Characteristics of film noir - Codes and conventions

It's about what people want, how badly they want it and how far they'll go to get it.

Film Noir is the all-American success story. It's about people who realize that following the program will never get them what they crave. So they cross the line, commit a crime and reap the consequences. Or, they're tales about seemingly innocent people tortured by paranoia. Either way, they depict a world that's merciless and unforgiving.
Storylines were often full of twists and turns. Narratives were frequently complex and typically told with flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. My research showed that amnesia was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.


The characters of film noir usually involved heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included 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, murderers, or just plain Joes. These characters were often morally-ambiguous low-life from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy greys, blacks and whites) showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of anxiety and suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir.

The sets of film noirs were often created by lighting, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. 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, or abandoned warehouses.

The sounds in a film noir were often very minimal. Usually ambient sounds (such as rain and sirens) are used that creates a more real atmosphere its makes the audience feel like the set is real. Another common sound is tense classical music. All music and sounds would be played in the background on top of the characters dialogue.