Film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a film style and mood primarily associated with crime films, that portrays its principal characters in a nihilistic and existential world. Film noir is primarily derived from the hard-boiled style of crime fiction of the Depression era, (many films noir were adaptations of such novels), and may first be clearly seen in films released in the early 1940s. 'Noirs' were historically made in black and white, and had a dark, high-contrast style with roots in German Expressionist cinematography.

The term film noir (French for "black film") was unknown to the filmmakers and actors while they were creating the classic films noir. Film noir was defined in retrospect by film historians and critics; many of the creators of film noir later professed to be unaware at the time of having created a distinctive type of film.

The use of the phrase "film noirs" is, technically incorrect and untrue to the French origin of the term. With "noir" modifying "film," the approriate plural form of "film noir" is "films noirs."

Precursors
Film noir is a result of a combination of genres and styles, with origins in painting and literature, as well as film.

German Expressionism heavily influences the aesthetics of film noir. When Germany fell to Nazism, many important film artists were forced to emigrate (including Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Robert Siodmak). They took with them techniques they developed (most importantly the dramatic lighting and the subjective, psychological point of view) and made some of the most famous films noir in the USA. Concurrent with the development of German Expressionism were expressionistic gangster films in America in the 1930s, such as Little Caesar (1930), The Public Enemy (1931), Scarface (1932) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932).

Other important influences came from the French poetic realism, with its themes of fatalism, injustice and doomed heroes, and Italian neorealism, with its emphasis on authenticity. Several later noir films, such as Night and the City (1950) and Panic in the Streets (1950), adopted a neorealist approach of using on-location photography with non-professional extras. Additionally, some noir films strove to depict comparatively ordinary or downtrodden people with unspectacular lives in a manner similar to neorealist films, such as The Lost Weekend and In a Lonely Place.

In the United States, a major literary influence on film noir came from the hard-boiled school of detective and crime fiction, featuring writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, and popularized in pulp magazines such as Black Mask. Chandler's The Big Sleep and Murder My Sweet (based on Farewell, My Lovely) and Hammett's The Maltese Falcon are notable films noir.

Boris Ingster's Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) is often considered to be the first full-featured film noir, starring Peter Lorre as the sinister 'stranger'. Orson Welles's landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) had a huge influence on the development of film noir, particularly with its stunning visuals and complex narrative stucture driven by voiceover narration.

The classic period
One of the quintessential films noir, Out of the Past features all of the noir hallmarks: a cynical private detective as the "hero", a sexy femme fatale, multiple flashbacks with voiceover narration, dramatic chiaroscuro black and white photography, and a pervasive fatalistic mood. The film stars Robert Mitchum who, along with Humphrey Bogart, was the foremost male icon of film noir.

The 1940s and 1950s were the "classic period" of film noir. Some film historians regard Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) to be the first true film noir. Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958) is often cited as the last film in the classic period.

Some scholars believed film noir never really ended, but declined in popularity, only to be later revived in a slightly different form. Other critics — probably a majority — regard films made outside the classic time frame to be something other than genuine film noir. These critics regard true film noir as belonging to a cycle or period, and that subsequent films that try to evoke the classic films are different because the creators are conscious of a noir "style" in a way that the original makers of film noir were not.

Many of the classic films noir were low-budget supporting features without major stars, in which 'moonlighting' writers, directors and technicians, some of them blacklisted, found themselves relatively free from big-picture restraints. Many of the most popular examples of film noir center upon a woman of questionable virtue and are also known as bad girl movies. Major studio feature films demanded a wholesome, positive message. Weak and morally ambiguous lead characters were ruled out by the "star system", and secondary characters were seldom allowed any depth or autonomy. In "A" films, flattering soft lighting, deluxe interiors and elaborately-built exterior sets were the rule. Noir turned all this on its head, creating bleak but intelligent dramas tinged with nihilism, mistrust, paranoia and cynicism, in real-life urban settings, and using unsettling techniques such as the confessional voice-over or hero's-eye-view camerawork. Gradually the noir style re-influenced the mainstream.

Directors associated with classic film noir include John Huston, Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles. Alfred Hitchcock made some crime films that display elements of film noir (Notorious, Strangers on a Train), but are not always considered part of the film noir canon.

Film noir outside the U.S.
Orson Welles (right) as Harry Lime in The Third Man, giving his infamous 'cuckoo clock' speech to Joseph Cotten - a classic scene of pure film noir.

There have been a number of films made outside the U.S. that can reasonably be called film noir, for example Pepé le Moko. Jules Dassin moved to France in the early fifties as a result of the Hollywood blacklist and made one of the most famous French films noir, Du rififi chez les hommes (1955). Other well-known French films sometimes considered to be noir include Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), Diabolique (1955), and Quai des Orfèvres (1947). The French director Jean-Pierre Melville is widely recognized for his tragic, minimalist films noir, such as Le Samouraï or Le Cercle rouge. Additionally, the British director Carol Reed made The Third Man (1949), which is often considered film noir. It is set in Vienna immediately after the war, with the collaboration of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, both prominent American film-noir actors.

Neo-noir is a term often applied to films made after the classic period. Neo-noir films have been produced internationally in most countries with a prominent film industry. Examples include High and Low (Japan), La Haine (France), Insomnia (Norway), Alphaville (France), The American Friend (Germany), and Blind Shaft (China).

Neo-noir and the influence of film noir
In the 1960s American film-makers like Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, and Robert Altman created films that drew from (and commented upon) the original films noir. In The Long Goodbye, Altman's hard-boiled detective is presented as a hapless bungler who can't help but lose the moral battle.

Film noir has been parodied (both broadly and affectionately) on many occasions. Bob Hope first parodied film noir in My Favorite Brunette (1947), playing a baby photographer who is mistaken for tough private detective. Other notable parodies are Carl Reiner's black-and-white "cut and paste" homage Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam. These parodies have been extended to comic strips as well, with Sam Spayed from Garfield and Tracer Bullet from Calvin and Hobbes.

Many of Joel and Ethan Coen's films are excellent examples of modern films influenced by noir, especially The Man Who Wasn't There and Blood Simple, the comedy The Big Lebowski (itself a tribute to author Raymond Chandler, whose crime novels inspired the genre), and Miller's Crossing, loosely based on the novels The Glass Key and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. Also, Curtis Hanson's widely praised L.A. Confidential is the closest thing to a modern-day film noir, with it's tale of corrupt cops and femme fatales seemingly lifted right from the 1950s.

The cynical, pessimistic worldview of noirs strongly influenced the creators of the cyberpunk genre of science fiction in the early 1980s. Blade Runner is among the most popular films from this era. Characters in these films are derived from 1930s gangster films and, more importantly, from pulp magazines such as The Shadow, Dime Mystery Detective, and The Black Mask. Other examples for SF-noir films are Gattaca, The Thirteenth Floor, Ghost in the Shell and Dark City. Some consider the films of David Lynch to have a notable noir influence, particularly his most well-known and renowned work, Blue Velvet.

Recent works of popular fiction in a noir vein include the 2005 movie Sin City, the video game series Max Payne, and Christopher Nolan's remake of Insomnia

Characteristics
Visual style
Noir films, traditionally black and white, tended to include dramatic shadows and stark contrast—using low-key lighting and monochrome film, typically resulting in a 10:1 ratio of dark to light, rather than the more typical 3:1 ratio. A number of noir films were shot on location in cities, and night-for-night shooting was common. Also common to be seen in any noir film are shadows of venetian blinds. These are dramatically cast upon an actor's face as he looks out a window. This is one of the many iconic visuals in noir.

Noir is also known for its use of dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide angle lenses. Other devices of disorientation common in film noir include shots of people in mirrors or multiple mirrors, shots through a glass (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and multiple exposures.

Setting
Film noir tends to revolve around flawed and desperate characters in an unforgiving world. Crime, usually murder, is an element of all films noir, often sparked by jealousy, corrhruption, or greed. Most films noir contain certain archetypal characters (such as hardboiled detectives, femmes fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, insurance agents, or down-and-out writers), familiar locations (downtown Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco), and archetypal storylines (heist films, detective stories, court films, and films about rigged boxing games).

Morality
The morals of film noir tend not to be simple black/white decisions, in line with the aforementioned existential influence.

Often, characters may adhere to an absolute moral goal, but are more than willing to let the "ends justify the means" in order to obtain this goal. For example, in The Stranger, the investigator is so obsessed with tracking down a Nazi war criminal that he places other people in mortal danger to track him down.

Outlook
Film noir is at its core pessimistic. The stories it tells are of people trapped in a situation they did not want, often a situation they did not create, striving against random uncaring fate, and usually doomed. Almost all film noir plots involve the hard-boiled, disillusioned male and the dangerous femme fatale.

Elements of noir
Film noir is hard to define specifically, unlike say film Westerns. Some movies are considered noir by some, but not by others. Examples include Vertigo (1958) or Niagara (1953). To be considered "film noir", the film should contain some or all of the following:

Heimatfilm
Heimatfilm is a film genre, which was popular in Germany in the 1950s. Heimatfilms were noted for their rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality. Heimat is a German word meaning homeland.

The trilogy of films called “Heimat” by the German director Edgar Reitz (1984, 1992 & 2004) is partly an ironic reference to this type of sentimental film.