The History of Film Noir

The History of Film Noir

Film Noir literally means ‘Black Film’. This term was first coined by

French film critic Nino Frank, who noticed a trend in the darkness of

themes in many American films that constituted wartime cinema.

Classic film noir developed during the 1940’s during and after World

War two, taking advantage of the post war zeitgeist of anxiety,

pessimism and suspicion. Mistrust, fear, paranoia, and bleakness is

obvious in noir, it reflects the cold war period when the threat of

nuclear annihilation was ever present.

The categorisation of noir is very difficult to propose, The term

‘Film Noir’ was not recognised in the industry or by the audiences in

the 1940’s, for example it was much easier to recognise a Western or

Gangster movie as a genre.

There have been many crucial disagreements about which category if

any, film noir comes under, for example: *Higham, Greenberg and *Paul

Kerr refer to film noir as a genre; *Raymond Durgnat sees it as

defined more by ‘mood’ and ‘tone’; Janey Place describes it as a

movement; *Jon Tuska says that ‘noir is both a screen style and a

perspective on human existence and society’

A film noir will always be very dark and shot in cold rainy cities

with very limited palette other than greys, blacks and whites. They

are usually shot in city underside locations at night. The narratives

are frequently complex, there will be voice overs and flash backs

often adding to the maze like and confusing. You rarely know where the

story is going or ’who dun it’ until very near the end. There will be

expressionistic lighting, shadows cast on faces eg: through venetian

blinds, and they wil...

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...vering boy, as a result

of lust and romance. The classic ‘Femme Fatal’ had him exactly where

she wanted him.

Kathie is controlling the meeting, and the audience can see this

through Bailey’s eyes. The atmosphere is tense and very uncomfortable.

Notes

* Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg: ‘Hollywood In The Forties’ Tanivy

Press, London (1986) pg 75.

* Paul Kerr: ’ Out Of What Past?’ The ’B’ Film Noir, Screen Education

Nos 32-3 (Autumn-Winter 1979-80) pg 45.

* Raymond Durgnat: ’Paint It Black’ Cinema (UK), Nos 6-7 (1970)

pgs 10-11.

* Janey Place: ‘Women in Film Noir’ E. Ann Kaplan, BFI, London

(1970) pg 37.

* Jon Tuska: ‘Dark Cinema’ Greenwood Press, Westport (1984) pg xv.

* Laura Mulvey’s Article: ‘Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema’

(Autumn 1975) vol.16 no.3.

Film Studies