The term film noir, French for "black film", first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era. Cinema historians and critics defined the noir canon in retrospect. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. The question of whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of on-going debate among scholars.
Film noir encompasses a range of plots—the central figure may be a private eye (The Big Sleep), a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a hapless grifter (Night and the City), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy), or simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.). Though the noir mode was originally identified with American productions, films now customarily described as noir have been made around the world. Many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noirs of the classic period, often treating noir conventions in a self-referential manner. Such latter-day works in a noir mode are often referred to as neo-noirs. The tropes of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behaviour, or events which resemble them. It is also used in scholarly and historical musical contexts to refer to dramas of the 18th and 19th centuries in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action.
Neo-noir (from the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black) is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.
Features:
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting).
· The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in 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 filmmaking.
· While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the colour films Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while Slightly Scarlet (1956), Party Girl (1958), and Vertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critics.
· Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots.
· 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.
· Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed.
· From the mid-1940s forward, location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir.
Narrative:
Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involving flashbacks and other editing techniques that disrupt and sometimes obscure the narrative sequence. Framing the entire primary narrative as a flashback is also a standard device.
Voiceover narration, sometimes used as a structuring device, came to be seen as a noir hallmark; while classic noir is generally associated with first-person narration (i.e., by the protagonist).
Neo-noirs as varied as The Element of Crime (surrealist), After Dark, My Sweet (retro), and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (meta) have employed the flashback/voiceover combination.
Bold experiments in cinematic storytelling were sometimes attempted during the classic era: Lady in the Lake, for example, is shot entirely from the point of view of protagonist Philip Marlowe; the face of star (and director) Robert Montgomery is seen only in mirrors.
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.
By the late 1940s, the noir trend was leaving its mark on other genres. A prime example is the Western Pursued (1947), filled with psychosexual tensions and behavioral explanations derived from Freudian theory.
Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, often fall guys of one sort or another.
Hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepid claims adjusters, and down-and-out writers. Among characters of every stripe, cigarette smoking is rampant.
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, set at a chemical plant. 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 searing effect.
Popular films:
1. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Dir: Billy Wilder With: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
Drama | Film-Noir
110 mins.
2. Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.
Dir: Billy Wilder With: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller
107 mins.
3. The Third Man (1949)
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime.
Dir: Carol Reed With: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli
Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller
104 mins.
4. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Dir: John Huston With: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller
5. Notorious (1946)
A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller
101 mins.
6. Touch of Evil (1958)
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.
Dir: Orson Welles With: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh
Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller
95 mins.
7. Strangers on a Train (1951)
A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman
Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
101 mins.
8. Les Diaboliques (1955)
The wife of a cruel headmaster and his mistress conspire to kill him, but after the murder is committed, his body disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.
Dir: H.G. Clouzot With: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse
Film-Noir | Horror | Mystery | Thriller
114 mins.
9. The Killing (1956)
Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick With: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller
85 mins.
10. The Big Sleep (1946)
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.
Dir: Howard Hawks With: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller
114 mins.
11. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Dir: Charles Laughton With: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller
93 mins.
12. Scarface (1932)
An ambitious and near insanely violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Dir: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson With: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley
Crime | Drama | Film-Noir
93 mins.
13. In a Lonely Place (1950)
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbour clears him. But she begins to have doubts...
Dir: Nicholas Ray With: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy
Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
94 mins.
14. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Dir: Michael Curtiz With: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart
Crime | Drama | Film-Noir
97 mins.
15. Knock on Any Door (1949)
Andrew Morton is an attorney who made it out of the slums. Nick Romano is his client, a young man with a long string of crimes behind him...
Dir: Nicholas Ray With: Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, George Macready
Crime | Film-Noir | Drama 100 mins.
16. Spellbound (1945)
A female psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
111 mins.
17. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
A young woman discovers her visiting "Uncle Charlie" may not be the man he seems to be.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey
Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller
108 mins.
18. Laura (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger With: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
88 mins.
19. Mildred Pierce (1945)
After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter.
Dir: Michael Curtiz With: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance
111 mins.
20. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick With: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison
Drama | Film-Noir
96 mins.
(From wikipedia)
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