Film Noir Essays

  • Film Style Of Neo Noir Film: Neo Noir Film

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    Neo Noir Film Neo noir genre of film production is a style that has existed in the world of film production since the 1940s. Neo is a French word for new while noir means black. Noir film means black film although it does not literally incorporate the racial orientation of the black people. Rather it is the mood and attitude of the film in terms of different styles. Neo noir is an updated version of noir films of the 1940s. Noir films today have updated content, visual elements, style, themes or

  • Film Analysis: Film Noir

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ashley Seymour Film Noir Paper #2 Due: May 5, 2014 Mise-en-scene: Paranoia, Ambiguity, and Shifting Values Three quintessential films featuring elements of noir include: The Big Combo, Stranger on the Third Floor, and Out of the Past. The Big Combo is about protagonist and police lieutenant, Diamond, who is investigating mob boss Mr. Brown. Even though Diamond is ordered to cease the case, he makes one last attempt by going after Mr. Brown’s girl, Susan Lowell. The Stranger on the Third Floor is

  • Women In Film Noir

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hollywood’s film noir represents a hard-boiled and cynical portrayal of American life that is mostly about a male-dominated world. Attractive male characters lead the film’s storyline, and female characters such as a femme fatale take their positions that indicate in relation to the male protagonists. Also, in general, the world of dark, corruption and crime are usually described in film noir, and thus it shows a strong sense of social contradictions. “Outrage,” directed by Ida Lupino, strongly criticizes

  • Miami Film Noir

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    MIAMI NOIR We have much to learn from Mike Davis, CITY OF QUARTZ (Vintage, 1992) who discusses the paradoxical effects that the representations of Los Angeles in hardboiled novels and their translation into film noir cinema had on the image and myth of that city. Together they radically reworked the metaphorical figure of the city, using the crisis of the middle class (rarely the workers or the poor) to expose how the dream had become nightmare. . . . It is hard to exaggerate the damage which

  • Film Noir In The Film 'Detour'

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    the 1940’s and 1950’s, a new film genre called Film Noir became popularized. Film Noir translated from French means “black film” which is what these movies were. Some of the characteristics movies in this genre shared were that they were shot in black and white, there was no happy ending, the protagonist was often a war veterans, the plot was ruled on fate, emotions were usually raw, and the theme dealt with the darker side of human nature. One of the most popular film noir’s that was ever created

  • The History of Film Noir

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    The History of Film Noir Film Noir literally means ‘Black Film’. This term was first coined by French film critic Nino Frank, who noticed a trend in the darkness of themes in many American films that constituted wartime cinema. Classic film noir developed during the 1940’s during and after World War two, taking advantage of the post war zeitgeist of anxiety, pessimism and suspicion. Mistrust, fear, paranoia, and bleakness is obvious in noir, it reflects the cold war period when the threat

  • Chinatown as Film Noir

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    'Chinatown' as Film Noir Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness. Roman Polanski's

  • Film Noir: The Maltese falcon

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the

  • Film Noir: The Big Sleep

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This

  • The Film Noir in Double Indemnity

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Film Noir was a movement born from the disillusionment of post-war Americans. The term was coined by French critics who, after not having had access to American films since before World War II, were astonished by the “darkness” of post-war Hollywood cinema. Film noir did not provide the escape previous Hollywood films offered during the Great Depression, but instead confronted the audience with its characteristic anxiety-inducing style. The settings of these films were oppressively grim, where light

  • Film Noir

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Film Noir is a French term meaning “black film,” or film of the night, and is inspired by the Series Noir, a line of cheap paperbacks that translated hard-boiled American crime authors and had a popular audience. It is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas particularly those that empathize cynic attitudes and sexual motivations. It began in the early 1940s and has a certain storytelling sensibility of being over stylized, over theatrical, and overly emotional

  • Paint It Black: The Evolution of Film Noir

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now? The term film noir means, “black film” and was originally coined by French critic Nino Frank in 1946.. The author of “Film Noir”, Bruce Crowther, points out that “in some

  • l.a confidential film noir

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Key Conventions Of Film Noir In L.A Confidential L.A Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997) is a neo-noir film about a shooting at an all night diner and the three Las Angeles policeman who investigate in their own unique ways. It is based on the book by James Ellroy and after a very well adapted screenplay, won nine academy awards. It starred actors with big names like Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Danny Devito, which made it a very high earning film. The Narrative or storyline is much the same

  • Chinatown: Above The Film Noir Genre

    1601 Words  | 4 Pages

    has all the elements of a film noir: the presence of a beautiful but dangerous woman, otherwise known as the femme fatale, a gritty urban setting, compositional tension (highly contrasting light and dark colors or oblique camera angles), and themes of moral ambiguity and alienation. Chinatown, however, is different. Polanski shot Chinatown with color film, and though his colors do appear especially vivid, color film precludes the contrast intensity that black and white film offers. In addition, Evelyn

  • Film Noir: A Style Spanning Genres

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    objets d’art, including film – and the recognition or dismissal of film noir as a genre has been argued since the term was coined. While the term itself is valid, film noir as a genre is a misnomer. More properly, film noir should be considered a style unto itself, but definitively not genre, defined by the very definitions of the words “style” and “genre”. We will limit our subject matter here to the classic film noir period of 1941-1958, recognizing that all modern noir variants seek to emulate

  • Comparing The Film Noir And The Big Sleep

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    Film Noir and the Hard-Boiled Detective Genre "Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains!" is a memorable line of Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe in the 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (The Big Sleep). That one quote encapsulates the presence of corruption, violence and even class distinction that is characteristic of film noir and the hard-boiled detective genre. The novel and the film both focus on Philip Marlowe, a private detective, during his investigative process

  • Place For A Wom The Family In Film Noir

    1876 Words  | 4 Pages

    Femme Fatale And Her True Color Noir means black in French. Noir is a genre of typical crime dramas. Protagonists of noir fiction are either victims, suspects, or perpetrators. They either victimized other people or have been victimized by others. Unlike traditional women who playing virtuous wives and mother, the type of women in noir fiction acts the role of what a good woman shouldn’t be, selfish, psycho, crazy. We define them as femmes fatales. No matter what consequences are, femme fatale doesn’t

  • Film Noir Genre

    1774 Words  | 4 Pages

    I would like to start my writing with short definition about film noir genre. Film noir genre first was used to describe Hollywood crime dramas. It’s correct if we see the big visual influence of German expressionist movement which was started in 1910s and 1920s on film noir genre. And during that time a lot of artists in Europe were attracted to this movement to show inner feelings and psychological tensions; As even surrealism movement which it’s a kind of movement focusing on dreams and fantasies

  • Film Noir and Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    Film Noir, a term coined by the French to describe a style of film characterized by dark themes, storylines, and visuals, has been influencing cinematic industries since the 1940’s. With roots in German expressionistic films and Italian postwar documentaries, film noir has made its way into American film as well, particularly identified in mob and crime pictures. However, such settings are not exclusive to American film noir. One noteworthy example is Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard, which follows

  • Blade Runner as a Classic Film Noir and a Science Fiction Film

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blade Runner as a Classic Film Noir and a Science Fiction Film Blade Runner, a well known 80’s science-fiction film, begins in 2019, set in the industrial city of L.A., the scene lit only by the many neon lights and molten guisers. We draw in from a panoramic long shot to Deckard, ‘ex-cop, ex-killer, ex-blade-runner’, who is at the heart of this film. Blade Runner is, definitively, a science fiction film, but the traits of Film Noir are the bread and butter, bringing it the dark, desperate