Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir's main characteristics of cinematography and lighting styles are a low key black and white visuals that have roots in German expressionist cinematography.
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. These reflected the mind sets of the pessimistic people of the time as Communism and McCarthyism threataned the American way of life.
Heroes (or anti-heroes) are flawed or corrupt characters, they were down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals and murderers. The protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld, they were cynical, brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive usually losing in the end.
The femme fatale would play a crucial role in the film noir, whether in the guise of Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street, Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia, or Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. These women were black widows who slowly drew in the heroes with come-hither looks and breathless voices. The femme fatale knew how to use men to get whatever she wanted, whether it was just a little murder between lovers (as in Double Indemnity) or a wild, on-the-run lifestyle ( Gun Crazy). The femme fatale was always there to help pull the hero down. This representation of women was characteristic of the times of the early 20th century when traditional masculinity was threatened by previously oppressed females taking men's roles in life as bread winners, go-getters and ambition chasers. In the 1930s, women with such characteristics were seen as dangerous and script writers and directors took advantage of the stereotype and gave the world some leading ladies you wouldn't want to meet in a dark ally.
Narratives were complex and maze-like, and always told with foreboding background music, short flashbacks, sharp dialogue and often included confessional first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the hero was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed or made one wrong decision. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.
Expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing ominous shadows, skewed camera angles ( the Dutch angle) cigarette smoke and unbalanced or moody compositions were all essential to a film noir picture and defined the genre. 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. Dark rooms with light slicing through venetian blinds, alleys cluttered with garbage, abandoned warehouses where dust hangs in the air, rain-slickened streets with water still running in the gutters, dark detective offices overlooking busy streets, such setting were uncomfortably realistic and it made the action and story all the more believable.
Film noir can be mixed with almost any other genre, usually from the crime and detective genres, but often joining with thrillers, horror, and even science fiction. The visual style of German expressionism, painting shafts of light and low key lighting can be applied to any situation where discomfort, paranoia and threat need to be emphasized.
While Hollywood tried to public morale high, film noir gave us a peek into the alleys and backrooms of a world filled with corruption. And film noir remained an important form in Hollywood until the late '50s, by then, the crime and detective genres were playing out their dramas in bright lights, with movies such as The Lineup containing noir elements but not the same that noir first appeared in the early '40s. While soldiers went to war, film noir exposed a darker side of life, balancing the optimism of Hollywood musicals and comedies by supplying seedy, two-bit criminals and doom-laden atmospheres.
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