Film Noir is a film style and mood primarily associated with crime films, that portrays its principal characters in a nihilistic and existential world.

Film Noir is primarily derived from the hard-boiled style of crime fiction of the Depression era, (many Films Noir were adaptations of such novels), and may first be clearly seen in films released in the early 1940's.

'Noirs' were historically made in black and white, and had a dark, high-contrast, style with roots in German Expressionist cinematography.

Origin of the term

Film Noir is French for "black film", and is pronounced accordingly ("fīlm nwahr"). The English plural is given variously as films noirs (the correct plural in French), films noir, or film noirs.

French film critic Nino Frank is often credited with coining the term. However, earlier use of the term has been attributed to the French writing team Thomas Narcejac and Pierre Boileau, whose novels were staples in a genre of French crime novels, popular serialized editions known as 'Série Noire', several of which were made into Film Noirs.

The term Film Noir was unknown to the filmmakers and actors while they were creating the classic Film Noirs. Film Noir was defined in retrospect by film historians and critics; many of the creators of Film Noir later professed to be unaware at the time of having created a distinctive type of film.

Precursors

Film Noir is a result of a combination of genres and styles, with origins in painting and literature, as well as film.

The aesthetics of Film Noir are heavily influenced by German Expressionism. When Germany fell to Nazism, many important (Jewish!) film artists were forced to emigrate (e.g. Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Robert Siodmak,...). They took with them techniques they developed (most importantly the dramatic lighting and the subjective, psychological point of view) and made some of the most famous Films Noir in the USA.

Concurrent with the development of German Expressionism were expressionistic gangster films in America in the 1930's, such as "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", "Little Caesar" (1930), "Public Enemy" (1931), and "Scarface" (1932).

Other important influences came from the French poetic realism, with its themes of fatalism, injustice and doomed heroes, and Italian neorealism, with its emphasis on authenticity. Several later Noir Films, such as "Night and the City" (1950) and "Panic in the Streets" (1950), adopted a neorealist approach of using on-location photography with non-professional extras. Additionally, some Noir Films strove to depict comparatively ordinary or downtrodden people with unspectacular lives in a manner similar to neorealist films, such as "The Lost Weekend" and "In a Lonely Place".

In the United States, a major literary influence on Film Noir came from the hard-boiled school of detective and crime fiction, featuring writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, and popularized in pulp magazines such as 'Black Mask'. Chandler's "The Big Sleep" and "Murder My Sweet" (based on "Farewell, My Lovely") and Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" are notable Films Noir.

Boris Ingster's "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940) is often considered to be the first full-featured Film Noir, starring Peter Lorre as the sinister 'stranger'. Orson Welles's landmark film "Citizen Kane" (1941) had a huge influence on the development of Film Noir, particularly with its stunning visuals and complex narrative stucture driven by voice-over narration.

The classic period

The 1940's and 1950's were the "classic period" of Film Noir. Some film historians regard "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940) to be the first true Film Noir. Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil" (1958) is often cited as the last film in the classic period, although "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959) is also sometimes credited.

Some scholars believed Film Noir never really ended, but declined in popularity, only to be later revived in a slightly different form. Others critics — probably a majority — regard films made outside the classic time frame to be something other than genuine Film Noir. These critics regard true film noir as belonging to a cycle or period, and that subsequent films that try to evoke the classic films are different because the creators are conscious of a noir "style" in a way that the original makers of Film Noir were not.

Many of the classic Noir films were low-budget supporting features without major stars, in which 'moonlighting' writers, directors and technicians, some of them blacklisted, found themselves relatively free from big-picture restraints. Many of the most popular examples of Film Noir center upon a woman of questionable virtue and are also known as bad girl movies.

Major studio feature films demanded a wholesome, positive message. Weak and morally ambiguous lead characters were ruled out by the "star system", and secondary characters were seldom allowed any depth or autonomy. In "A" films, flattering soft lighting, deluxe interiors and elaborately-built exterior sets were the rule. Noir turned all this on its head, creating bleak but intelligent dramas tinged with nihilism, mistrust, bleakness, paranoia and cynicism, in real-life urban settings, and using unsettling techniques such as the confessional voice-over or hero's-eye-view camerawork. Gradually the Noir style re-influenced the mainstream.

Notable Film Noirs of the classic period :

The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
Murder, My Sweet (1944, Edward Dmytryk)
Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
Scarlet Street (1945, Fritz Lang)
The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947, Orson Welles)
Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950, John Huston)
Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)

Directors associated with classic Film Noir include John Huston, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles. Sir Alfred Hitchcock made some crime films that are similar to Film Noir, but are generally not considered part of the Film Noir canon.

Film Noir outside the U.S.A.

There have been a number of films made outside the U.S. that can reasonably be called Film Noir, for example "Pepé le Moko". Jules Dassin moved to France in the early fifties as a result of the Hollywood blacklist and made one of the most famous French films Noir, "Du Rififi Chez les Hommes" (1955).

Other well-known French films sometimes considered to be Noir include "Touchez pas au grisbi" (1954), "Les Diaboliques / Diabolique" (1955), and "Quai des Orfèvres" (1947). The French director Jean-Pierre Melville is widely recognized for his tragic, minimalist Films Noirs, such as "Le Samouraï" or "Le Cercle rouge". Additionally, the British director Sir Carol Reed made "The Third Man" (1949), which is often considered Film Noir. It is set in Vienna immediately after the war, with the collaboration of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, both prominent American film-Noir actors.

Neo-noir is a term often applied to films made after the classic period. Neo-noir films have been produced internationally in most countries with a prominent film industry. Examples include "High and Low" (Japan), "La Haine" (France), "Insomnia" (Norway), "Alphaville" (France), "The American Friend" (Germany), and "Blind Shaft" (China).

Neo-noir and the influence of Film Noir

In the 1960's American film-makers like Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, and Robert Altman created films that drew from (and commented upon) the original Film Noirs. In "The Long Goodbye", Altman's hard-boiled detective is presented as a hapless bungler who can't help but lose the moral battle.

Film Noir has been parodied (both broadly and affectionately) on many occasions. Bob Hope first parodied Film Noir in "My Favorite Brunette" (1947), playing a baby photographer who is mistaken for tough private detective. Other notable parodies are Steve Martin's black-and-white "cut and paste" homage "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", and Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam".

Many of Joel and Ethan Coen's films are excellent examples of modern films influenced by Noir, especially "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Miller's Crossing", the comedy "The Big Lebowski", and "Blood Simple", the title of which was lifted from the Dashiell Hammett story 'Red Harvest'. Also David Cronenberg's adaptation of Burroughs' surreal 'Naked Lunch' is strongly influenced by the genre.

The cynical, pessimistic worldview of Noirs strongly influenced the creators of the cyberpunk genre of science fiction in the early 1980's. "Blade Runner" is among the most popular films from this era. Characters in these films are derived from 1930's gangster films and, more importantly, from pulp fiction magazines such as 'The Shadow', 'Dime Mystery Detective', and 'The Black Mask'. Other examples for SF-Noir films are "Gattaca", "The Thirteenth Floor", "Ghost in the Shell" and "Dark City".

Recent works of popular fiction in a Noir vein include the 2005 movie "Sin City", the video game series Max Payne, and Christopher Nolan's take on "Batman".

Characteristics

Visual style

Noir films, traditionally black and white, tended to include dramatic shadows and stark contrast—using low-key lighting and monochrome film, typically resulting in a 10:1 ratio of dark to light, rather than the more typical 3:1 ratio. A number of Noir films were shot on location in cities, and night-for-night shooting was common. Also common to be seen in any Noir film are shadows of venetian blinds. These are dramatically cast upon an actor's face as he looks out a window. This is one of the many iconic visuals in Noir.

Noir is also known for its use of dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide angle lenses. Other devices of disoritentation common in Film Noir include shots of people in mirrors or multiple mirrors, shots through a glass (such as during the strangulation scene in "Strangers on a Train"), and multiple exposures (Schultheiss).

Setting

Film Noir tends to revolve around flawed and desperate characters in an unforgiving world. Crime, usually murder, is an element of all Films Noir, often sparked by jealousy, corruption, or greed. Most Films Noir contain certain archetypal characters (such as hardboiled detectives, femmes fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, insurance agents, or down-and-out writers), familiar locations (downtown Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco), and archetypal storylines (heist films, detective stories, court films, and films about rigged boxing games).

Outlook

Film Noir is at its core pessimistic. The stories it tells are of people trapped in a situation they did not want, often a situation they did not create, striving against random uncaring fate, and usually doomed. Almost all Film Noir plots involve the hard-boiled, disillusioned male and the dangerous femme fatale.

02-11-2005 om 00:00 geschreven door Saul Akkemay  

01-11-2005 om 00:00 geschreven door Saul Akkemay