Film Noir and Drugs

Most of the protagonists in film noir are addicted to something, usually a woman, but also money, and "Double Insurance" is a double addiction. The director of "The Man with the Golden Arm", Otto Preminger, made the characters addicted to it because of something that has never been seen in Hollywood movies because of censorship - heroin.
Compared with the alcoholic black film "Lost Weekend" ten years ago, the discussion of drug dependence in "The Man with the Golden Arm" does not stop at the surface of personal vices, but touches on deeper social problems. Frankie is a World War II veteran who lives in a Chicago slum filled with illiterate people, thieves, drug dealers, underground casinos, and people around him who are more or less "addicted" to something. Although after six months of drug treatment, the filthy environment made Franky's good wishes for a new life come to nothing, and he was gradually pulled into the abyss of despair by the surrounding personnel.
After entering the 1950s, Preminger, who was famous for film noir, tried more different styles. The "Man with the Golden Arm" in 1955 was not visually "black". Perhaps the low-key and high contrast of Frank (Frank Sinatra) who just came out of drug rehab when he relapses in the dealer's room, and the shadow cast on his face when he talks about his drug experience Seeing some traces of film noir, the style and tone have been transformed into technical means at the director's fingertips. Except for a small number of exterior scenes on the Raidenhua studio, the film was all shot in one studio. Preminger prefers scheduling rather than editing. Many scenes have almost only one shot, and long double shots or even three shots are used to express the dialogue. , seldom hit back and forth, which is also Preminger's consistent preference.
The film's performance of drug addiction is very realistic - the drug dealer dissolves heroin with a spoon, Frankie's pupils shrink after taking drugs, and his girlfriend sees the clue. When he is detoxing, his body is weak and his body is cold. Frankie's drug addiction, heroin can lead to the accumulation of lactose in the human body, so addicts generally like to eat sugar, and Frankie's consumption of white sugar after compulsory detoxification is also a manifestation of this symptom. In the drug addiction films after "The Man with the Golden Arm", the process of high is more stylized, and it is even less helpful than Frankie.
(Originally published in Movie World 2013.7)

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