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Film noir films mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, nihilistic, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience.
An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir.
The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes. Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal , circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions.
Settings were often interiors with low-key or single-source lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses.
The females in film noir were either of two types or archetypes - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take or have the fateful choice made for him. Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames.
It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death.
The femme fatale , who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall. The themes of noir, derived from sources in Europe, were imported to Hollywood by emigre film-makers.
Caligari , Germ. Films from German directors, such as F. Murnau, G. Pabst, and Robert Wiene, were noted for their stark camera angles and movements, chiaroscuro lighting and shadowy, high-contrast images - all elements of later film noir.
In addition, the French sound films of the 30s, such as director Julien Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko , contributed to noir's development. Another cinematic origin of film noir was from the plots and themes often taken from adaptations of American literary works - usually from best-selling, hard-boiled, pulp novels and crime fiction by Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, or Cornell Woolrich. As a result, the earliest film noirs were detective or crime thrillers. Notable film noir gangster films, such as They Drive By Night , Key Largo and White Heat each featured noir elements within the traditional gangster framework.
The expressionistic film starred Peter Lorre as the sinister, odd-looking 'stranger' cast due to his creepy performance in M , in a story about the nightmarish after-effects for news reporter Michael Ward John McGuire whose courtroom circumstantial testimony during a murder trial was used to convict murder suspect Joe Briggs Elisha Cook Jr.
Afterwards, he was haunted in a stunning dream sequence by doubts that his key testimony was inaccurate. Others claim Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane was also an early and influential pre-film noir. The first detective film to use the shadowy, nihilistic noir style in a definitive way was the privotal work of novice director John Huston in the mystery classic The Maltese Falcon , from a book by Dashiell Hammett.
Maybe darker? Our next post comes just a little southeast of our French friend noir, and explains this Italian lighting technique and how its used to create the noir style. Learn about chiaroscuro below.
Create robust and customizable shot lists. Upload images to make storyboards and slideshows. Previous Post. Next Post. A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? Skip to content. Watch: Chiaroscuro Lighting Explained.
Subscribe on YouTube. Define Noir What is film noir, exactly? Noir Genre Film noir originated in a time of angst This style of filmmaking was characterized by a painful time in history. Examples from Cinema Film noir examples What characterizes cynicism in cinema? The Maltese Falcon Starring Humphrey Bogart, this mystery noir made a lasting impact with its spectacular cinematography and menacing use of shadows.
Humphrey Bogart bringing noir to the forefront. Laura Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Vincent Price star in this noir classic that boasts incredible acting and a staple of the genre.
By the mid 40's, more noir started popping up. Touch of Evil According to many critics, film noir ended with the release of one of Orson Welles' best movies , Touch of Evil. The popularity of these books, written by authors like Raymond Chandler, caught the attention of Hollywood. In fact, Chandler and other crime novelists found work writing film screenplays in the s. Because the category emerged after many film noir movies had been created, there is no universally agreed upon definition of film noir.
However, there are some key elements that can be found in most examples of the genre. The standard film noir protagonist is a private eye or detective, whose persona often has shades of grey, such as a dark past or moral ambiguity. Another standard character is the femme fatale: a desirable, aggressive woman with suspicious or uncertain loyalties.
Film noir movies are often filled supporting characters who exist on the moral fringes of society, such as gangsters, gamblers, boxers, and nightclub performers. The city is presented as having both a glamorous surface and a seedy underbelly. Several film noir movies shot in Los Angeles took advantage of on-location shooting, rather than filming on a studio lot.
To cover for low budgets, film noir tends to feature stark lighting with heavy use of shadows. Shots of characters obscured by shadowing are common, particularly the technique of low-key lighting to create suspicious shadows. Reflecting Cold War -era attitudes, many film noir films feature cynical or fatalistic tones, with protagonists put in desperate situations due to circumstances beyond their control.
Other storytelling devices common to film noir are flashbacks and voiceovers in order to tell the story from a first-person perspective. Notably, many Hollywood films of the s and s, including classics like Citizen Kane and Casablanca , have stylistic and narrative similarities to film noir, yet scholars and critics generally consider them outside of film noir.
The following list contains some of the most well-known movies in the film noir genre. Though two prior adaptations of detective novelist Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon were made before this adaptation, John Huston's version remains a film noir classic.
Humphrey Bogart plays private eye Sam Spade, who gets tangled in a complicated case involving a murder and a statue of a bird coveted by numerous shady individuals. The narrative of The Maltese Falcon established a prototype that dozens of later films followed.
Based on the crime novel by James M. Cain, Double Indemnity was directed by Billy Wilder , who also co-wrote the script with famed crime novelist Raymond Chandler. Insurance salesman Walter Neff Fred MacMurray is seduced by the beautiful Phyllis Dietrichson Barbara Stanwyck to help her kill her husband and make it look like an accident so that she receives double the insurance payout.
Robinson , becomes suspicious, and Neff suspects that Phyllis is playing him for a fool. Stanwyck was nominated for an Oscar for her performance, and her character became one of the archetypes for film femme fatales. The "venetian blind" lighting featured in the movie became a trademark of film noir.
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