Drive and Noir

in the clip show we see driver sat round his friend standards dinner table with his wife irene and son. immediately we see low key lighting and shadows across drivers face in a slight low angle shot. it then cuts to a mid shot of irene with half her face in shadow. it is key that we see driver like this as it tells us that he is the protagonist but also does bad things. standard is telling the story of how he met his wife to his son, all the time we hear a non diegetic sinister score which builds tension and adds an uneasy feel to the scene. the next convention we see is the femme fatale Blanch as she is introduced with "she is beautiful" by the character Cook. we then get a mid shot of her sat down smoking a cigarette, typical noir mise en scene. also she has red hair and red lips; this shows her as very seductive and also dangerous. as the robbery is about to take place we see Standard walk past the side of the building to the door of the pawn shop, this is done with a long tracking shot of him passing the windows where neon signs can be seen; this being another convention. when the camera cuts back to Driver in the car we then get a shot reverse shot of a car entering and parking near by.  when it cuts back to the mid shot of driver he begins to look nervouse. at this point the music begins to fade, once again creating unease and we see that driver is looking over at the car now with a sense of paranoia.

    After the robbery and standard being shot , driver and blanch are in a very dimly lit motel room. the narrative shifts to mistrust and paranoia when driver see on the news that the owner of the store said that standard had acted alone and there was no money taken. he realises that blanch is working for someone else. the camera stays level with blanch as driver stands up tightening his fists. theres a cut to a high angle over shoulder shot when driver hits blanch and jumps on top  of her. we now see the dark side to driver, like in noir where the protagonist does bad things, driver threatens her by holding her down by the throat and raising his hand to her. it is now apparent that blanch had used him and knew that standard was going to die, although she did not sleep with either of them. As blanch enters the bathroom to make a phone call there is a long shot of her from behind allowing us to see the shadows/ light coming through the venetian blinds; again adhering to noir.