be lying to Ryan Goslings character about what happened within the robbery, just before the male character who went in with her got shot and killed by the shop owner. 

After this scene, the clip goes on to show Ryan Gosling searching for the men the had crossed him over and caused the death of the male and female characters who committed the robbery. As he is on the way to a club to find them, which in itself in a film noir convention, shots of a dark, damp back alley and sidewalk are used which indicated yet another film noir convention.

From just a short clip of this film, it is clear that although this is not a film of the Noir genre, there are many conventions from the genre used to create the themes of this film