Sin City - Genre Conventions

 For the exam i will pick three conventions from Film Noir and three conventions from Comic book to analyse. I will the have to pick a scene for each genre convention.

Film Noir

Femme Fatale Character role - A femme fatale is a film noir genre convention. A femme fatale uses her body and her sexuality to "control" the male characters and get them to do what they (the woman) want.
This can be seen in the character Goldie/Wendy. Goldie can only be seen in one scene, where she is sleeping with Marv. She is using her body and her sexuality to get the Marv to do what she wants. She needs protection from Roark's men so she sleeps with Marv to gain protect from him.



Cynical Protagonist character role - Another film Noir genre convention is a Cynical protagonist. This is the main character (usually male) who doesn't his life and always sees the worst in the world and in them selves. They often have flaws and the use of a narrative voice over gives us a insight in to their mindset and reflects the real life situation that was happening at the time in the 1940's.
A example of this can be seen when Marv visits his social worker. Marv has just escaped the police, so he goes to see his social worker. While they are talking he takes several pills to help his control his mental state, one of his flaws, and he also says "Hell is waking up each day and not knowing why you're here". This shows that Marv is a cynical and looks on the bad side of things. This quote also refers to the cold war, which was happening when the original film noir genre was created, because the citizens of America were expecting nuclear bombs to drop at any moment.



High contrast , Low key lighting - High contrast and low key lighting are a major film noir contrast. The high contrast means that there is a big difference between the whites and the blacks in the frames.

A example of this is in the first scene where the assassin is standing on the balcony. This lighting style means that half and his face is in light and half of his face is in the dark. This means that us (as the audience) don't know if he is evil or whether he is good.

Comic Book 

Super human strength - Super human strength is a comic book convention which is often applied to the heroes or villains. This is a unnatural amount of strength that is impossible for normal people to possess.
A example of this is in Marv. Just after Goldie has been killed, a squad of police come after Marv to arrest him. He bursts through the doors and as he does, the door shatters into pieces. He then continues to beat up several police officers and then jumps down the stair and grabs the bannister half way down. He then throws himself over the bannister and carries on running. This shows that he possess superhuman strength as no normal person would be able to do.


Hero and nemesis - In the comic book genre, there is a Hero (the main Character) and a Villain (the heroes nemesis). The heroes objective is to vanquish the villain and save the city or the world. This genre has been applied into the film sin city. There are many heroes in Sin City and each one has a nemesis, who is their main villain. John Heartigan's nemesis is Roark junior.


High use of Special effects/Non- Diegetic sound -  Another convention is the use of special effects. Non - Diegetic sound is sound that is not in a scene of a film. This is often used fight scenes and action scenes to emphasise the damage and violence that is going on.
This can be seen in the scene where Marv is fighting Kevin. When Marv hits Kevin in the face a loud hitting sound is created when he makes contact. Usually it would not be that loud but in post production, the editors add a non - diegetic hitting sound to emphasise it.