Film Noir

FILM NOIR

A term that French critics originally applied to the dark, doom-laden, black-and-white Hollywood crime dramas of the 40s (Maltese Falcon). The roots can be seen in the German expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), and were influenced by certain French films of the 30s (Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (1931) and La Bete Humaine (1931) which were both remade by Fritz Lang as noirs in Hollywood (Scarlet Street (1945), Human Desire (1954). Film Noir developed during and after World War II in the context of post-war anxiety and cynicism, featuring male anti-heroes who were disillusioned loners moving through dark alleyways, rundown hotels, cheerless bars, and gaudy nightclubs; the police and the villains were all corrupt and mercenary. Film Noir could be subtitled “the genre of betrayal” – personal betrayal, national betrayal, and international betrayal. The central character lives on the edge; the character thinks his chance at a better, richer, more vital life can only be found in another character; the relationship between the central character and his savior is a highly charged, sexual relationship; the central character will be betrayed in this relationship; there are no children in film noir; sexuality and violence coexist, and seem to be cause and effect; and the sense of aloneness in the central character is palpable, it represents an existential state.

What to Watch: This Gun for Hire (1942), The Big Sleep (1946)Touch of Evil (1958), The Long Goodbye (1973), Chinatown (1974), Body Heat (1981), Blood Simple (1983), L .A. Confidential (1997), The Black Dahlia (2005)