History of film noir

The term "film noir" originates from French film critics and was first coined by Nino Frank in 1946. Who noticed the trends in American films after World War 2, with its bleak subject matter, somber and downbeat tone.

Film noir was first established in 1940’s and continued through until 1955’s. This was during and after the 2nd world war. Film noir took advantage of the post-war ambience of the anxiety and suspicion.

My research showed that most people wouldn’t class film noir as a genre but as a sub genre or a more "dark" themed crime or gangster film. Using different moods, style, points of view and tone of film.

The budget was usually low, this was because world war 2 was going on and it was felt that making films was less important than supplying troops and supplies. This meant that the directors had to be clever about set designs and special effects. This is why film noir tended to be a B movie film.

There were plenty of short, bare-bones "B" crime thrillers made during the 40s, but the research i did showed that not many of them packed the noir pedigree of "A" productions like Double Indemnity, The Killers, Kiss of Death. Many people thought that those are films that set the era's artistic agenda for cinematic crime - the "B" pictures from the majors, and the stuff from Monogram and PRC and Eagle-Lion studios, mainly copied what the "A" films did successfully.

To overcome the budget the directors would use very simple settings, yet effective. Their main way of creating atmosphere was to use lighting. This meant that the directors could draw the audience’s attention to what was important. which also is an ideal way to create the atmosphere Associated with film noir.

Neo noir is the term used for more modern noirs that still use the same themes and tones as the 1940’s films, but in colour.

Film noir films were typically about alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. This was because they were using the ambience from the war. which is a common method with film makers, to use real life mood and situations.