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Film noir ( / nwɑːr /; French: [film nwaʁ]) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylized Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir.
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Film noir is not a clearly defined genre (see here for details on the characteristics). Therefore, the composition of this list may be controversial. To minimize dispute the films included here should preferably feature a footnote linking to a reliable, published source which states that the mentioned film is considered to be a film noir by an expert in this field, e.g.
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Dec 22, 2021 · Eddie Muller, TCM’s sharp-dressed noir man and the most reliable tipster on the genre’s inside dope, calls film noir “the gateway drug to classical Hollywood cinema.”. Get the Gen Z-ers ...
Dec 16, 2019 · The term “film noir” is typically credited to French critic Nino Frank, who apparently coined it in a 1946 essay published in the magazine L’Écran français to describe four American crime...
- Overview
- Influences
- Appeal
- History
- Critical Perspectives
- Further Reading
Film noir indicates a darker perspective upon life than was standard in classical Hollywood films and concentrates upon human depravity, failure, and despair. The term also implies a cinematic style: a way of lighting, of positioning and moving the camera, of using retrospective voice-over narration. Its narrative often relies heavily on flashbacks...
Hard-boiled popular fiction gave film noir its narrative models, major themes, and verbal style. The genre is commonly associated with the detective fiction of writers like Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) and Raymond Chandler (1888–1959), which first appeared in the 1920s and provided an alternative to the then-dominant British detective fiction of wr...
Given its doom-laden world, film noiroffers the voyeuristic pleasure of watching transgression play itself out. Audiences saw morally compromised people doing immoral things; stories involved the forbidden, the sinful. The films pushed the boundaries of contemporary censorship: their ads promised the titillations of easy women, violent men, and doo...
A rough overview of film noir begins in the early 1940s with films like The Maltese Falcon, which presented a new, darker perspective on the characters and themes of hard-boiled fiction. Two earlier films, the 1931 The Maltese Falcon and the 1936 Satan Met a Lady, had been based upon Hammett's novel of the same name. Both handled crime in the light...
The critical and theoretical commentary upon film noir has been extensive. The history of film noir begins with international criticism—essays written in postwar France assessing new developments in American film. The context and historical moment is important. New Hollywood films had not been available in France since the time of the German occupa...
Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton. Panorama du film noir americain, 1941–1953. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1955. Published in English as Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton. A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002. Copjec, Joan, ed. Shades of Noir: A Reader. New York and London: Verso, 1993. Gorman, ...
Nov 27, 2020 · 15 films representing the essence of film noir in the 21st century and demonstrating that the genre still inspires directors around the world, among them Nolan, Lynch, Campion, Mann, Ceylan…
Film noir ( / nwɑːr /; French: [ film nwaʁ]) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylized Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir.
