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filmnoir|filmgenre|EncyclopediaBritannica

Film noir,( French: dark film)style of filmmaking characterized by elements

such as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks, intricate
plots, and an underlyingexistentialistphilosophy. The genre was prevalent
mostly in American crime dramas of the post-World War IIera.

The golden age of film noir

The cinema of the disenchanted
Early examples of the noir style include dark, stylized detective films such asJohn
HustonsThe Maltese Falcon(1941), Frank TuttlesThis Gun for Hire(1942),Otto
PremingersLaura(1944), andEdward DmytryksMurder, My Sweet(1944). Banned
in occupied countries during the war, these films became available throughout
Europe beginning in 1946. French cineastes admired them for their cold, cynical
characters and dark, brooding style, and they afforded the films effusive praise in
French journals such asCahiers du cinma. French critics coined the termfilm
noirin reference to the low-keyed lighting used to enhance these dramas
stylisticallyalthough the term would not become commonplace in international
critical circles until the publication of the bookPanorama du film noir
americain(1955) by Raymond Borde and tienne Chaumeton.
The darkness of these films reflected the disenchantment of the times. Pessimism
and disillusionment became increasingly present in the American psyche during
theGreat Depressionof the 1930s and the world war that followed. After the war,
factors such as an unstable peacetime economy, McCarthyism, and the looming
threat of atomic warfare manifested themselves in a collective sense of
uncertainty. The corrupt and claustrophobic world of film noir embodied these
fears. Several examples of film noir, such as DmytryksCornered(1945), George
MarshallsThe Blue Dahlia(1946), Robert MontgomerysRide the Pink Horse(1947),
andJohn CromwellsDead Reckoning(1947), share the common storyline of a war
veteran who returns home to find that the way of life for which he has been
fighting no longer exists. In its place is the America of film noir: modernized,
heartless, coldly efficient, and blas about matters such as political corruption and
organized crime.
Many of the major directors of film noirsuch as Huston, Dmytryk,
Cromwell,Orson Welles, and otherswere American. However,
otherHollywooddirectors renowned for a film noir style hailed fromEurope,
includingBilly Wilder,Alfred Hitchcock,Jacques Tourneur, andFritz Lang. It is said
that the themes of noir attracted European directors, who often felt like outsiders
within the Hollywood studio system. Such directors had been trained to
emphasize cinematic style as much as acting and narrative in order to convey
thought and emotion.

Defining the genre

Controversy exists as to whether film noir can be classified as a genre or
subgenre, or if the term merely refers to stylistic elements common to various
genres. Film noir does not have a thematic coherence: the term is most often
applied to crime dramas, but certain westerns and comedies have been cited as
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filmnoir|filmgenre|EncyclopediaBritannica

examples of film noir by some critics. Even such sentimental comedy-dramas

asFrank CaprasIts a Wonderful Life(1946) have been cited as noir-ish by
critics who find in its suicidal hero and bleak depiction of small-town life a tone
suitably dismal for film noir. Such films are also sometimes designated as seminoir, orfilm gris(gray film), to indicate their hybrid status.
Other critics argue that film noir is but an arbitrary designation for a multitude of
dissimilar black-and-white dramas of the late 1940s and early 50s. Film
scholarChris Fujiwara contends that the makers of such films didnt think of
them as films noir; they thought they were making crime films, thrillers,
mysteries, and romantic melodramas. The nonexistence of noir as a production
category during the supposed heyday of noir obviously problematizes the
history of the genre. Yet it cannot be questioned that film noir connotes specific
visual images and an aura of postwar cynicism in the minds of most film buffs.
Indeed, several common characteristics connect most films defined as noir.

LIGHTING
The isolation from society of the typical noir hero was underscored by the use of
stark high-contrast lightingthe most notable visual feature of film noir. The
shadowy noir style can be traced to theGerman Expressionistcinema of the
silent era.Robert WienesDas Kabinett des Doktor Caligari(1920;The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari) contains one of the best early examples of the lighting techniques
used to inspire the genre. Wiene used visual elements to help define the title
characters madness, including tilted cameras to present skewed images and a
dark atmosphere in which only the faces of the actors were visible. This
Expressionistic style was later used by German directors such asFritz
Lang(Metropolis, 1927;M, 1931) andF.W. Murnau(Nosferatu, 1922;Sunrise, 1927).
These lighting effects were used in Hollywood by cinematographers such
asGregg Toland(Citizen Kane, 1941), John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity, 1944), Karl
Freund (Key Largo, 1948), and Sid Hickox (The Big Sleep, 1948) to heighten the
sombre tone of films in the genre. Classic images of noir included rain-soaked
streets in the early morning hours; street lamps with shimmering halos; flashing
neon signs on seedy taverns, diners, and apartment buildings; and endless
streams of cigarette smoke wafting in and out of shadows. Such images would
lose their indelibility with realistic lighting or colourcinematography.

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