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About Film Blanc |
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IntroductionWe're all familiar with Film Noir—those dark, brooding, cynical tales of intrigue, passion, betrayal, and revenge—great films like Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Somewhere in the Night, Kiss of Death, and Murder My Sweet . There are hundreds of them and they flourished from the post-World War II years through the 1950s. Do a web search for "film noir" and get scores of results; the field is well documented. Peter ValentiThis site exists to recognize those films that represent the opposite in style and values of Film Noir, and some have described that category as Film Blanc, or "white film". Film authority Glenn Erickson, on his DVD Savant site, reports that he first encountered the term in Film Comment magazine in about 1975. I have not yet been able to locate that source, however Peter Valenti, PhD, was certainly one of the first to coin the term in his 1978 article in the Journal of Popular Film, "The “Film Blanc”: Suggestions for a Variety of Fantasy, 1940-45", reprinted here by permisssion. Andrew SarrisValenti's term was acknowledged and reinforced by Andrew Sarris, in a 1979 American Film article, "The Afterlife, Hollywood-style", where he said, "For these sunnier excursions into the extraterrestrial, the term 'film blanc' was coined by Peter L. Valenti in a recent issue of the Journal of Popular Film. ... Valenti proposes a 'scenario' for the film blanc: '(1) a mortal's death or lapse into a dream; (2) subsequent acquaintance with a kindly representative of the world beyond; (3) a budding love affair; (4) ultimate transcendence of mortality to escape the spiritual world and return to the mortal world." Sarris referred to the success, that year, of Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait, saying, "(It) is only the latest incarnation of what decades ago was a virtual genre; characters caught in a realm between life and death. The films were marked by wit and style—and a tendency to reveal more about the here and now than the there and after." He discussed the critical reaction to films blanc, "For the most part, however, critics and historians managed to sidestep the issue of death itself by focusing on the aesthetic quality of the fantasy. What was therefore at issue was not the widespread belief in some form of afterlife, but the appropriateness and accuracy of the 'Hollywood' version of this afterlife. ... It would seem that there is a great risk in any form of fantasy on the screen but that the emotional rewards are considerable when the fantasy is rendered with wit, grace and feeling. Even supposed critical failures like Peter Ibbetson and The Ghost Goes West linger in our minds longer than the more solemn realists and purists of the medium decree that they should." Sarris concluded his piece with the observation, "Currently the film blanc is in eclipse, Warren Beatty notwithstanding, as demographic emphasis is on ever scarier horror shows festooned with pseudoscientific claptrap and a corrosively apocalyptic cynicism. There is no place in the genre for the civilized charm of Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, the romantic intensity of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, or—and we can be grateful for this—the false piety of the funeral parlor." (The "eclipse" of film blanc in 1979 was certainly true, however, as the chronology of films blanc on this site shows, they were soon to return to a level comparable to the 1940s - ed.) Other WritersIn her book,Giving Up the Ghost: Spirits, Ghosts and Angels in Mainstream Comedy Films (1998, Wayne State University Press), Katherine A. Fowkes states, "Peter Valenti coined the term 'film blanc' to describe some of the ghost films of the 1930s and 1940s. Contrasting these films to film noir, Valenti argues that these sentimental ghost films became popular during World War II because they provided reassurance that deceased loved ones were going to a better place and that they were dying for a higher cause." In In Glorious Technicolor (2011, Chatto & Windus, London), author Francine Stock noted, "The afterlife is a popular location for 1940s cinema, so well visited in fact , that in the 1970s critic Peter L. Valenti coined the term film blanc for what he identified as a sub-genre." Stock cites It's a Wonderful Life, Between Two Worlds and A Guy Named Joe as notable examples of film blanc titles, and offers that "The greatest film blanc, of al, however, has to be Powell and Pressburger's masterpiece, A Matter of Life and Death (1946)... ." AllMovieThe Film Glossary on AllMovie offers a definition: Made in direct contrast to film noir, film blanc -- literally white film -- most often depicts some aspect of the afterlife and promulgates the idea that earth is not as bad as people make it out to be. These films were quite popular in the late 1940s, post World War II, and have occasional resurgencies during times of renewed hope. Most often these films are comedic in orientation. "Its a Wonderful Life" (1946) is perhaps one of the best known examples of film blanc and "Heaven Can Wait" (1979) and "Always" (1989) are recent entries into this film category. SummaryIn any event, the field is not highly documented and the term, while apt, is not widely used. That is the purpose of this site - to identify and describe those motion pictures that fall under this category. Film Blanc is not a genre; indeed, many genres can be found within it. Film Blanc movies typically involve themes of the afterlife, Heaven and angels, Hell and the devil, reincarnation, time travel and magic, as well as romantic love—and the stories are often presented whimsically and lighthearted. And with a strong sense of life affirming optimism, unlike the cynical pessimism of Film Noir. The subtitle on this site, "The Cinema of Feel-Good Fantasies" refers to two other qualities of Film Blanc—successful ones leave the viewer with a sometimes teary and almost indefinable state of "good feeling"; virtually all have strong fantasy elements, again in contrast to the dreary realism of Film Noir. Another term that is relevant to many of the themes of Film Blanc movies is "spirituality" in the broad, not necessarily religious, sense of the word. Stephen Simon who produced two of the films found on this site, Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, and who founded the Spirtual Cinema Circle, wrote about the subject in his book, The Force Is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives. One of his main criteria in defining spiritual cinema is helpful to describing Film Blanc, "...films that make you feel good about being human." As in Film Noir, designating a film as a Blanc is often subjective. While many of the titles here meet all or most of the criteria for such designation, some are only marginally Blanc, but contain sufficient fantasy elements and "feel-good" qualities to warrant inclusion. This site is a work in progress, and I am adding new titles regularly. If you have a favorite Film Blanc movie that should be included here, drop me an email.
Bill Shepard |
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