ThePhantomTerror wrote:Sorry for asking a stupid question, but what exactly is film noir?
Its a french phrase for "Black/Dark film" which became a genre in the early 40's, with films like The Maltese Falcon, and Double Idemnity and so on. It is characterized with low-key lighting, usually black and white film, and there is always this main character who is a man who is on the edge of justice, but always comes out as better knowing. There is also a term called a femme fatale, which is a woman character, who tries to corrupt the male, with her sexuality. Many of the films were based on 20's Detective books. And a crime is almost always the theme of the story - The dark city and dark hotel rooms are always the scene of the action
Here are some of the most well known film noirs:
Billy Wilder
1944 – Double Indemnity
1950 – Sunset Boulevard
John Huston
1941 – The Maltese Falcon
1950 – The Asphalt Jungle
Howard Hawks
1946 – The Big Sleep
Edward Dmytryk
1944 – Murder, My Sweet
1947 – Crossfire
Neo-noir is a new wave of filmmakers who loved the film-noir and therefore made films like it, in that genre we have films like Blade-runner, Chinatown and also Memento as we know it. Iv written a huge paper on Film-noir, so feel free to ask if there is anything
ThePhantomTerror wrote:Sorry for asking a stupid question, but what exactly is film noir?
Its a french phrase for "Black/Dark film" which became a genre in the early 40's, with films like The Maltese Falcon, and Double Idemnity and so on. It is characterized with low-key lighting, usually black and white film, and there is always this main character who is a man who is on the edge of justice, but always comes out as better knowing. There is also a term called a femme fatale, which is a woman character, who tries to corrupt the male, with her sexuality. Many of the films were based on 20's Detective books. And a crime is almost always the theme of the story - The dark city and dark hotel rooms are always the scene of the action
Here are some of the most well known film noirs:
Billy Wilder
1944 – Double Indemnity
1950 – Sunset Boulevard
John Huston
1941 – The Maltese Falcon
1950 – The Asphalt Jungle
Howard Hawks
1946 – The Big Sleep
Edward Dmytryk
1944 – Murder, My Sweet
1947 – Crossfire
Neo-noir is a new wave of filmmakers who loved the film-noir and therefore made films like it, in that genre we have films like Blade-runner, Chinatown and also Memento as we know it. Iv written a huge paper on Film-noir, so feel free to ask if there is anything
Excellent summary. Although there are notable noirs that are not crime stories, such as Sweet Smell of Success.
Well I can also add that noir elements harps back to the visual style of films like Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu from the german expressionist movement in the 1920's. For me the "father" of all noir is Fritz Lang's M (1931). If you havent seen the film, you should check it out.
ThePhantomTerror wrote:Sorry for asking a stupid question, but what exactly is film noir?
Its a french phrase for "Black/Dark film" which became a genre in the early 40's, with films like The Maltese Falcon, and Double Idemnity and so on. It is characterized with low-key lighting, usually black and white film, and there is always this main character who is a man who is on the edge of justice, but always comes out as better knowing. There is also a term called a femme fatale, which is a woman character, who tries to corrupt the male, with her sexuality. Many of the films were based on 20's Detective books. And a crime is almost always the theme of the story - The dark city and dark hotel rooms are always the scene of the action
Here are some of the most well known film noirs:
Billy Wilder
1944 – Double Indemnity
1950 – Sunset Boulevard
John Huston
1941 – The Maltese Falcon
1950 – The Asphalt Jungle
Howard Hawks
1946 – The Big Sleep
Edward Dmytryk
1944 – Murder, My Sweet
1947 – Crossfire
Neo-noir is a new wave of filmmakers who loved the film-noir and therefore made films like it, in that genre we have films like Blade-runner, Chinatown and also Memento as we know it. Iv written a huge paper on Film-noir, so feel free to ask if there is anything
All of his films could be classified under noir. Paul Schrader's article is a good starting point to learn about film noir. Basically, Schrader poses the idea, one that is agreed and taken upon by film scholars, that film noir was not and is not a genre. For Schrader film noir is more about tone and mood. It is about the stylistics. The push from the war to post world war sensibilities. The influence of german expressionism and poetic realism. Likewise, the blending of pulp and hard-boiled writers of the time. And that's just the beginning. Some scholars say the film noir period is one that never ended. Some say the more traditional period of film noir is one that starts with The Maltese Falcon and ends with Touch of Evil. So from the 40's to the 50's is the classical period of film noir. After Welle's Touch of Evil, the so-called Neo-Noir period began (again, this is according to some scholars but is not universally accepted--yet). Then there are those that say film noir appeared much earlier in the 20's and 30's and even before. There are many fine textual bodies of work on film noir that you can find if you simply look them up on Amazon or even your library may have one. Getting back to the point, Christopher Nolan's films can be argued to fall under the category of 'noir.'
ThePhantomTerror wrote:Sorry for asking a stupid question, but what exactly is film noir?
Its a french phrase for "Black/Dark film" which became a genre in the early 40's, with films like The Maltese Falcon, and Double Idemnity and so on. It is characterized with low-key lighting, usually black and white film, and there is always this main character who is a man who is on the edge of justice, but always comes out as better knowing. There is also a term called a femme fatale, which is a woman character, who tries to corrupt the male, with her sexuality. Many of the films were based on 20's Detective books. And a crime is almost always the theme of the story - The dark city and dark hotel rooms are always the scene of the action
Here are some of the most well known film noirs:
Billy Wilder
1944 – Double Indemnity
1950 – Sunset Boulevard
John Huston
1941 – The Maltese Falcon
1950 – The Asphalt Jungle
Howard Hawks
1946 – The Big Sleep
Edward Dmytryk
1944 – Murder, My Sweet
1947 – Crossfire
Neo-noir is a new wave of filmmakers who loved the film-noir and therefore made films like it, in that genre we have films like Blade-runner, Chinatown and also Memento as we know it. Iv written a huge paper on Film-noir, so feel free to ask if there is anything
It doesn't always have to be a man. Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce. And genre is a little iffy from the scholarly work I've had to read. I mean, James Naremore's More Than Night, for instance, is a standard text on the subject, never classifies film noir as a genre. Perphaps this is just an issue of teaching methods/styles/etc. etc.
ThePhantomTerror wrote:Sorry for asking a stupid question, but what exactly is film noir?
Its a french phrase for "Black/Dark film" which became a genre in the early 40's, with films like The Maltese Falcon, and Double Idemnity and so on. It is characterized with low-key lighting, usually black and white film, and there is always this main character who is a man who is on the edge of justice, but always comes out as better knowing. There is also a term called a femme fatale, which is a woman character, who tries to corrupt the male, with her sexuality. Many of the films were based on 20's Detective books. And a crime is almost always the theme of the story - The dark city and dark hotel rooms are always the scene of the action
Here are some of the most well known film noirs:
Billy Wilder
1944 – Double Indemnity
1950 – Sunset Boulevard
John Huston
1941 – The Maltese Falcon
1950 – The Asphalt Jungle
Howard Hawks
1946 – The Big Sleep
Edward Dmytryk
1944 – Murder, My Sweet
1947 – Crossfire
Neo-noir is a new wave of filmmakers who loved the film-noir and therefore made films like it, in that genre we have films like Blade-runner, Chinatown and also Memento as we know it. Iv written a huge paper on Film-noir, so feel free to ask if there is anything
The femme fatale does not have to be one that is sexually alluring. Think of Alida Vallia as Anna in The Third Man. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) isn't sexually attracted to Anna. I mean, there's an obvious difference between Anna and Gilda (Rita Hayworth). Furthermore, it may be too much to say the femme fatale is one who is actively trying to corrupt (if that is the way you wish to say it) the male figure. All I'm saying is that your definition may be a bit too much of a generalization. Possibly.
Well yeah, what I wrote was just the general outline, there are always exceptions, but I thought it was unnecessary to burden him with it - since he just wanted a quick synopsis on the subject
Jonas Agersø wrote:Well yeah, what I wrote was just the general outline, there are always exceptions, but I thought it was unnecessary to burden him with it - since he just wanted a quick synopsis on the subject
