Martin Scorsese' Mean Streets

The opening scene of Charlie waking up from the nightmare is filmed in an almost dark room except for the light coming through a venetian blind. The venetian blind is used extensively in film noir because of the different moods of the light and the play of shadows. Charlie’s face is caught in this shadow and chaiscuro lighting suggesting impending doom from the moment he wakes up. Charlie checks the mirror for reassurance, as cars and traffic can be heard in the background. Already one can tell that Mean Streets is set in the city during the mirror shot. A police siren can be heard creating a distubing off-screen space.

An 8mm intro of what seems to be family movies is shown and the first shot is of flashing police lights on a squad car. Showing that this is a dangerous life in the city, this is also depicted in the classic film noir genre and is often the main subject. At the end of the 8mm film “Mean Streets” is shown in blood red straight through the picture in the center, over shadowing the 8mm film.

Film noir was often low budget and used very simple camera shots. One of these is the use of deep focus which allows the viewer to track the character's different reactions even though a large amount of space is covered. Mean Streets contains this shot in the following scene. Tony has a tiger in the back room of his establishment charlie is in focus in the foreground and the other characters react to the tiger and jump into the background.

Film noir was filmed in the city and glorifies it, especially when it deals with New York. Charlie drives johnny and theresa into brooklyn, the cityscape can be seen by the lit buildings

Some topics in this essay:
Mean Streets, York City, Martin Scorsese, York Charlie, Naked City, Michael Scorsese's, film noir, mean streets, venetian blind, , film noir genre, classic film, 8mm intro, 8mm film, noir genre, classic film noir, bar johnny,