To Define Film Noir

The following is a somewhat valiant, but perhaps foolhardy attempt to define film noir. For the purposes of this website, we are referring to classic or vintagefilm noir as opposed to post or neo noir, which came later.

People still struggle and bicker over what really is or isn't "film noir", and I don't claim that this (or any) definition is the absolute correct one, but it does try to get to the heart and soul of it.

The term itself is literally translated as black film or dark film. The "darkness" refers to the themes as much, if not more, as the visual style. Classic film noir refers to those (mostly) black and white films made in the 40's and 50's.

Film noir originated in the United States, as did jazz, though its look was born of German Expressionism of the 20's.

The expressive visual style of film noir helps the audience get inside this world of instability, fear, and/or alienation. Dark alleys, stifling hot apartments, smoky jazz clubs, roadside dives, and rainy highways prevail. The use of harsh key lights causes all those shadows.

The characters of these films are often obsessed, desperate, paranoid or trapped. Usually, the main character is a fairly decent fellow whose life and psyche is thrown into distorted mayhem by a twist of fate. The ensuing struggle and psychological or spiritual torment is what grips us and drives the story.

Some of the common psychological maladies which are portrayed in these films include: phobias, delirium, alcoholism, obsession, paranoia, compulsion, depression, extreme jealousy, mania and a host of others.

What else helps to define film noir? There's all those criminal activities, whether from organized crime, crimes of passion, or "accidental" crimes (as when the protagonist is "sucked" into doing something he or she never intended, mostly because he/she was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and made a very bad decision. Or something like that.

Some of these transgressions include murder, embezzlement, theft, gambling, kidnapping, adultery, blackmail, extortion, and don't forget assault and battery.

Another common element of these films is the femme fatale, the woman who leads, or at least nudges, the "nice guy" into his downward spiral. The dangerous and erotic attraction of these women is extremely powerful to these particular men. It is that irresistable siren's call to self destruction.

The stories of these films were often drawn from 30's pulp crime detective fiction and mysteries. Corruption of authority figures and men in power was a common thread.

World War II certainly had a lot to do with the creation or evolution of film noir, because the world was unstable and unpredictable. Even after the war ended, military men came back to America, trying to figure out how to fit back into "normal" life after having been through such a darkly intense experience.

To define film noir in a bite size chunk, it is the "dark night of the soul" expressed cinematically.

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