What is Film Noir?

Film Noir is a term to describe dark, gritty Hollywood movies, mostly conceived between the early 1940's and the late 1950's. Film Noir originally started in France (Noir being 'black', in French), and was adapted shortly after for an American audience. A lot of the time, low-key lighting is incorporated, as well as black and white imagery to create a distorted tension to the cinematic. Film Noir is difficult to define, as there are a broad spectrum of tendencies within Film Noir productions to make them so. Often these stray into other genres, and they are not concrete to Film Noir, and so describing a film that fits this trait is not an easy task. However, Film Noir does generally feature crime fiction, based upon real scenarios that could in fact happen in real life. Double Indemnity, for example, did not happen in real life as a case study, but probably has happened sometime in the past. Often Film Noir pieces are realistic and could potentially be real, which draws the audience into the piece more fluidly. However, this is not always the case, as 'I walked with a Zombie' is rather unrealistic, especially as the title character of the piece, the 'Zombie', is impossible to account for in real life. Nevertheless, there are several points, similar to Vladimir Propp's proposal of the structure of narrative, that can be affiliated with the Film Noir convention. Most Film Noir productions contain:

A crime - Often true to life, perhaps with slight exaggeration, but often a Film Noir piece will begin, or result, in a crime that could be committed by real people in a real life situation. This crime is usually the undoing of the characters, as they struggle to deal with what they have done. In early Film Noir productions, the criminal always had to be caught in the end, else the audience would be made to believe that they could get away with conducting these crimes themselves.

The perspective of the criminals, and reversed roles - Often in Film Noir productions, the criminals point of view is taken. All of a sudden, the criminal is seen as the character to sympathise with, whilst the police assume the role of villain, at least to the cause that the audience is supposed to relate to. In Film Noir, the antagonist becomes the protagonist, the characters swapping roles. There is also the inclusion, if police are present, of the 'Good cop, Bad cop' effect, wherein one of the police or law enforcers will receive more sympathy than the other. Due to the reversed roles, when the criminals are found out and caught, the audience feel sympathy for them, perhaps wishing that they had gotten away with their crime. The police are expressed as the villains of the piece, and can often be seen as corrupt in the eyes of the audience, creating an inverted view on existing roles in society.


Unstable alliances - A lot of the time in Film Noir productions, the main character finds people that he once confided in slowly turning against him, even if they are not initially aware of it. For example, in 'Double Indemnity', Keye's starts off as Neff's friend and collegue, though he eventually susses out what he's trying to do, and the two of them become enemies. In Film Noir, no relationship is absolute, and there is a lot of betrayal and false allegiance present in the narrative.


The Femme Fatale - A real nasty piece of work, the Femme Fatale character is prominant in most Film Noir productions, and they are almost always the cause of the crime, the storyline, and the subsequent death of the lead character. They use their good looks and sexuality to entice the men of the narrative, and after taking them under their spell, they use the men to commit crimes on their behalf. The Femme Fatale usually plays the role of the lead heroine, though they are still villainous in approach. They are beautiful and sexual, and have the ability to control men within the piece. Often in Film Noir, the men initially start out as innocent and simply doing a job, such as Postman (The Postman always rings Twice) or Insurance Salesman (Double Indemnity). However, they soon fall under the Femme Fatale's trap, and are corrupted and made to carry out their bidding. Often the Femme Fatale's sympathy comes from them being trapped in loveless marriages, and often, the men are employed to kill off the husbands, with the reward of being with the Femme Fatale afterwards. However, their intentions are usually unclear and dishonest, and many play around with many men, and simply abuse their power. Ultimately, they are often killed or imprisoned, usually by the men that they enslave, but it does show women as in control, and able to dominate men to their will.


Brutal violence - Often violence is heavy within Film Noir pieces, especially for the time. There are a lot of sadistic deaths involved, that often dismiss conventional methods. For example, though guns are used, often people are brutally murdered with weaponry that would not be seen to be used for such a purpose. Shovels, for example, or even machinery can be used to kill people off. In Double Indemnity, there is a large portion of the storyline devoted to the killing of Phyllis' husband, but greater emphasis on how they deal with his body. In Film Noir productions, it's not always how they kill the person that's shocking, but how the body is then dealt with. For example, in Double Indemnity, the body is thrown onto a railway track, after an elaborate ploy to make it look as if he fell of the observation deck. However, deaths are often misinterpretated by others within in the narrative, and the usual reason for the criminals to be found out is due to the recovery of the body, and the evidence presented. However, the gritty atmosphere and realism of Film Noir definately creates dark and often sinister violence to the production.