Media Term Thursday #38

Film Noir

French term meaning ‘black film’.

Style of low budget ‘B’ film which began in Hollywood in the 1930s, partly as a result of German Expressionist filmmakers such as Fritz Lang moving to Hollywood and bringing their dark styles. Film Noir reached its peak in the 1940s and 50s.

Noir elements include negative, pessimistic themes with flawed, anti-hero males who are cynical, disillusioned and morally ambivalent. The protagonist would battle wits with seductive femme fatales, women who were scheming, manipulative, beautiful and amoral. Settings were often the sleazy back streets and alleyways of a depressing city, cheap hotel rooms and bars mostly shot at night. They were filmed in black and white with dark, shadowy cinematography, canted framing and extreme, often low camera angles to put the audience at unease.

Other conventions are the use of a cynical voice-over, flashbacks, and claustrophobic interiors The pessimism, fear and paranoia that pervaded these films reflected the Cold War period in America.

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), Murder My Sweet (1944), Touch of Evil (1958).

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