How does "L.A Noire" use features of film noir?

Characters within the play station game "L.A Noire" are all very similar to characters played in most film noir movies. The game consists of gangstas, police officers, detectives, woman that are often abused/murdered, reporters etc...





The game is all about investigation. It explores themes of deceit, lust and murder all themes that are present in most film noir movies. The theme of deceit is shown in the game as at the beginning a voice over says "who do you trust?" The voice over of the game is very film noir sounding and acts as narration throughout using police radios etc to tell the story. All the characters in "L.A Noire" have American accents, this is in-keeping with film noir and its traditions as most film noir movies are typically American and often accents/personalities/characters are stereotypical and over-exaggerated.

Throughout the game spooky music/sound effects are used, this adds to the enigmatic feel and also re-enforces the idea of a tense investigation. Music/sound is used in a lot of film noir movies to add to the drama or to create a certain mood or environment. Sometimes upbeat old fashion music is used to set the time period and to work against the context of scenes. Often in a frightening or tense scene -of both the game and film noir movies- a lively song will play to make the audience more on edge and make it seem more creepy. Language within the game lets us know of the time period the game is set in "negro". This shows that the game is set a few years back as the wording used is old fashioned, however very much film noir language.

Film noir has a distinct style, with shadow-filled low-key lighting. This lighting is used intensely throughout the game adding to the enigmatic feel of the game and making people/buildings/objects stand out and seem more dramatic.

"L.A Noire" use a lot of lamp posts. Lamp post are also a key statement in many film noir films. They use artificial but ambient lighting to create a dark atmosphere.

The costumes in "L.A Noire" are also very much like film noir. Suits are used to show the wealth of characters and hats used to show authority, power and to define a characters profession (for example a policeman's hat).

In most film noir movies woman play the roll of prostitutes, love interests etc. often they are abused, used and sometimes killed. "L.A Noire" is no different. This shot uses intense ambient lighting to show a shadow of -what looks to be an investigator/detective- standing over the body. The shot is tilted, obscuring the angle and adding to the dramatic effect. Cameras are often tilted in film noir because it makes scenes/shots more interesting.
At the beginning of this clip we see a murder from the "L.A Noire" game. The murders in this game are constructed with a lot of the main conventions in film noir.
The scene is in black and white like all film noir movies and uses ambient lighting to create an enigmatic feel. The scene uses the lighting from the headlights of the car to create intense dark shadows of the woman being dragged out of the car, this makes it much more dramatic and makes the lighting seem more realistic.