What makes a film noir?

What pops in your mind when you hear « film noir » ? Rain ? murders ? cigarettes ? shadows ? lipstick ? Guns ?

Farah Ben
4 min readMar 2, 2018

But what exactly is film noir ?

Hollywood’s classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. The genre owes it’s name to the French critics who, from 1946, noticed it’s dark atmosphere and dramatic themes. Like many movements in cinema, film noir was inspired by trends in literature; in this case, the hard-hitting, overtly sexual pulp detective stories of the 1930s.

At first produced as a stopgap, Films Noirs were unrecognized by most American film industry professionals. Retroactively popular and subversive, the genre reached it’s peak in 1950.

Here’s a YouTube video that explains the genre and it’s caracteristics:

Source: Youtube

RECURRING THEMES ET PHILOSOPHY OF FILM NOIR

Film noir consists always of a complex but still previsible plot.

Crime, usually murder, is an element of all films noir and jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. We witness the fall of a character, the degradation of his morals as he is forced from one bad situation on to the next. Adultery and sens of guilt are also very common.

On a philosophic perspective, it is worth noticing the impact of Existantialism on noir’s ethics and values. The protagonists are often marked by a heavy past which they drag as a burden. They are the result of their actions and cannot escape the fate.

THE AESTHETIC

German impressionism was a great influence to film noir. The movement covered many forms of art including cinema. It was made up of sharp angles, jagged shapes, dramatic shadows, harsh lighting and high contrasts using a monochromatic palette.

Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular, are the location of many of the classic films.

Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action.

In the popular imagination, in noir it is always night and it always rains.

Also, I am personnaly pretty impressed with the work that is done around smoke, whether it is from a cigarette, a manhole or the fog.

FILM NOIR’S CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES

There are many elements that made Film Noir what it was, from snappy dialog to femme fatale characters, but here is a non-exhaustive list that breaks down a few basic visual elements that are definitely quintessential film noir.

  • Unexpected camera angles:

For example, low angle shots are used to show which character is more powerful and to illustrate the shift in power trough out the film.

  • Lighting effects
  • Black and white images
  • Voice-Over

An omniscient, metaphor-spouting narrator frequently offers a subjective, jaded point of view.

  • Smoke
  • Flashbacks
  • Venetian blinds lighting

THE MAIN CHARACTERS

The detective AKA Private eye:

The private detective is a film noir character prototype, an iconic character in film noir. Depicted as a tough “hardboiled” guy, he is actually the romantic and sensitive touch of the movie as opposed to the Femme Fatale.

Indeed a guy who drinks too much, smokes too much and struggles under the weight of his cynicism.

He often looses the control of the situation before his eventual downfall. That downfall could be death or the loss of a close friend. The most important thing here is that what causes the fall of the protagonist is generally a women…

The Femme Fatale figure:

If she is beautiful and seductive, the femme fatale derives power, not weakness, from her sexuality. She wants control of her life.

In a male-dominated world (this is a maaaan’s wooorld), it’s interesting to notice that she wants more than the housewife and mother role so popularized in the post-War era.

Surprisingly, film noir was conceived, written, filmed, and produced by men, but still, they depicted an active, powerful and intelligent women. Not a static symbol.

#FEMINISM

Rita Hayworth as Gilda Mundson Farrell in Gilda (1946) AKA the ULTIMATE Femme Fatale.

Those main characters evolve alongside other archetypal characters such as corrupt policemen, jealous husbands etc.

Film Noir genre is still alive and relevant today thanks to organizations like Film Noir Fondation who are dedicated to finding, preserving and exhibiting film noir classics.

If you want to know more about Film Noir I HIGHLY suggest you to check out this funny and handy infographic by BFI.org .

Source : BFI Film forever

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