The History of Film Noir

Back at the start of term we were asked to do research into Film Noir, Here is what i found out.

Film Noir literally means “Black Film” in french and was first termed by a french film critic called Nino Frank in 1946. Film Noir was most prominent after world war II as it focused on anxiety and pessimism that the world war left behind. Most critics feel that Film Noir is more a mood or style of film rather than a genre, Film Noirs typically fall into the crime thriller genre. Film Noir was heavely influenced by French Poets, German expressionists and tough guy writers who created the style which was influenced by hard novels and real life. Film Noir's are typically small "B" movies rather than big blockbusters, with directers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Boris Ignster making classic Film Noir's.

Chracteristics of Film Noir
The primary moods of classic Film Noir were downhearted, loneliness, bleakness, confusion, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
Film Noirs usually involve crime and murder and a promiscuous woman. There is a “fall guy” a male character who is more morally flawed and more questionable than normal males such as hard-boiled detectives, private eyes and criminals.
There is a “femme fatale” this is a sexy promiscuous female which brings the fall guy or doomed hero into a situation involving murder or crime and she makes him do this via her sexuality. Film Noir films are mostly shot in grays, blacks and whites which shows the dark and inhumane side of human nature with pessimism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human nature, the characters are usually mysterious and not much is known about them, the locations are usually grim and dark and typically big cities like in LA Confidential. Locations are usual set in the dead of the night, with shadows, with alleys, with the back doors of fancy places, with apartment buildings (in cities such as LA, New York etc, giving a labyrinth type effect), with taxi drivers and bartenders who have seen it all. For example LA confidential is set in LA, in the 1960’s and shows the dark side of Hollywood and the conspiracies around it.