Film Noir

Film noir is a Cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood Crime Dramas , particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a Low-key Black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist Cinematography , while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the Hardboiled school of Crime Fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression .

The term ''film noir'' (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the era. Cinema historians and critics defined the canon of film noir in retrospect; many of those involved in the making of the classic noirs later professed to be unaware of having created a distinctive type of film.

NOIR—WHAT IS IT?

'' described how the "moods and tensions" in the British private-eye parody '' Pulp '' came "out of the collective depths of the film ''noir''"—the phrase's first appearance in the paper. It was February 1973.Greenspun (1973), p. 32.]]
"We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noir Oneiric , strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel...."Borde and Chaumeton (2002), p. 2. This is the first of many attempts to define film noir made by the French critics Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton in their 1955 book ''Panorama du film noir américain 1941–1953'' (''A Panorama of American Film Noir''), the original and seminal extended treatment of the subject. They take pains to point out that not each film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—this one is more dreamlike, while this other is particularly brutal. The authors' caveats and repeated efforts at alternative definition have proved telling about noir's reliability as a label: in the five decades since, no definition has achieved anything close to general acceptance. The authors of most substantial considerations of film noir still find it necessary to add on to what are now innumerable attempts at definition. As Borde and Chaumeton suggest, however, the field of noir is very diverse and any generalization about it risks veering into oversimplification.

Film noirs embrace a variety of Genre s, from the gangster film to the Police Procedural to the so-called Social Problem Picture , and evidence a variety of visual approaches, from meat-and-potatoes Hollywood mainstream to outré. While many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Though noir is often associated with an urban setting, for example, many classic noirs take place mainly in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road, so setting can not be its genre determinant, as with the Western . Similarly, while the Private Eye and the Femme Fatale are character types conventionally identified with noir, the majority of film noirs feature neither, so there is no character basis for genre designation as with the gangster film. Nor does it rely on anything as evident as the monstrous or supernatural elements of the Horror Film , the speculative leaps of the Science Fiction Film , or the song-and-dance routines of the Musical .

A more analogous case is that of the Screwball Comedy , widely accepted by film historians as constituting a "genre"—the screwball is defined not by a fundamental attribute, but by a general disposition and a group of elements, some (but rarely and perhaps never all) of which are found in each of the genre's films.See Dancyger and Rush (2002), p. 68, for a detailed comparison of screwball comedy and film noir. However, because of the diversity of noir (much greater than that of the screwball comedy), certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a "style." Alain Silver , the most widely published American critic specializing in film noir studies, refers to it as a "cycle" and a "phenomenon," even as he argues that it has—like certain genres—a consistent set of visual and thematic codes. Other critics treat film noir as a "mood," a "movement," or a "series," or simply address a chosen set of movies from the "period." There is no consensus on the matter.

THE PREHISTORY OF NOIR

Film noir has sources not only in cinema but other artistic media as well. The Low-key Lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode are in the tradition of Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism , techniques using high contrasts of light and dark developed by 15th- and 16th-century painters associated with Mannerism and the Baroque . Film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism , a cinematic movement of the 1910s and 1920s closely related to contemporaneous developments in theater, photography, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and, later, the threat of growing Nazi power led to the emigration of many important film artists working in Germany who had either been directly involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners. Directors such as Fritz Lang , Robert Siodmak , and Michael Curtiz brought dramatic lighting techniques and a psychologically expressive approach to Mise-en-scène with them to Hollywood, where they would make some of the most famous of classic noirs. Lang's 1931 masterwork, the German '' M '', is among the first major crime films of the Sound Era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, one in which the Protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). ''M'' was also the occasion for the first star performance by Peter Lorre , who would go on to act in several formative American noirs of the classic era.

, Marlene Dietrich , complete with noir-regulation cigarette, in a publicity shot for Josef Von Sternberg 's mordant melodrama '' Der Blaue Engel '' (''The Blue Angel''; 1930).]]

By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, making as many as six films a year. Movies of his such as ''20,000 Years in Sing Sing'' (1932) and ''Private Detective 62'' (1933) are among the early Hollywood sound films arguably classifiable as noir. Giving Expressionist-affiliated moviemakers particularly free stylistic rein were Universal horror pictures such as '' Dracula '' (1931), '' The Mummy '' (1932)—the former Photographed and the latter directed by the Berlin-trained Karl Freund —and '' The Black Cat '' (1934), directed by Austrian émigré Edgar G. Ulmer . The Universal horror that comes closest to noir, both in story and sensibility, however, is '' The Invisible Man '' (1933), directed by Englishman James Whale and shot by American Carl Laemmle Jr.

The Vienna-born but largely American-raised Josef Von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as '' Shanghai Express '' (1932) and '' The Devil Is A Woman '' (1935), with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, specifically anticipate central elements of classic noir. The commercial and critical success of Sternberg's silent '' Underworld '' in 1927 was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Popular movies in the genre such as '' Little Caesar '' (1931), '' The Public Enemy '' (1931), and '' Scarface '' (1932) demonstrated that there was an audience for crime dramas with morally reprehensible protagonists.

An important, and possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French Poetic Realism , with its romantic, Fatalistic attitude and celebration of doomed heroes; an acknowledged influence on certain trends in noir was 1940s Italian Neorealism , with its emphasis on quasi-documentary authenticity. (The Warner Bros. drama '' I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang '' {Link without Title} presciently combines these sensibilities.) Director Jules Dassin of '' The Naked City '' (1948) pointed to the neorealists as inspiring his use of on-location photography with nonprofessional extras; three years earlier, '' The House On 92nd Street '', directed by Henry Hathaway , demonstrated the parallel influence of the cinematic newsreel. A few movies now considered noir strove to depict comparatively ordinary protagonists with unspectacular lives in a manner occasionally evocative of neorealism—the most famous example is '' The Lost Weekend '' (1945), directed by Billy Wilder , yet another Vienna-born, Berlin-trained American Auteur . (In turn, one of the primary influences on neorealism was the 1930 German film ''Menschen am Sonntag'', codirected and cowritten by Siodmak, cowritten by Wilder, and codirected and produced by Ulmer.) Among those movies not themselves considered film noirs, perhaps none had a greater effect on the development of the genre than America's own '' Citizen Kane '' (1941), the landmark motion picture directed by Orson Welles . Its Sternbergian visual intricacy and complex, Voiceover -driven narrative structure are echoed in dozens of classic film noirs.

"The Simple Art of Murder"

'' featured the first appearance of the detective character whom
The primary literary influence on film noir was the Hardboiled school of American Detective and Crime Fiction , led in its early years by such writers as Dashiell Hammett (whose first novel, '' Red Harvest '', was published in 1929) and James M. Cain (whose '' The Postman Always Rings Twice '' appeared five years later), and popularized in Pulp Magazine s such as '' Black Mask ''. The classic film noirs '' The Maltese Falcon '' (1941) and '' The Glass Key '' (1942) were based on novels by Hammett; Cain's novels provided the basis for '' Double Indemnity '' (1944), '' Mildred Pierce '' (1945), '' The Postman Always Rings Twice '' (1946), and '' Slightly Scarlet '' (1956; adapted from ''Love's Lovely Counterfeit''). A decade before the classic era, a story of Hammett's was the source for the gangster melodrama ''City Streets'' (1931), directed by Rouben Mamoulian and photographed by Lee Garmes , who worked regularly with Sternberg. Wedding a style and story both with many noir characteristics, released the month before Lang's ''M'', ''City Streets'' has a claim to being the first major film noir.

'' (1946), '' Deadline At Dawn '' (1946), and '' Fear In The Night '' (1947).

A crucial literary source for film noir, now often overlooked, was '' (1941), '' This Gun For Hire '' (1942), and '' The Asphalt Jungle '' (1950).

THE CLASSIC PERIOD

The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. While ''City Streets'' and other pre-WWII crime melodramas such as '' Fury '' (1936) and '' You Only Live Once '' (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are considered full-fledged noir by some critics, most categorize them as "proto-noir" or in similar terms. The movie now most commonly cited as the first "true" film noir is '' Stranger On The Third Floor '' (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trained Boris Ingster.See, e.g., Lyons (2000), p. 36 ("RKO is usually cited as having produced the first true film noir, ''Stranger on the Third Floor''); Server (1998), p. 158 ("Often credited as the 'first' film noir"); Porfirio (1980), p. 269 ("the first true film noir"). Hungarian émigré Peter Lorre , who played Secondary Roles in bigger-budgeted movies, was top-billed, though here too he did not play the lead. ''Stranger on the Third Floor'' was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades. Indeed, even though modestly budgeted—at the high end of the B Movie scale—it still lost its studio, RKO , $56,000, almost a third of its total cost.Biesen (2005), p. 33. '' Variety '' found Ingster's work "too studied and when original, lacks the flare to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others."''Variety'' (1940).
'' (1947) features many of the genre's hallmarks: a cynical private detective as the protagonist, a Femme Fatale , multiple Flashback s with Voiceover narration, dramatic Chiaroscuro photography, and a Fatalistic mood leavened with provocative banter. The film stars noir icon Robert Mitchum .]]
Most of the film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly budgeted features without major stars (B movies either literally or in spirit), in which writers, directors, cinematographers, and other craftsmen found themselves relatively free from the typical big-picture constraints. Enforcement of the Production Code ensured that no movie character could literally get away with murder or be seen sharing a bed with anyone but a spouse; within those bounds, however, many films now identified as noir feature plot elements and dialogue that were—in some cases, still are—quite risqué. Thematically, film noirs as a group were most exceptional for the relative frequency with which they centered on women of questionable virtue—a focus that had become rare in Hollywood films after the mid-1930s and the end of the Pre-Code era. The signal movie in this vein was '' Double Indemnity '' (1944), directed by Billy Wilder; setting the mold was Barbara Stanwyck 's unforgettable Femme Fatale , Phyllis Dietrichson—an apparent nod to Marlene Dietrich , who had built her extraordinary career playing such characters for Sternberg. An A-level feature all the way, the movie's commercial success and seven Oscar nominations made it probably the most influential of the early noirs. A slew of now-renowned noir " Bad Girls " would follow, such as those played by Rita Hayworth in '' Gilda '' (1946), Lana Turner in '' The Postman Always Rings Twice '' (1946), Ava Gardner in '' The Killers '' (1946), and Jane Greer in '' Out Of The Past '' (1947). The iconic noir counterpart to the femme fatale, the private eye, came to the fore in movies such as '' The Maltese Falcon '' (1941), with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade , and '' Murder, My Sweet '' (1944), with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe . Other seminal noir sleuths served larger institutions, such as Dana Andrews 's police detective in '' Laura '' (1944), Edmond O'Brien 's insurance investigator in ''The Killers'', and Edward G. Robinson 's government agent in '' The Stranger '' (1946).

Many claim that there is a significant distinction between the noirs of the 1940s and those of the 1950s—other than the relative disappearance of the private eye as a lead character there is no consensus on how that distinction manifests, but it often comes down to a view that the later classic noirs tend to be more "extreme" in one way or another. A prime example is '' Kiss Me Deadly '' (1955). Based on a novel by Mickey Spillane , the best-selling of all the hardboiled authors, here the protagonist is a private eye, Mike Hammer . As described by Paul Schrader , " Robert Aldrich 's teasing direction carries ''noir'' to its sleaziest and most perversely erotic. Hammer overturns the underworld in search of the 'great whatsit'... {Link without Title} turns out to be—joke of jokes—an exploding atomic bomb."Schrader (1972), p. 61. Orson Welles's baroquely styled '' Touch Of Evil '' (1958) is frequently cited as the last noir of the classic period. Some scholars believe film noir never really ended, but continued to transform even as the characteristic noir visual style began to seem dated and changing production conditions led Hollywood in different directions—in this view, post-1950s films in the noir tradition are seen as part of a continuity with classic noir. A majority of critics, however, regard comparable movies made outside the classic era to be something other than genuine film noirs. They regard true film noir as belonging to a temporally and geographically limited cycle or period, treating subsequent films that evoke the classics as fundamentally different due to general shifts in moviemaking style and latter-day awareness of noir as a historical source for Allusion .

During these two decades in which noir is now seen as flourishing, conventional A films, however emotionally tortuous, were ultimately expected to convey positive, reassuring messages; in terms of style, invisible camerawork and Editing techniques, flattering soft lighting schemes, and deluxely trimmed sets were the rule. The makers of film noir turned all this on its head, creating sophisticated, sometimes bleak dramas tinged with mistrust, cynicism, and a sense of the Absurd , in settings that were frequently either real-life urban or budget-saving minimalist, with often strikingly expressionist lighting and unsettling techniques such as wildly skewed camera angles and convoluted flashbacks. The noir style gradually influenced the mainstream—even beyond Hollywood.

Directors and the business of noir

'' (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray based on a novel by Noir Fiction writer Dorothy B. Hughes . Two of noir's defining actors, Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart , portray star-crossed lovers in the film.]]
While the inceptive noir, ''Stranger on the Third Floor'', was a B picture directed by a virtual unknown, many of the films that have earned enduring fame were A-list productions by name-brand directors. Debuting as a director with '''' (1943), '' Notorious '' (1946), '' Strangers On A Train '' (1951), and '' The Wrong Man '' (1956). Otto Preminger 's success with ''Laura'' made his name and helped establish 20th Century-Fox 's reputation for well-appointed A noirs. Among Hollywood's most celebrated directors of the era, arguably none worked more often in a noir mode than Preminger—his other classic noirs include '' Fallen Angel '' (1945), '' Whirlpool '' (1949), '' Where The Sidewalk Ends '' (1950) (all for Fox) and '' Angel Face '' (1952). A half-decade after ''Double Indemnity'' and ''The Lost Weekend'', Billy Wilder made '' Sunset Boulevard '' (1950) and '' Ace In The Hole '' (1951), noirs that weren't so much crime dramas as satires on, respectively, Hollywood and the news media. '' In A Lonely Place '' (1950) was Nicholas Ray 's breakthrough; his other noirs include his debut, '' They Live By Night '' (1948), and '' On Dangerous Ground '' (1952).

Orson Welles had notorious problems with financing, but his three film noirs were reasonably well budgeted: '''' (1947) and the influential documentary-style ''Naked City'' were developed by producer Mark Hellinger , who had an "inside/outside" contract with Universal similar to Wanger's.Schatz (1998), pp. 354–358. Years earlier, working at Warner Bros., Hellinger had produced three films for Raoul Walsh , the proto-noirs '' They Drive By Night '' (1940) and ''Manpower'' (1941) and the recognized classic '' High Sierra '' (1941). Walsh had no great name recognition during his half-century as a working director, but his noirs—'' White Heat '' (1949) and '' The Enforcer '' (1951) would follow—had A-list stars and were of consistently high quality. In addition to the aforementioned, other directors associated with top-of-the-bill Hollywood film noirs include Edward Dmytryk ('' Murder, My Sweet '' '' Crossfire '' [1947 ), the first important noir director to fall prey to the Industry Blacklist , as well as Henry Hathaway ('' The Dark Corner '' '' Kiss Of Death '' [1947 ) and John Farrow ('' The Big Clock '' '' His Kind Of Woman '' [1951 ).

But again, as suggested above, most of the Hollywood films now considered classic noirs fall into the broad category of the "B movie."See Naremore (1998), pp. 140–55, on "B Pictures versus Intermediates." Some were Bs in the most precise sense, produced to run on the bottom of Double Bills by a low-budget unit of one of the Major Studios or by one of the smaller, so-called Poverty Row outfits, from the relatively well-off Monogram to shakier ventures such as Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) . Jacques Tourneur had made over thirty Hollywood Bs (a few now highly regarded, most completely forgotten) before directing the A-level ''Out of the Past'', considered by some critics the pinnacle of classic noir. Movies with budgets a step up the ladder, known as "intermediates" within the industry, might be treated as A or B pictures depending on the circumstance—Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists , in the late 1940s to focus on this sort of production. Such films have long colloquially been referred to as B movies. Robert Wise ('' Born To Kill '' '' The Set-Up '' [1949 ) and Anthony Mann ('' T-Men '' '' Raw Deal '' [1948 ) each made a series of impressive intermediates, many of them noirs, before graduating to steady work on big-budget productions. Mann did some of his finest work with cinematographer John Alton , a specialist in what critic James Naremore describes as "hypnotic moments of light-in-darkness."Naremore (1998), p. 173. '' He Walked By Night '' (1948), shot by Alton and, though credited solely to Alfred Werker, directed in large part by Mann, demonstrates their technical mastery and exemplifies the late 1940s trend of " Police Procedural " crime dramas. Put out, like other Mann–Alton noirs, by the small Eagle-Lion company, it was the direct inspiration for the '' Dragnet '' series, which debuted on radio in 1949 and television in 1951.
'' (1945) cost $117,000 to make when the biggest Hollywood studios spent around $600,000 on the average feature. But the accountants at small PRC weren't happy—it was 30% ''over'' budget.]]
Directors such as Samuel Fuller ('' Pickup On South Street '' ''Underworld U.S.A.'' [1961 ), Joseph H. Lewis ('' Gun Crazy '' '' The Big Combo '' [1955 ), and Phil Karlson ('' Kansas City Confidential '' ''The Brothers Rico'' [1957 ) built now well-respected oeuvres largely at the B-movie/intermediate level. ( Dalton Trumbo —like Dmytryk, one of the Hollywood Ten —wrote the ''Gun Crazy'' screenplay disguised by a front while still blacklisted.) The work of others such as Felix E. Feist ('' The Devil Thumbs A Ride '' ''Tomorrow Is Another Day'' [1951 ) await critical rediscovery. Edgar G. Ulmer spent almost his entire Hollywood career working at B studios—once in a while on projects that achieved intermediate status; for the most part, on unmistakable Bs. In 1945, while at PRC, he directed one of the all-time noir cult classics, '' Detour ''. Ulmer's other noirs include ''Strange Illusion'' (1945), also for PRC; ''Blonde Ice'' (1948), distributed by tiny Film Classics; and ''Murder Is My Beat'' (1955), for Allied Artists.

A number of low and modestly budgeted noirs were made by independent, often actor-owned, companies contracting with one of the larger outfits for distribution. Serving as producer, writer, director, and "star," '' (1948), directed by Abraham Polonsky and starring John Garfield , both of whom would be blacklisted in the 1950s. Independent production usually meant restricted circumstances, but not always—''Sweet Smell of Success'', for instance, despite the original plans of the production team, was clearly not made on the cheap, though like many other cherished A-budget noirs it might be said to have a B-movie soul.

Perhaps no director better displayed that spirit than the German-born , playing the most understandable of femme fatales, Dan Duryea , in one of his deliciously charismatic villain roles, and Lancaster—already an established star—as an ordinary joe turned armed robber, a romantic obsessive on a one-way road to ruin.

FILM NOIR OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

Some critics regard classic film noir as a cycle exclusive to the United States; e.g., Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward: "With the Western, film noir shares the distinction of being an indigenous American form...a wholly American film style."Silver and Ward (1992), p. 1. Others, however, regard noir as an international phenomenon.See Palmer (2004), pp. 267–268, for a representative discussion of film noir as an international phenomenon. Even before the beginning of the generally accepted classic period, there were movies made far from Hollywood that can be seen in retrospect as film noirs, for example, the French productions '' Pépé Le Moko '' (1937), directed by Jules Duvivier, and '' Le Jour Se Lève '' (1939), directed by Marcel Carné .

in Louis Malle 's '' Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud '' (''Elevator to the Gallows''; 1958). The film features one of the most acclaimed of all noir Scores , composed and performed by jazz musician Miles Davis .]]

During the classic period, there were many films produced outside the United States, particularly in France, that share elements of style, theme, and sensibility with American film noirs and may themselves be included in the genre's canon. In certain cases, the interrelationship with Hollywood noir is obvious: American-born director Jules Dassin moved to France in the early 1950s as a result of the Hollywood Blacklist , and made one of the most famous French film noirs, '' Rififi '' (1955). Other well-known French films often classified as noir include '' Quai Des Orfèvres '' (1947), '' Le Salaire De La Peur '' (released in English-speaking countries as ''The Wages of Fear'') (1953) and '' Les Diaboliques '' (1955), all directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot ; '' Casque D'or '' (1952) and '' Touchez Pas Au Grisbi '' (1954), both directed by Jacques Becker ; and '' Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud '' (1958), directed by Louis Malle . French director Jean-Pierre Melville is widely recognized for his tragic, minimalist film noirs—''Quand tu liras cette lettre'' (1953) and '' Bob Le Flambeur '' (1955), from the classic period, were followed by '' Le Doulos '' (1962), '' Le Samouraï '' (1967), and '' Le Cercle Rouge '' (1970).

A number of thrillers produced in Great Britain during the classic period are also frequently referred to as film noirs, including '''' (1950), though it was conceived in the United States and was not only directed by an American but also stars two American actors ( Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney ), is technically a UK production, financed by 20th Century-Fox 's British subsidiary. The most famous of classic British noirs is director Carol Reed 's '' The Third Man '' (1949), like ''Brighton Rock'' based on a Graham Greene novel. Set in Vienna immediately after World War II, it stars Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles , both prominent American actors who starred in U.S. film noirs; despite being a completely British production, the movie is sometimes discussed as if it is a classic Hollywood noir.

Elsewhere, Italian director Luchino Visconti adapted Cain's ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'' as '' Ossessione '' (1943), regarded both as one of the great noirs and a seminal film in the development of neorealism. (This was not even the first screen version of Cain's novel, having been preceded by the French ''Le Dernier tournant'' in 1939.) In Japan, the celebrated Akira Kurosawa directed several movies recognizable as film noirs, including '' Drunken Angel '' (1948), '' Stray Dog '' (1949), and '' High And Low '' (1963).

Among the first major neo-noir films—the term often applied to movies that consciously refer back to the classic noir tradition—was the French '' Tirez Sur La Pianiste '' (1960), directed by François Truffaut from a novel by one of the gloomiest of American noir fiction writers, David Goodis . Noir crime films and melodramas have been produced in many countries in the post-classic area, some of them quintessentially self-aware neo-noirs—for example, '' Il Conformista '' (1969; Italy), '' Der Amerikanische Freund '' (1977; Germany), '' The Element Of Crime '' (1984; Denmark), '' As Tears Go By '' (1988; Hong Kong)—others simply sharing narrative elements and a version of the hardboiled sensibility associated with classic noir—'' The Castle Of Sand '' (1974; Japan), '' Insomnia '' (1997; Norway), '' Croupier '' (1998; UK), '' Blind Shaft '' (2003; China).

NEO-NOIR AND ECHOES OF THE CLASSIC MODE

The 1960s and 1970s

While it is hard to draw a line between some of the noir films of the early 1960s such as ''Blast of Silence'' (1961) and '' Cape Fear '' (1962) and the noirs of the late 1950s, new trends emerged in the post-classic era. '' The Manchurian Candidate '' (1962), directed by John Frankenheimer , '' Shock Corridor '' (1962), directed by Samuel Fuller, and '' Brainstorm '' (1965), directed by experienced noir character actor William Conrad , all treat the theme of mental dispossession within stylistic and tonal frameworks derived from classic film noir.

In a different vein, filmmakers such as Arthur Penn (''Mickey One'' clearly drawing inspiration from Truffaut's ''Tirez sur la pianiste'' and other French New Wave films), John Boorman ('' Point Blank '' [1967 , similarly caught up, though in the '' Nouvelle Vague' ''s deeper waters), and Alan J. Pakula ('' Klute '' [1971]) directed movies that knowingly related themselves to the original film noirs, inviting audiences in on the game. Conscious acknowledgment of the classic era's conventions, as historical Archetypes to be revived, rejected, or reimagined, is what puts the "neo" in neo-noir, according to many critics. Though several late classic noirs, ''Kiss Me Deadly'' in particular, were entirely self-knowing and post-traditional in conception, none that were top- or midbudgeted (like Aldrich 's masterpiece) tipped its hand in a way noticeable to most audiences of the time. The first broadly popular crime drama of an unmistakabe neo-noir nature was not a movie, but the TV series '' Peter Gunn '' (1958–61), created by Blake Edwards .

does his best Bogey in '' À Bout De Souffle '' (''Breathless''; 1960), written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard from a story by François Truffaut .]]

A manifest affiliation with noir traditions—which, by its nature, allows for different sorts of commentary on them to be inferred—can also provide the basis for explicit critiques of those traditions. The first major film to work this angle (that might be thought of as the most "neo" of "neo") was French director and morality. Where Altman's subversion of the film noir mythos was so irreverent as to anger many contemporary critics, around the same time Woody Allen was paying affectionate, at points idolatrous homage to the classic mode with '' Play It Again, Sam '' (1972).

The most acclaimed of the neo-noirs of the era was director '' (1974–75), featuring a Chicago newspaper reporter investigating strange, usually supernatural occurrences.

The 1980s through the present

as Catherine Tramell, a femme fatale for the 1990s—and the ages—in the smash box-office hit '' Basic Instinct '' (1992). She is seen here under interrogation, preparing to open up.]]
The turn of the decade brought Scorsese's black-and-white '' Raging Bull '' (cowritten by Schrader); an acknowledged masterpiece—often voted the greatest film of the 1980s in critics' polls—it is also a retreat, telling a story of a boxer's moral self-destruction that recalls in both theme and visual ambience noir dramas such as '' Body And Soul '' (1947) and '' Champion '' (1949). From 1981, the popular '' Body Heat '', written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan , invokes a different set of classic noir elements, this time in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting; its success confirmed the commercial viability of neo-noir, at a time when the major Hollywood studios were becoming increasingly risk averse. The mainstreaming of neo-noir is evident in such films as '' Black Widow '' (1987), '' Shattered '' (1991), and '' Final Analysis '' (1992). Few neo-noirs have made more money or more wittily updated the tradition of the noir double-entendre than '' Basic Instinct '' (1992), directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas . Over the past twenty-five years, the big-budget auteur to work most frequently in a neo-noir mode has been Michael Mann , with the films '' Thief '' (1981), '' Heat '' (1995), and '' Collateral '' (2004), and the 1980s TV series '' Miami Vice '' and '' Crime Story ''. Mann's output exemplifies a primary strain of neo-noir, in which classic themes and tropes are revisited in a contemporary setting with an up-to-date visual style and Rock - or Hip Hop –based musical Soundtrack . Like ''Chinatown'', its more complex predecessor, Curtis Hanson 's Oscar-winning '' L.A. Confidential '' (1997), based on the James Ellroy novel, demonstrates an opposite tendency—the deliberately retro film noir; its tale of corrupt cops and femme fatales is seemingly lifted straight from a movie of 1953, the year in which it is set.

Working generally with much smaller budgets, brothers Joel And Ethan Coen have created one of the most substantial film oeuvres influenced by classic noir, with movies such as '' Blood Simple '' (1984) and '' Fargo '' (1996), considered by some a supreme work in the neo-noir mode. The Coens' most recent nod to the noir tradition is '' The Man Who Wasn't There '' (2001); a black-and-white crime melodrama set in 1949, it features a scene apparently staged to mirror the one from ''Out of the Past'' pictured above. The Coens cross noir with other generic lines in the gangster drama '' Miller's Crossing '' (1990)—loosely based on the Dashiell Hammett novels ''Red Harvest'' and '' The Glass Key ''—and the comedy '' The Big Lebowski '' (1998), a tribute to Chandler and an homage to Altman's version of ''The Long Goodbye''.

Perhaps no contemporary films better reflect the classic noir A-movie-with-a-B-movie-soul than those of director-writer '' (1990), from ''Hell Hath No Fury'', by Charles Williams ; '' Miami Blues '' (1990), from the novel by Charles Willeford ; and '' Out Of Sight '' (1998), from the novel by Elmore Leonard . On television, the series '' Moonlighting '' (1985–89) paid homage to classic noir while demonstrating an unusual appreciation of the sense of humor often found in the original cycle. Between 1983 and 1989, Mickey Spillane 's hardboiled private eye Mike Hammer was played with wry gusto by Stacy Keach in a Series and several stand-alone TV movies (an unsuccessful revival followed in 1997–98). The British miniseries '' The Singing Detective '' (1986), written by Dennis Potter , tells the story of a mystery writer named Philip Marlow; widely considered one of the finest neo-noirs in any medium, some critics cite it as the greatest television production of all time.

in '' Brick '' (2005). The movie's characters, most of them high-school students, speak as if they learned English from Hammett and Chandler.]]
Among the leading Hollywood directors of noir during the current decade has been the British-born Christopher Nolan , with the fantastically twisted '' Memento '' (2000), the remake of '' Insomnia '' (2002), and '' Batman Begins '' (2005), his dark-toned take on the superhero. '' Harsh Times '' (2006) is written and directed by David Ayer , also the screenwriter for '' Training Day '' (2001) and, adapting a story by James Ellroy, '' Dark Blue '' (2002). The latter two update the classic noir bad-cop tale, typified by ''Shield for Murder'' (1954) and ''Rogue Cop'' (1954). In 2005, Shane Black directed '' Kiss Kiss Bang Bang '', basing his screenplay in part on a crime novel by Brett Halliday , who published his first stories back in the 1920s. The film plays with an awareness not only of classic noir but also of neo-noir reflexivity itself, making it a model neo&²-noir. Director Sean Penn 's '' The Pledge '' (2001), though adapted from a very self-reflexive novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt , plays noir comparatively straight, to devastating effect. The most commercially successful of recent neo-noirs is '' Sin City '' (2005), directed by Robert Rodriguez in extravagantly stylized black and white with the odd bit of color. The film is based on a series of comic books created by Frank Miller (credited as the movie's codirector), which are in turn openly indebted to the works of Spillane and other pulp mystery authors. Similarly, Graphic Novels provide the basis for '' Road To Perdition '' (2002), directed by Sam Mendes , and '' A History Of Violence '' (2005), directed by David Cronenberg ; the latter, according to many critics, is the neo-noir of the decade. Writer-director Rian Johnson 's '' Brick '' (2005), featuring present-day high schoolers speaking a version of 1930s hardboiled argot, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival . The television series '' Veronica Mars '' (2004–7) also brought a youth-oriented twist to film noir.

Psycho-noir

, sings the title song in David Lynch ’s '' Blue Velvet '' (1986).]]
The work of David Lynch —particularly '' Blue Velvet '' (1986), '' Lost Highway '' (1996), '' Mulholland Drive '' (2001), and the ''Twin Peaks'' cycle, both TV Series (1990–91) and movie, '' Fire Walk With Me '' (1992)—shows the influence of film noir filtered through a uniquely individualistic vision. Featuring delusionary or sociopathic protagonists (or, in the case of ''Blue Velvet'', a scene-devouring antagonist; in the ''Twin Peaks'' cycle, bizarro spasms at every turn), Lynch's most characteristic work has come to be grouped with others sharing similarly skewed centers of interest as "psycho-noir." Two of the earliest examples after ''Blue Velvet'' are literary adaptations directed by David Cronenberg, '' Naked Lunch '' (1991) and '' Crash '' (1996).

Director David Fincher followed the noir science fiction of '' Alien³ '' (1992) and the immensely successful neo-noir '' Se7en '' (1995) with a film that earns much greater regard today than it did on original release, the psycho-noir '' Fight Club '' (1999). Nolan's ''Memento'', as well as his debut feature, the British '' Following '' (1998), may both be classified as psycho-noir. The torments of '' The Machinist '' (2004), directed by Brad Anderson , evoke both ''Fight Club'' and ''Memento''. In the first decade of the new millennium, Park Chan-wook of South Korea has been the most prominent director to work regularly in a psycho-noir mode—a current of noir that can be traced back through ''Taxi Driver'', through ''Brainstorm'', through ''White Heat'', all the way to ''Stranger on the Third Floor'' and further still, to Fritz Lang's original ''M''.

Science fiction noir

as detective Rick Deckard in '' Blade Runner '' (1982). It may be 2019, but this is the world of noir, so it's ''still'' raining in Los Angeles.]]
In the post-classic era, the most significant trend in noir crossovers has involved Science Fiction . In Jean-Luc Godard's '' Alphaville '' (1965), Lemmy Caution is the name of the old-school private eye in the city of tomorrow. ''The Groundstar Conspiracy'' (1972) centers on another implacable investigator and an amnesiac named Welles. '' Soylent Green '' (1973), the first major American example, portrays a dystopian, near-future world via a self-evidently noir detection plot; starring Charlton Heston (the lead in ''Touch of Evil''), it also features classic noir standbys Joseph Cotten, Edward G. Robinson, and Whit Bissell . The movie was directed by Richard Fleischer , who two decades before had directed several strong B noirs, including '' Armored Car Robbery '' (1950) and '' The Narrow Margin '' (1952).

The cynical and stylish perspective of classic film noir had a formative effect on the '' (2004), both directed by Mamoru Oshii , and the short '' A Detective Story '' (2003), set in the ''Matrix'' Universe .

FILM NOIR PARODIES

Film noir has been parodied many times, in many manners. In 1945, Danny Kaye starred in what appears to be the first intentional film noir parody, '' Wonder Man ''. That same year, Deanna Durbin was the singing lead in the comedic noir '' Lady On A Train '', which makes fun of Woolrich-brand wistful miserablism. Bob Hope inaugurated the private-eye noir parody with '' My Favorite Brunette '' (1947), playing a baby photographer who is mistaken for an ironfisted detective. '' The Big Steal '' (1949), directed by Don Siegel , and ''His Kind of Woman'', both of which benefit from the services of a slyly self-aware Robert Mitchum, are clear examples of the classic film noir parodying itself. The "Girl Hunt" ballet in Vincente Minnelli 's '' The Band Wagon '' (1953) is a ten-minute distillation of—and play on—noir in dance. Carl Reiner 's " Cut And Paste " noir Farce , the black-and-white '' Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid '' (1982), is among the best known of the obviously comedic latter-day parodies. Robert Zemeckis 's 1988 '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit? '' develops a noir plot set in 1940s L.A. around a host of cartoon characters.

as neo-noir ultra-anti-hero Travis Bickle in '' Taxi Driver '' (1976).]]

Noir parodies come in darker tones as well. ''Murder by Contract'' (1958), directed by Irving Lerner, is an eighty-one-minute-long deadpan joke on noir, with a denouement as bleak as any of the movies it kids. An ultra-low-budget Columbia Pictures production, it may qualify as the first intentional example of what is now called a neo-noir film; it certainly seems to have been a source of inspiration for Melville's acclaimed ''Le Samouraï''. ''Taxi Driver'', one of the quintessential 1970s neo-noirs, caustically Deconstructs the "dark" crime film, taking it to an absurd extreme and then offering a conclusion that manages to mock every possible anticipated ending—triumphant, tragic, artfully ambivalent—while being each, all at once. Flirting with Splatter status even more brazenly, the Coens' ''Blood Simple'' is both an exacting Pastiche and an outrageous exaggeration of classic noir. Adapted by director Robinson Devor from a novel by Charles Willeford , '' The Woman Chaser '' (1999) sends up not just the noir mode but the entire Hollywood filmmaking process, with seemingly each shot staged as the visual equivalent of a Marlowe wisecrack—funny, but it smarts.

In other media, the television series '' Sledge Hammer! '' (1986–88) lampoons noir, along with Dirty Harry , Capital Punishment , and anything else available. '' Sesame Street '' (1969–curr.) occasionally casts Kermit The Frog as a private eye; the sketches refer to some of the typical motifs of noir movies, in particular the voiceover. Garrison Keillor 's radio program '' A Prairie Home Companion '' features the recurring character Guy Noir , a hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce (Guy also appears in the Altman-directed Film based on Keillor's show). Firesign Theatre 's Nick Danger has trod the same not-so-mean streets, both on radio and in comedy albums. Cartoons such as '' Garfield's Babes And Bullets '' (1989) and Comic Strip characters such as Tracer Bullet of '' Calvin And Hobbes '' have parodied both film noir and the kindred hardboiled tradition—one of the sources from which film noir sprang and which it now overshadows.

NOIR—SO WHAT ''IS'' IT?

The history of film noir criticism has seen fundamental questions become matters of controversy unusually intense for such a field. Where aesthetic debates tend to concentrate on the quality and meaning of specific artworks and the intentions and influences of their creators, in film noir, the debates are regularly much broader. Four large questions may be identified, two of them addressed at the beginning of this article:
'' (1958) a noir on the basis of plot and tone and various motifs. Others say the combination of color and the specificity of director Alfred Hitchcock 's vision exclude it from the category.]]

What defines film noir?

What sort of category is it?

What movies qualify as film noirs?

What are the identifying characteristics of film noirs?

Denouement

Characteristics of classic film noir

Visual style

, undergoes some old-school shadowcasting in '' Chinatown '' (1974).]]
Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark light/dark Contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in film noir and had already become a Cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, color films such as '' Leave Her To Heaven '' (1945), '' Niagara '' (1953), ''Slightly Scarlet'', and '' Vertigo '' (1958) are regarded as noir by varying numbers of critics.

Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch Angle s, Low-angle Shot s, and Wide-angle Lens es. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in ''Strangers on a Train''), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Beginning in the late 1940s, Location Shooting —often involving Night-for-night sequences—became increasingly frequent in noir.

In an analysis of the visual approach of ''Kiss Me Deadly'', a late and self-consciously stylized example of classic noir, critic Alain Silver describes how cinematographic choices emphasize the story's themes and mood. In one scene, the characters, seen through a "confusion of angular shapes," thus appear "caught in a tangible vortex or enclosed in a trap." Silver makes a case for how " {Link without Title} ide light is used...to reflect character ambivalence," while shots of characters in which they are lit from below "conform to a convention of visual expression which associates shadows cast upward of the face with the unnatural and ominous."Silver (1995), pp. 219, 222.

Structure and narrational devices

Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involving of protagonist Philip Marlowe; the face of star (and director) Robert Montgomery is seen only in mirrors. '' The Chase '' (1946) takes Oneirism and fatalism as the basis for its fantastical narrative system, redolent of certain horror stories, but with little precedent in the context of a putatively realistic genre. In their different ways, both ''Sunset Boulevard'' and ''D.O.A.'' are tales told by dead men. Latter-day noir has been in the forefront of structural experimentation in popular cinema, as exemplified by such films as ''Pulp Fiction'' and ''Memento''.

Plots, characters, and settings

Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all film noirs; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant, basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated in Heists or Con Games , or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. Amnesia is far more common in film noir than in real life, and cigarette smoking can seem virtually mandatory.
'' (1947): A Western adopting noir style, or a film noir set in the Wild West ?]]
Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, often Fall Guy s of one sort or another. The characteristic heroes of noir are described by many critics as " Alienated "; in the words of Silver and Ward, "filled with Existential bitterness."Silver and Ward (1992), p. 6. Certain archetypal characters appear in many film noirs—hardboiled detectives, femmes fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepid Claims Adjuster s, and down-and-out writers. As can be observed in many movies of an overtly neo-noir nature, the private eye and the femme fatale are the character types with which film noir has come to be most identified, but only a minority of movies now regarded as classic noir feature either. For example, of the nineteen National Film Registry noirs, in only four does the star play a private eye: ''The Maltese Falcon'', ''The Big Sleep'', ''Out of the Past'', and ''Kiss Me Deadly''. Just two others readily qualify as detective stories: ''Laura'' and ''Touch of Evil''.

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. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "labyrinth" or "maze." Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action. The climaxes of a substantial number of film noirs take place in visually complex, often industrial settings, such as refineries, factories, trainyards, power plants—most famously the explosive conclusion of ''White Heat''. In the popular (and, frequently enough, critical) imagination, in noir it is always night and it always rains.

A substantial trend within latter-day noir—dubbed "film soleil" by critic D. K. Holm—heads in precisely the opposite direction, with tales of deception, seduction, and corruption exploiting bright, sun-baked settings, stereotypically the desert or open water, to caustic effect. Significant predecessors from the classic and early post-classic eras include ''The Lady from Shanghai''; the Robert Ryan vehicle '' Inferno '' (1953); the French adaptation of Patricia Highsmith 's '' The Talented Mr. Ripley '', '' Plein Soleil '' (''Purple Noon'' in the U.S., better rendered elsewhere as ''Blazing Sun'' or ''Full Sun''; 1960); and director Don Siegel's version of '' The Killers '' (1964). The tendency was at its peak during the late 1980s and 1990s, with films such as '' Dead Calm '' (1989); ''After Dark, My Sweet''; ''The Hot Spot''; ''Delusion'' (1991); and ''Red Rock West'', and TV's ''Miami Vice'', which premiered in 1984 and turned increasingly mordant over its five-year run.

Worldview, morality, and tone

Film noir is often described as essentially pessimistic. The noir stories that are regarded as most characteristic tell of people trapped in unwanted situations (which, in general, they did not cause but are responsible for exacerbating), striving against random, uncaring fate, and frequently doomed. The movies are seen as depicting a world that is inherently corrupt. Classic film noir has been associated by many critics with the American social landscape of the era—in particular, with a sense of heightened anxiety and alienation that is said to have followed World War II. Nicholas Christopher's opinion is representative: "it is as if the war, and the social eruptions in its aftermath, unleashed demons that had been bottled up in the national psyche."Christopher (1997), p. 37. Film noirs, especially those of the 1950s and the height of the Red Scare , are often said to reflect cultural Paranoia ; ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is the noir most frequently marshaled as evidence for this claim.

''.]]

Rather than focusing on simple "black and white" decisions, film noirs tend to pose moral quandaries that are unusually ambiguous and relative—at least within the context of Hollywood cinema. Characters that do pursue goals based on clear-cut moral standards may be more than willing to let the "ends justify the means." For example, the investigator hero of ''The Stranger'', obsessed with tracking down a Nazi war criminal, places other people in mortal danger in order to capture his target. Whereas the Production Code obliged almost all classic noirs to see that steadfast virtue was ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished (however dramatically incredible the final rendering of mandatory justice might be), a substantial number of latter-day noirs flout such conventions; in their very different ways, the conclusions of ''Chinatown'' and ''The Hot Spot'' provide two clear examples.

The tone of film noir is generally regarded as downbeat; some critics experience it as darker still—"overwhelmingly black," according to Robert Ottoson.Ottoson (1981), p. 1. Influential critic (and filmmaker) Paul Schrader wrote in a seminal 1972 essay that "''film noir'' is defined by tone," a tone he seems to perceive as "hopeless."Schrader (1972), p. 54. For characterization of definitive tone as "hopeless," see pp. 53 ("the tone more hopeless") and 57 ("a fatalistic, hopeless mood"). In describing the adaptation of ''Double Indemnity,'' leading noir analyst Foster Hirsch describes the "requisite hopeless tone" achieved by the filmmakers, which appears to characterize his view of noir as a whole.Hirsch (2001), p. 7. Hirsch subsequently states, "In character types, ''mood'' added , themes, and visual composition, ''Double Indemnity'' offer[s] a lexicon of ''noir'' stylistics" (p. 8). On the other hand, definitive film noirs such as ''The Big Sleep'', ''The Lady from Shanghai'', and ''Double Indemnity'' itself are famed for their hardboiled Repartee , often imbued with sexual innuendo and self-reflexive humor—notes of another tone.

NOTES

Opinion is also divided on the English Plural of ''film noir''. In the French from which the term derives, the plural is ''films noirs''. Some English speakers prefer ''films noir'', while ''film noirs'' is the most common formulation. The latest edition of '' Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary '', acknowledging all three styles as acceptable, gives as the preferred spelling ''film noirs''.

	CATEGORIES ABOUT FILM NOIR

	film genres

	film noir

	film styles

	film theory

	history of film

	french words and phrases

	genres by mediumfilm genres

	film noir

	film styles

	film theory

	history of film

	french words and phrases

	genres by medium

	APPAREL
	BABY
	BEAUTY
	BOOKS
	CAR TOYS
	CELL PHONES
	DVD'S
	ELECTRONICS
	GOURMET FOOD
	GROCERIES
	HEALTH & PERSONAL
	HOME & GARDEN
	JEWELRY
	MUSIC
	MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
	OFFICE PRODUCTS
	SOFTWARE
	SPORTING GOODS
	TOOLS & HARDWARE
	TOYS
	VIDEO GAMES
	SHOPPING HOME

	MORE SHOPPING...

Information About

Film Noir