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| Film noir | |
|---|---|
 Two silhouetted figures inThe Big Combo (1955). The film'scinematographer,John Alton, is sometimes credited as the creator of many of film noir's stylized images. | |
| Years active | Classic period: 1940s and 1950s; earlier films are often referred to as proto-noirs and later films asneo-noirs |
| Location | United States |
| Major figures | Humphrey Bogart Robert Mitchum Peter Lorre Robert Ryan |
| Influences | |
| Influenced | |
Film noir (/nwɑːr/;French:[filmnwaʁ]) is a style ofHollywoodcrime drama that emphasizescynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with alow-key,black-and-white visual style that has roots inGerman expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and attitudes expressed in classic noir derive from thehardboiled school ofcrime fiction that emerged in the United States during theGreat Depression, known asnoir fiction.[1]
The termfilm noir, French for "black film" (literal) or "dark film" (closer meaning),[2] was first applied toHollywood films by French criticNino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era.[3] Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprintSérie noire, founded in 1945.
Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs[a] were referred to as "melodramas". Whether film noir qualifies as a distinctgenre or whether it should be considered a filmmaking style is a matter of ongoing and heavy debate among film scholars.
Film noir encompasses a range of plots; common archetypical protagonists include a private investigator (The Big Sleep), aplainclothes police officer (The Big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a haplessgrifter (Night and the City), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy), afemme fatale (Gilda) or simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.). Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, the term has been used to describe films from around the world. Many films released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noirs of the classical period, and often treat its conventionsself-referentially. Latter-day works are typically referred to asneo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.[4]
The question of what defines film noir and what sort of category it is, provokes continuing debate.[5] "We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noironeiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel ..."—this set of attributes constitutes the first of many attempts to define film noir made by French criticsRaymond Borde [fr] and Étienne Chaumeton in their 1955 bookPanorama du film noir américain 1941–1953 (A Panorama of American Film Noir), the original and seminal extended treatment of the subject.[6] They emphasize that not every noir film embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike; another, particularly brutal.[7] The authors' caveats and repeated efforts at alternative definition have been echoed in subsequent scholarship, but in the words of cinema historian Mark Bould, film noir remains an "elusive phenomenon."[8]
Though film noir is often identified with a visual style that emphasizeslow-key lighting andunbalanced compositions,[9] films commonly identified as noir evidence a variety of visual approaches, including ones that fit comfortably within the Hollywood mainstream.[10] Film noir similarly embraces a variety of genres, from thegangster film to thepolice procedural to thegothic romance to thesocial problem picture—any example of which from the 1940s and 1950s, now seen as noir's classical era, was likely to be described as a melodrama at the time.[11]
It is night, always. The hero enters a labyrinth on a quest. He is alone and off balance. He may be desperate, in flight, or coldly calculating, imagining he is the pursuer rather than the pursued.
A woman invariably joins him at a critical juncture, when he is most vulnerable. [Her] eventual betrayal of him (or herself) is as ambiguous as her feelings about him.
While many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing.[13] Foster Hirsch defines a genre as determined by "conventions of narrative structure, characterization, theme, and visual design." Hirsch, as one who has taken the position that film noir is a genre, argues that these elements are present "in abundance." Hirsch notes that there are unifying features of tone, visual style and narrative sufficient to classify noir as a distinct genre.[14]
Others argue that film noir is not a genre. It is often associated with an urban setting, but many classic noirs take place in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road; setting is not a determinant, as with theWestern. Similarly, while theprivate eye and thefemme fatale arestock character types conventionally identified with noir, the majority of films in the genre feature neither. Nor does film noir rely on anything as evident as the monstrous or supernatural elements of thehorror film, the speculative leaps of thescience fiction film, or the song-and-dance routines of themusical.[15]
An analogous case is that of thescrewball comedy, widely accepted by film historians as constituting a "genre": screwball is defined not by a fundamental attribute, but by a general disposition and a group of elements, some—but rarely and perhaps never all—of which are found in each of the genre's films.[16] Because of the diversity of noir (much greater than that of the screwball comedy), certain scholars in the field, such as film historianThomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a "style".[17]Alain Silver, the most widely published American critic specializing in film noir studies, refers to film noir as a "cycle"[18] and a "phenomenon",[19] even as he argues that it has—like certain genres—a consistent set of visual and thematic codes.[20] ScreenwriterEric R. Williams labels both film noir and screwball comedy a "pathway" in his screenwriters taxonomy; explaining that a pathway has two parts: 1) the way the audience connects with the protagonist and 2) the trajectory the audience expects the story to follow.[21] Other critics treat film noir as a "mood,"[22] a "series",[23] or simply a chosen set of films they regard as belonging to the noir "canon."[24] There is no consensus on the matter.[25]
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The aesthetics of film noir were influenced byGerman Expressionism, an artistic movement of the 1910s and 1920s that involved theater, music, photography, painting, sculpture and architecture, as well as cinema. The opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and then the threat ofNazism led to the emigration of many film artists working in Germany who had been involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners.[26]M (1931), shot only a few years before directorFritz Lang's departure from Germany, is among the first crime films of thesound era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). Directors such as Lang,Jacques Tourneur,Robert Siodmak andMichael Curtiz brought a dramatically shadowed lighting style and a psychologically expressive approach to visual composition (mise-en-scène) with them to Hollywood, where they made some of the most famous classic noirs.[27]
By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, making as many as six films a year. Movies of his such as20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) andPrivate Detective 62 (1933) are among the early Hollywood sound films arguably classifiable as noir—scholar Marc Vernet offers the latter as evidence that dating the initiation of film noir to 1940 or any other year is "arbitrary".[28] Expressionism-orientated filmmakers had free stylistic rein inUniversal horror pictures such asDracula (1931),The Mummy (1932)—the formerphotographed and the latter directed by the Berlin-trainedKarl Freund—andThe Black Cat (1934), directed by Austrian émigréEdgar G. Ulmer.[29] The Universal horror film that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility, isThe Invisible Man (1933), directed by EnglishmanJames Whale and photographed by AmericanArthur Edeson. Edeson later photographedThe Maltese Falcon (1941), widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era.[30]
Josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood during the same period. Films of his such asShanghai Express (1932) andThe Devil Is a Woman (1935), with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style anticipated central elements of classic noir. The commercial and critical success of Sternberg's silentUnderworld (1927) was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films.[31] Successful films in that genre such asLittle Caesar (1931),The Public Enemy (1931) andScarface (1932) demonstrated that there was an audience for crime dramas with morally reprehensible protagonists.[32] An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s Frenchpoetic realism, with its romantic,fatalistic attitude and celebration of doomed heroes.[33] The movement's sensibility is mirrored in theWarner Bros. dramaI Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a forerunner of noir.[34] Among films not considered noir, perhaps none had a greater effect on the development of the genre thanCitizen Kane (1941), directed byOrson Welles. Its visual intricacy and complex,voiceover narrative structure are echoed in dozens of classic film noirs.[35]
Italian neorealism of the 1940s, with its emphasis onquasi-documentary authenticity, was an acknowledged influence on trends that emerged in American noir.The Lost Weekend (1945), directed byBilly Wilder, another Vienna-born, Berlin-trained Americanauteur, tells the story of an alcoholic in a manner evocative of neorealism.[36] It also exemplifies the problem of classification: one of the first American films to be described as a film noir, it has largely disappeared from considerations of the field.[37] DirectorJules Dassin ofThe Naked City (1948) pointed to the neorealists as inspiring his use of location photography with non-professional extras. This semidocumentary approach characterized a substantial number of noirs in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Along with neorealism, the style had an American precedent cited by Dassin, in directorHenry Hathaway'sThe House on 92nd Street (1945), which demonstrated the parallel influence of the cinematic newsreel.[38]
The primary literary influence on film noir was thehardboiled school of Americandetective andcrime fiction, led in its early years by such writers asDashiell Hammett (whose first novel,Red Harvest, was published in 1929) andJames M. Cain (whoseThe Postman Always Rings Twice appeared five years later), and popularized inpulp magazines such asBlack Mask. The classic film noirsThe Maltese Falcon (1941) andThe Glass Key (1942) were based on novels by Hammett; Cain's novels provided the basis forDouble Indemnity (1944),Mildred Pierce (1945),The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), andSlightly Scarlet (1956; adapted fromLove's Lovely Counterfeit). A decade before the classic era, a story by Hammett was the source for the gangster melodramaCity Streets (1931), directed byRouben Mamoulian and photographed byLee Garmes, who worked regularly with Sternberg. Released the month before Lang'sM,City Streets has a claim to being the first major film noir; both its style and story had many noir characteristics.[40]
Raymond Chandler, who debuted as a novelist withThe Big Sleep in 1939, soon became the most famous author of the hardboiled school. Not only were Chandler's novels turned into major noirs—Murder, My Sweet (1944; adapted fromFarewell, My Lovely),The Big Sleep (1946), andLady in the Lake (1947)—he was an importantscreenwriter in the genre as well, producing the scripts forDouble Indemnity,The Blue Dahlia (1946), andStrangers on a Train (1951). Where Chandler, like Hammett, centered most of his novels and stories on the character of the private eye, Cain featured less heroic protagonists and focused more on psychological exposition than on crime solving;[41] the Cain approach has come to be identified with a subset of the hardboiled genre dubbed "noir fiction". For much of the 1940s, one of the most prolific and successful authors of this often downbeat brand of suspense tale wasCornell Woolrich (sometimes under the pseudonym George Hopley or William Irish). No writer's published work provided the basis for more noir films of the classic period than Woolrich's: thirteen in all, includingBlack Angel (1946),Deadline at Dawn (1946), andFear in the Night (1947).[42]
Another crucial literary source for film noir wasW. R. Burnett, whose first novel to be published wasLittle Caesar, in 1929. It was turned into a hit forWarner Bros. in 1931; the following year, Burnett was hired to write dialogue forScarface, whileThe Beast of the City (1932) was adapted from one of his stories. At least one important reference work identifies the latter as a film noir despite its early date.[43] Burnett's characteristic narrative approach fell somewhere between that of the quintessential hardboiled writers and their noir fiction compatriots—his protagonists were often heroic in their own way, which happened to be that of the gangster. During the classic era, his work, either as author or screenwriter, was the basis for seven films now widely regarded as noir, including three of the most famous:High Sierra (1941),This Gun for Hire (1942), andThe Asphalt Jungle (1950).[44]
The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the classic period of American film noir. WhileCity Streets and other pre-WWII crime melodramas such asFury (1936) andYou Only Live Once (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are categorized as full-fledged noir in Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward's film noir encyclopedia, other critics tend to describe them as "proto-noir" or in similar terms.[45]
The film now most commonly cited as the first true film noir isStranger on the Third Floor (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trainedBoris Ingster.[46] Hungarian émigréPeter Lorre—who had starred in Lang'sM—was top-billed, although he did not play the primary lead. (He later playedsecondary roles in several other formative American noirs.) Although modestly budgeted, at the high end of theB movie scale,Stranger on the Third Floor still lost its studio,RKO, US$56,000 (equivalent to $1,256,874 in 2024), almost a third of its total cost.[47]Variety magazine found Ingster's work: "...too studied and when original, lacks the flare [sic] to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others."[48]Stranger on the Third Floor was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades.[46]
Whoever went to the movies with any regularity during 1946 was caught in the midst of Hollywood's profound postwar affection for morbid drama. From January through December deep shadows, clutching hands, exploding revolvers, sadistic villains and heroines tormented with deeply rooted diseases of the mind flashed across the screen in a panting display of psychoneurosis, unsublimated sex and murder most foul.
Most film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly-budgeted features without major stars—B movies either literally or in spirit. In this production context, writers, directors, cinematographers, and other craftsmen were relatively free from typical big-picture constraints. There was more visual experimentation than in Hollywood filmmaking as a whole: the Expressionism now closely associated with noir and the semi-documentary style that later emerged represent two very different tendencies. Narrative structures sometimes involved convoluted flashbacks uncommon in non-noir commercial productions. In terms of content, enforcement of theProduction Code ensured that no film character could literally get away with murder or be seen sharing a bed with anyone but a spouse; within those bounds, however, many films now identified as noir feature plot elements and dialogue that were very risqué for the time.[50]
Thematically, film noirs were most exceptional for the relative frequency with which they centered onportrayals of women of questionable virtue—a focus that had become rare in Hollywood films after the mid-1930s and the end of thepre-Code era. The signal film in this vein wasDouble Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder; setting the mold wasBarbara Stanwyck'sfemme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson—an apparent nod toMarlene Dietrich, who had built her extraordinary career playing such characters for Sternberg. An A-level feature, the film's commercial success and sevenOscar nominations made it probably the most influential of the early noirs.[51] A slew of now-renowned noir "bad girls" followed, such as those played byRita Hayworth inGilda (1946),Lana Turner inThe Postman Always Rings Twice (1946),Ava Gardner inThe Killers (1946), andJane Greer inOut of the Past (1947). The iconic noir counterpart to the femme fatale, the private eye, came to the fore in films such asThe Maltese Falcon (1941), withHumphrey Bogart asSam Spade, andMurder, My Sweet (1944), withDick Powell asPhilip Marlowe.
The prevalence of the private eye as a lead character declined in film noir of the 1950s, a period during which several critics describe the form as becoming more focused on extreme psychologies and more exaggerated in general.[52] A prime example isKiss Me Deadly (1955); based on a novel byMickey Spillane, the best-selling of all the hardboiled authors, here the protagonist is a private eye,Mike Hammer. As described byPaul Schrader, "Robert Aldrich's teasing direction carriesnoir to its sleaziest and most perversely erotic. Hammer overturns the underworld in search of the 'great whatsit' [which] turns out to be—joke of jokes—an exploding atomic bomb."[53] Orson Welles's baroquely styledTouch of Evil (1958) is frequently cited as the last noir of the classic period.[54] Some scholars[by whom?] believe film noir never really ended, but continued to transform even as the characteristic noir visual style began to seem dated and changing production conditions led Hollywood in different directions—in this view, post-1950s films in the noir tradition are seen as part of a continuity with classic noir.[55] A majority of critics, however, regard comparable films made outside the classic era to be something other than genuine film noir. They regard true film noir as belonging to a temporally and geographically limited cycle or period, treating subsequent films that evoke the classics as fundamentally different due to general shifts in filmmaking style and latter-day awareness of noir as a historical source forallusion.[56] These later films are often calledneo-noir.
While the inceptive noir,Stranger on the Third Floor, was a B picture directed by a virtual unknown, many of the film noirs still remembered were A-list productions by well-known film makers. Debuting as a director withThe Maltese Falcon (1941),John Huston followed withKey Largo (1948) andThe Asphalt Jungle (1950). Opinion is divided on the noir status of severalAlfred Hitchcock thrillers from the era; at least four qualify by consensus:Shadow of a Doubt (1943),Notorious (1946),Strangers on a Train (1951) andThe Wrong Man (1956),[57]Otto Preminger's success withLaura (1944) made his name and helped demonstrate noir's adaptability to a high-gloss20th Century-Fox presentation.[58] Among Hollywood's most celebrated directors of the era, arguably none worked more often in a noir mode than Preminger; his other noirs includeFallen Angel (1945),Whirlpool (1949),Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (all for Fox) andAngel Face (1952). A half-decade afterDouble Indemnity andThe Lost Weekend, Billy Wilder madeSunset Boulevard (1950) andAce in the Hole (1951), noirs that were not so much crime dramas as satires on Hollywood and the news media respectively.In a Lonely Place (1950) wasNicholas Ray's breakthrough; his other noirs include his debut,They Live by Night (1948) andOn Dangerous Ground (1952), noted for their unusually sympathetic treatment of characters alienated from the social mainstream.[59]
Orson Welles had notorious problems with financing but his three film noirs were well-budgeted:The Lady from Shanghai (1947) received top-level, "prestige" backing, whileThe Stranger (1946), his most conventional film, andTouch of Evil (1958), an unmistakably personal work, were funded at levels lower but still commensurate with headlining releases.[60] LikeThe Stranger, Fritz Lang'sThe Woman in the Window (1944) was a production of the independent International Pictures. Lang's follow-up,Scarlet Street (1945), was one of the few classic noirs to be officially censored: filled with erotic innuendo, it was temporarily banned in Milwaukee, Atlanta and New York State.[61]Scarlet Street was a semi-independent, cosponsored byUniversal and Lang's Diana Productions, of which the film's co-star,Joan Bennett, was the second biggest shareholder. Lang, Bennett and her husband, the Universal veteran and Diana production headWalter Wanger, madeSecret Beyond the Door (1948) in similar fashion.[62]
Before leaving the United States while subject to theHollywood blacklist, Jules Dassin made two classic noirs that also straddled the major/independent line:Brute Force (1947) and the influential documentary-styleThe Naked City (1948) were developed by producerMark Hellinger, who had an "inside/outside" contract with Universal similar to Wanger's.[63] Years earlier, working at Warner Bros., Hellinger had produced three films forRaoul Walsh, the proto-noirsThey Drive by Night (1940),Manpower (1941) andHigh Sierra (1941), now regarded as a seminal work in noir's development.[64] Walsh had no great name during his half-century as a director but his noirsThe Man I Love (1947),White Heat (1949) andThe Enforcer (1951) had A-list stars and are seen as important examples of the cycle.[65] Other directors associated with top-of-the-bill Hollywood film noirs includeEdward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet (1944),Crossfire (1947))—the first important noir director to fall prey to the industry blacklist—as well asHenry Hathaway (The Dark Corner (1946),Kiss of Death (1947)) andJohn Farrow (The Big Clock (1948),Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)).
Most of the Hollywood films considered to be classic noirs fall into the category of the B movie.[66] Some were Bs in the most precise sense, produced to run on the bottom ofdouble bills by a low-budget unit of one of themajor studios or by one of the smallerPoverty Row outfits, from the relatively well-offMonogram to shakier ventures such asProducers Releasing Corporation (PRC).Jacques Tourneur had made over thirty Hollywood Bs (a few now highly regarded, most forgotten) before directing the A-levelOut of the Past, described by scholar Robert Ottoson as "thene plus ultra of forties film noir".[67] Movies with budgets a step up the ladder, known as "intermediates" by the industry, might be treated as A or B pictures depending on the circumstances. Monogram createdAllied Artists in the late 1940s to focus on this sort of production.Robert Wise (Born to Kill [1947],The Set-Up [1949]) andAnthony Mann (T-Men [1947] andRaw Deal [1948]) each made a series of impressive intermediates, many of them noirs, before graduating to steady work on big-budget productions. Mann did some of his most celebrated work with cinematographerJohn Alton, a specialist in what James Naremore called "hypnotic moments of light-in-darkness".[68]He Walked by Night (1948), shot by Alton though credited solely to Alfred Werker, directed in large part by Mann, demonstrates their technical mastery and exemplifies the late 1940s trend of "police procedural" crime dramas. It was released, like other Mann-Alton noirs, by the smallEagle-Lion company; it was the inspiration for theDragnet series, which debuted on radio in 1949 and television in 1951.[69]
Several directors associated with noir built well-respected oeuvres largely at the B-movie/intermediate level.Samuel Fuller's brutal, visually energetic films such asPickup on South Street (1953) andUnderworld U.S.A. (1961) earned him a unique reputation; his advocates praise him as "primitive" and "barbarous".[71][72]Joseph H. Lewis directed noirs as diverse asGun Crazy (1950) andThe Big Combo (1955). The former—whose screenplay was written by the blacklistedDalton Trumbo, disguised by a front—features a bank hold-up sequence shown in an unbroken take of over three minutes that was influential.[73]The Big Combo was shot by John Alton and took the shadowy noir style to its outer limits.[74] The most distinctive films ofPhil Karlson (The Phenix City Story [1955] andThe Brothers Rico [1957]) tell stories of vice organized on a monstrous scale.[75] The work of other directors in this tier of the industry, such asFelix E. Feist (The Devil Thumbs a Ride [1947],Tomorrow Is Another Day [1951]), has become obscure.Edgar G. Ulmer spent most of his Hollywood career working at B studios and once in a while on projects that achieved intermediate status; for the most part, on unmistakable Bs. In 1945, while at PRC, he directed a noir cult classic,Detour.[76] Ulmer's other noirs includeStrange Illusion (1945), also for PRC;Ruthless (1948), for Eagle-Lion, which had acquired PRC the previous year andMurder Is My Beat (1955), for Allied Artists.
A number of low- and modestly-budgeted noirs were made by independent, often actor-owned, companies contracting with larger studios for distribution. Serving as producer, writer, director and top-billed performer,Hugo Haas made films likePickup (1951),The Other Woman (1954) and Jacques Tourneur,The Fearmakers (1958). It was in this way that accomplished noir actressIda Lupino established herself as the sole female director in Hollywood during the late 1940s and much of the 1950s. She does not appear in the best-known film she directed,The Hitch-Hiker (1953), developed by her company, The Filmakers, with support and distribution by RKO.[77] It is one of the seven classic film noirs produced largely outside of the major studios that have been chosen for the United StatesNational Film Registry. Of the others, one was a small-studio release:Detour. Four were independent productions distributed byUnited Artists, the "studio without a studio":Gun Crazy;Kiss Me Deadly;D.O.A. (1950), directed byRudolph Maté andSweet Smell of Success (1957), directed byAlexander Mackendrick. One was an independent distributed byMGM, the industry leader:Force of Evil (1948), directed byAbraham Polonsky and starringJohn Garfield, both of whom were blacklisted in the 1950s.[78] Independent production usually meant restricted circumstances butSweet Smell of Success, despite the plans of the production team, was clearly not made on the cheap, though like many other cherished A-budget noirs, it might be said to have a B-movie soul.[79]
Perhaps no director better displayed that spirit than the German-bornRobert Siodmak, who had already made a score of films before his 1940 arrival in Hollywood. Working mostly on A features, he made eight films now regarded as classic-era noir (a figure matched only by Lang and Mann).[80] In addition toThe Killers,Burt Lancaster's debut and a Hellinger/Universal co-production, Siodmak's other important contributions to the genre include 1944'sPhantom Lady (a top-of-the-line B and Woolrich adaptation), the ironically titledChristmas Holiday (1944), andCry of the City (1948).Criss Cross (1949), with Lancaster again the lead, exemplifies how Siodmak brought the virtues of the B-movie to the A noir. In addition to the relatively looser constraints on character and message at lower budgets, the nature of B production lent itself to the noir style for economic reasons: dim lighting saved on electricity and helped cloak cheap sets (mist and smoke also served the cause). Night shooting was often compelled by hurried production schedules. Plots with obscure motivations and intriguingly elliptical transitions were sometimes the consequence of hastily written scripts. There was not always enough time or money to shoot every scene. InCriss Cross, Siodmak achieved these effects, wrapping them aroundYvonne De Carlo, who played the most understandable of femme fatales;Dan Duryea, in one of his many charismatic villain roles; and Lancaster as an ordinary laborer turned armed robber, doomed by a romantic obsession.[81]
| Classic-era film noirs in theNational Film Registry | |
|---|---|
| 1940–49 | |
| 1950–58 |
Some critics regard classic film noir as a cycle exclusive to the United States; Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, for example, argue, "With the Western, film noir shares the distinction of being an indigenous American form ... a wholly American film style."[83] However, although the term "film noir" was originally coined to describe Hollywood movies, it was an international phenomenon.[84] Even before the beginning of the generally accepted classic period, there were films made far from Hollywood that can be seen in retrospect as film noirs, for example, the French productionsPépé le Moko (1937), directed byJulien Duvivier, andLe Jour se lève (1939), directed byMarcel Carné.[85] In addition,Mexico experienced a vibrant film noir period from roughly 1946 to 1952, which was around the same time film noir was blossoming in the United States.[86]
During the classic period, there were many films produced in Europe, particularly in France, that share elements of style, theme, and sensibility with American film noirs and may themselves be included in the genre's canon. In certain cases, the interrelationship with Hollywood noir is obvious: American-born directorJules Dassin moved to France in the early 1950s as a result of theHollywood blacklist, and made one of the most famous French film noirs,Rififi (1955). Other well-known French films often classified as noir includeQuai des Orfèvres (1947) andLes Diaboliques (1955), both directed byHenri-Georges Clouzot.Casque d'Or (1952),Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), andLe Trou (1960) directed byJacques Becker; andAscenseur pour l'échafaud (1958), directed byLouis Malle. French directorJean-Pierre Melville is widely recognized for his tragic, minimalist film noirs—Bob le flambeur (1955), from the classic period, was followed byLe Doulos (1962),Le deuxième souffle 1966),Le Samouraï (1967), andLe Cercle rouge (1970).[87] In the 1960s, Greek film noirs "The Secret of the Red Mantle"[88] and "The Fear" allowed audience for an anti-ableist reading which challenged stereotypes of disability.[89]
Scholar Andrew Spicer argues that British film noir evidences a greater debt to French poetic realism than to the expressionistic American mode of noir.[90] Examples of British noir (sometimes described as "Brit noir") from the classic period includeBrighton Rock (1947), directed byJohn Boulting;They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), directed byAlberto Cavalcanti;The October Man (1947), directed byRoy Ward Baker;The Small Back Room (1948), directed byMichael Powell andEmeric Pressburger; andCast a Dark Shadow (1955), directed byLewis Gilbert.Terence Fisher directed several low-budget thrillers in a noir mode forHammer Film Productions, includingThe Last Page (a.k.a.Man Bait; 1952),Stolen Face (1952), andMurder by Proxy (a.k.a.Blackout; 1954). Before leaving for France, Jules Dassin had been obliged by political pressure to shoot his last English-language film of the classic noir period in Great Britain:Night and the City (1950). Though it was conceived in the United States and was not only directed by an American but also stars two American actors—Richard Widmark andGene Tierney—it is technically a UK production, financed by20th Century-Fox's British subsidiary. The most famous of classic British noirs is directorCarol Reed'sThe Third Man (1949), from a screenplay byGraham Greene. Set in Vienna immediately after World War II, it also stars two American actors,Joseph Cotten andOrson Welles, who had appeared together inCitizen Kane.[91]
Elsewhere, Italian directorLuchino Visconti adapted Cain'sThe Postman Always Rings Twice asOssessione (1943), regarded both as one of the great noirs and a seminal film in the development of neorealism.[92] (This was not even the first screen version of Cain's novel, having been preceded by the FrenchLe Dernier Tournant in 1939.)[93] In Japan, the celebratedAkira Kurosawa directed several films recognizable as film noirs, includingDrunken Angel (1948),Stray Dog (1949),The Bad Sleep Well (1960), andHigh and Low (1963).[94] Spanish author Mercedes Formica's novelLa ciudad perdida (The Lost City) was adapted intofilm in 1955.[95]
Among the first majorneo-noir films—the term often applied to films that consciously refer back to the classic noir tradition—was the FrenchTirez sur le pianiste (1960), directed byFrançois Truffaut from a novel by one of the gloomiest of American noir fiction writers,David Goodis.[96] Noir crime films and melodramas have been produced in many countries in the post-classic area. Some of these are quintessentially self-aware neo-noirs—for example,Il Conformista (1969; Italy),Der Amerikanische Freund (1977; Germany),The Element of Crime (1984; Denmark), andEl Aura (2005; Argentina). Others simply share narrative elements and a version of the hardboiled sensibility associated with classic noir, such asCastle of Sand (1974; Japan),Insomnia (1997; Norway),Croupier (1998; UK), andBlind Shaft (2003; China).[97]
The neo-noir film genre developed mid-way into the Cold War. This cinematological trend reflected much of the cynicism and the possibility of nuclear annihilation of the era. This new genre introduced innovations that were not available to earlier noir films. The violence was also more potent.[98]
While it is hard to draw a line between some of the noir films of the early 1960s such asBlast of Silence (1961) andCape Fear (1962) and the noirs of the late 1950s, new trends emerged in the post-classic era.The Manchurian Candidate (1962), directed byJohn Frankenheimer,Shock Corridor (1963), directed bySamuel Fuller, andBrainstorm (1965), directed by experienced noir character actorWilliam Conrad, all treat the theme of mental dispossession within stylistic and tonal frameworks derived from classic film noir.[99]The Manchurian Candidate examined the situation ofAmerican prisoners of war (POWs) during theKorean War. Incidents that occurred during the war as well as those post-war functioned as an inspiration for a "Cold War Noir" subgenre.[100][101] The television seriesThe Fugitive (1963–67) brought classic noir themes and mood to the small screen for an extended run.[99]
In a different vein, films began to appear that self-consciously acknowledged the conventions of classic film noir as historicalarchetypes to be revived, rejected, or reimagined. These efforts typify what came to be known as neo-noir.[103] Though several late classic noirs,Kiss Me Deadly (1955) in particular, were deeply self-knowing and post-traditional in conception, none tipped its hand so evidently as to be remarked on by American critics at the time.[104] The first major film to overtly work this angle was French directorJean-Luc Godard'sÀ bout de souffle (Breathless; 1960), which pays its literal respects to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a bold new style for a new day.[105] In the United States,Arthur Penn (1965'sMickey One, drawing inspiration from Truffaut'sTirez sur le pianiste and otherFrench New Wave films),John Boorman (1967'sPoint Blank, similarly caught up, though in theNouvelle vague's deeper waters), andAlan J. Pakula (1971'sKlute) directed films that knowingly related themselves to the original film noirs, inviting audiences in on the game.[106]
A manifest affiliation with noir traditions—which, by its nature, allows different sorts of commentary on them to be inferred—can also provide the basis for explicit critiques of those traditions. In 1973, directorRobert Altman flipped off noir piety withThe Long Goodbye. Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, it features one of Bogart's most famous characters, but iniconoclastic fashion: Philip Marlowe, the prototypical hardboiled detective, is replayed as a hapless misfit, almost laughably out of touch with contemporarymores and morality.[107] Where Altman's subversion of the film noir mythos was so irreverent as to outrage some contemporary critics,[108] around the same timeWoody Allen was paying affectionate, at points idolatrous homage to the classic mode withPlay It Again, Sam (1972). The "blaxploitation" filmShaft (1971), whereinRichard Roundtree plays the titular African-American private eye,John Shaft, takes conventions from classic noir.
The most acclaimed of the neo-noirs of the era was directorRoman Polanski's 1974Chinatown.[109] Written byRobert Towne, it is set in 1930s Los Angeles, an accustomed noir locale nudged back some few years in a way that makes the pivotal loss of innocence in the story even crueler. Where Polanski and Towne raised noir to a black apogee by turning rearward, directorMartin Scorsese and screenwriterPaul Schrader brought the noir attitude crashing into the present day withTaxi Driver (1976), a crackling, bloody-minded gloss on bicentennial America.[110] In 1978,Walter Hill wrote and directedThe Driver, a chase film as might have been imagined by Jean-Pierre Melville in an especially abstract mood.[111]
Hill was already a central figure in 1970s noir of a more straightforward manner, having written the script for directorSam Peckinpah'sThe Getaway (1972), adapting a novel by pulp masterJim Thompson, as well as for two tough private eye films: an original screenplay forHickey & Boggs (1972) and an adaptation of a novel byRoss Macdonald, the leading literary descendant of Hammett and Chandler, forThe Drowning Pool (1975). Some of the strongest 1970s noirs, in fact, were unwinking remakes of the classics, "neo" mostly by default: the heartbreakingThieves Like Us (1974), directed by Altman from the same source as Ray'sThey Live by Night, andFarewell, My Lovely (1975), the Chandler tale made classically asMurder, My Sweet, remade here with Robert Mitchum in his last notable noir role.[112] Detective series, prevalent on American television during the period, updated the hardboiled tradition in different ways, but the show conjuring the most noir tone was a horror crossover touched with shaggy,Long Goodbye-style humor:Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974–75), featuring a Chicago newspaper reporter investigating strange, usually supernatural occurrences.[113]
The turn of the decade brought Scorsese's black-and-whiteRaging Bull (1980, cowritten by Schrader). An acknowledged masterpiece—in 2007 theAmerican Film Institute ranked it as the greatest American film of the 1980s and the fourth greatest of all time—it tells the story of a boxer's moral self-destruction that recalls in both theme and visual ambiance noir dramas such asBody and Soul (1947) andChampion (1949).[115] From 1981,Body Heat, written and directed byLawrence Kasdan, invokes a different set of classic noir elements, this time in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting. Its success confirmed the commercial viability of neo-noir at a time when the major Hollywood studios were becoming increasingly risk averse. The mainstreaming of neo-noir is evident in such films asBlack Widow (1987),Shattered (1991), andFinal Analysis (1992).[116] Few neo-noirs have made more money or more wittily updated the tradition of the noir double entendre thanBasic Instinct (1992), directed byPaul Verhoeven and written byJoe Eszterhas.[117] The film also demonstrates how neo-noir's polychrome palette can reproduce many of the expressionistic effects of classic black-and-white noir.[114]
LikeChinatown, its more complex predecessor,Curtis Hanson's Oscar-winningL.A. Confidential (1997), based on theJames Ellroy novel, demonstrates the opposite tendency—the deliberately retro film noir; its tale of corrupt cops and femmes fatale is seemingly lifted straight from a film of 1953, the year in which it is set.[118] DirectorDavid Fincher followed the immensely successful neo-noirSeven (1995) with a film that developed into a cult favorite after its original, disappointing release:Fight Club (1999), asui generis mix of noir aesthetic, perverse comedy, speculative content, and satiric intent.[119]
Working generally with much smaller budgets, brothersJoel and Ethan Coen have created one of the most extensive oeuvres influenced by classic noir, with films such asBlood Simple (1984)[121] andFargo (1996), the latter considered by some a supreme work in the neo-noir mode.[122] The Coens cross noir with other generic traditions in the gangster dramaMiller's Crossing (1990)—loosely based on the Dashiell Hammett novelsRed Harvest andThe Glass Key—and the comedyThe Big Lebowski (1998), a tribute to Chandler and an homage to Altman's version ofThe Long Goodbye.[123] The characteristic work ofDavid Lynch combines film noir tropes with scenarios driven by disturbed characters such as the sociopathic criminal played byDennis Hopper inBlue Velvet (1986) and the delusionary protagonist ofLost Highway (1997). TheTwin Peaks cycle, both theTV series (1990–91) and a film,Fire Walk with Me (1992), puts a detective plot through a succession of bizarre spasms.David Cronenberg also mixes surrealism and noir inNaked Lunch (1991), inspired byWilliam S. Burroughs'novel.
Perhaps no American neo-noirs better reflect the classic noir B movie spirit than those of director-writerQuentin Tarantino.[124] Neo-noirs of his such asReservoir Dogs (1992) andPulp Fiction (1994) display a relentlessly self-reflexive, sometimes tongue-in-cheek sensibility, similar to the work of the New Wave directors and the Coens. Other films from the era readily identifiable as neo-noir (some retro, some more au courant) include directorJohn Dahl'sKill Me Again (1989),Red Rock West (1992), andThe Last Seduction (1993); four adaptations of novels by Jim Thompson—The Kill-Off (1989),After Dark, My Sweet (1990),The Grifters (1990), and the remake ofThe Getaway (1994); and many more, including adaptations of the work of other major noir fiction writers:The Hot Spot (1990), fromHell Hath No Fury, byCharles Williams;Miami Blues (1990), from the novel byCharles Willeford; andOut of Sight (1998), from the novel byElmore Leonard.[125] Several films by director-writerDavid Mamet involve noir elements:House of Games (1987),Homicide (1991),[126]The Spanish Prisoner (1997), andHeist (2001).[127] On television,Moonlighting (1985–89) paid homage to classic noir while demonstrating an unusual appreciation of the sense of humor often found in the original cycle.[125] Between 1983 and 1989,Mickey Spillane's hardboiled private eye Mike Hammer was played with wry gusto byStacy Keach in aseries and several stand-alone television films (an unsuccessful revival followed in 1997–98). The British miniseriesThe Singing Detective (1986), written byDennis Potter, tells the story of a mystery writer named Philip Marlow; widely considered one of the finest neo-noirs in any medium, some critics rank it among the greatest television productions of all time.[128]
Among big-budget auteurs,Michael Mann has worked frequently in a neo-noir mode, with such films asThief (1981)[126] andHeat (1995) and the TV seriesMiami Vice (1984–89) andCrime Story (1986–88). Mann's output exemplifies a primary strain of neo-noir, or as it is affectionately called, "neon noir",[129][130] in which classic themes and tropes are revisited in a contemporary setting with an up-to-date visual style androck- orhip hop-based musicalsoundtrack.[131]
Neon-noir film borrows from and reflects many of the characteristics of the film noir: the presence of crime and violence, complex characters and plot-lines, mystery, and moral ambivalence, all of which come into play in the neon-noir sub-genre. But more than just exhibiting the superficial traits of the genre, neon-noir emphasizes the socio-critique of film noir, recalling the specific socio-cultural dimensions of the interwar years when noirs first became prominent; a time of global existential crisis, depression and the mass movement of the rural population to cities. Long shots or montages of cityscapes, often portrayed as dark and menacing, are suggestive of what Dueck referred to as a ‘bleak societal perspective’,[132] providing a critique onglobal capitalism andconsumerism. Other characteristics include the use of highly stylized lighting techniques suchchiaroscuro, and neon signs and brightly lit buildings that provide a sense ofalienation andentrapment.
Accentuating the use of artificial and neon lighting in the films-noir of the '40s and '50s, neon-noir films accentuate this aesthetic with electrifying color and manipulated light in order to highlight their socio-cultural critiques and their references to contemporary and pop culture. In doing so, neon-noir films present the themes of urban decay, consumerist decadence and capitalism,existentialism, sexuality, and issues ofrace and violence in the contemporary culture, not only in America, but the globalized world at large.
Neon-noirs seek to bring the contemporary noir, somewhat diluted under the umbrella of neo-noir, back to the exploration of culture: class, race, gender, patriarchy, and capitalism. Neon-noirs present an existential exploration of society in a hyper-technological and globalized world. Illustrating society as decadent andconsumerist, and identity as confused and anxious, neon-noirs reposition the contemporary noir in the setting ofurban decay, often featuring scenes set in underground city haunts: brothels, nightclubs, casinos, strip bars, pawnshops, laundromats.
Neon-noirs were popularized in the '70s and '80s by films such asTaxi Driver (1976),Blade Runner (1982),[133] and films fromDavid Lynch, such asBlue Velvet (1986) and later,Lost Highway (1997). Other titles from this era includedBrian De Palma'sBlow Out (1981) and theCoen Brothers' debutBlood Simple (1984).[134][135] More currently, films such asHarmony Korine’s highly provocativeSpring Breakers (2012),[136] andDanny Boyle’sTrance (2013) have been especially noted for their neon-infused rendering of film noir; whileTrance was celebrated for ‘shak(ing) the ingredients (of the noir) like colored sand in a jar’,Spring Breakers notoriously produced a slew of criticism[137] referring to its ‘fever-dream’ aesthetic and ‘neon-caked explosion of excess’ (Kohn).[138]
Neon-noir can be seen as a response to the over-use of the term neo-noir. While the term neo-noir functions to bring noir into the contemporary landscape, it has often been criticized for its dilution of the noir genre. Author Robert Arnett commented on its "amorphous" reach: "any film featuring a detective or crime qualifies".[139] The neon-noir, more specifically, seeks to revive noir sensibilities in a more targeted manner of reference, focalizing socio-cultural commentary and a hyper-stylized aesthetic.
The Coen brothers make reference to the noir tradition again withThe Man Who Wasn't There (2001); a black-and-white crime melodrama set in 1949; it features a scene apparently staged to mirror one fromOut of the Past. Lynch'sMulholland Drive (2001) continued in his characteristic vein, making the classic noir setting of Los Angeles the venue for a noir-inflected psychological jigsaw puzzle. British-born directorChristopher Nolan's black-and-white debut,Following (1998), was an overt homage to classic noir. During the new century's first decade, he was one of the leading Hollywood directors of neo-noir with the acclaimedMemento (2000) and the remake ofInsomnia (2002).[140]
DirectorSean Penn'sThe Pledge (2001), though adapted from a very self-reflexive novel byFriedrich Dürrenmatt, plays noir comparatively straight, to devastating effect[neutrality isdisputed].[141] ScreenwriterDavid Ayer updated the classic noir bad-cop tale, typified byShield for Murder (1954) andRogue Cop (1954), with his scripts forTraining Day (2001) and, adapting a story by James Ellroy,Dark Blue (2002); he later wrote and directed the even darkerHarsh Times (2006). Michael Mann'sCollateral (2004) features a performance byTom Cruise as an assassin in the lineage ofLe Samouraï. The torments ofThe Machinist (2004), directed byBrad Anderson, evoke bothFight Club andMemento.[142] In 2005,Shane Black directedKiss Kiss Bang Bang, basing his screenplay in part on a crime novel byBrett Halliday, who published his first stories back in the 1920s. The film plays with an awareness not only of classic noir but also of neo-noir reflexivity itself.[143]
With ultra-violent films such asSympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) andThirst (2009),Park Chan-wook of South Korea has been the most prominent director outside of the United States to work regularly in a noir mode in the new millennium.[144] The most commercially successful neo-noir of this period has beenSin City (2005), directed byRobert Rodriguez in extravagantly stylized black and white with splashes of color.[145] The film is based ona series of comic books created byFrank Miller (credited as the film's codirector), which are in turn openly indebted to the works of Spillane and otherpulp mystery authors.[146][147] Similarly,graphic novels provide the basis forRoad to Perdition (2002), directed bySam Mendes, andA History of Violence (2005), directed byDavid Cronenberg; the latter was voted best film of the year in the annualVillage Voice poll.[148] Writer-directorRian Johnson'sBrick (2005), featuring present-day high schoolers speaking a version of 1930s hardboiled argot, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at theSundance Film Festival. The television seriesVeronica Mars (2004–07, 2019) and the movieVeronica Mars (2014) also brought a youth-oriented twist to film noir. Examples of this sort of generic crossover have been dubbed "teen noir".[149][150]
Neo-noir films released in the 2010s includeKim Jee-woon’sI Saw the Devil (2010), Fred Cavaye’sPoint Blank (2010),Na Hong-jin’sThe Yellow Sea (2010),Nicolas Winding Refn’sDrive (2011),[151]Claire Denis'Bastards (2013)[152][153] andDan Gilroy'sNightcrawler (2014).
TheScience Channel broadcast the 2021 science documentary seriesKillers of the Cosmos in a format it describes as "space noir." In the series, actorAidan Gillen in animated form serves as the host of the series while portraying aprivate investigator who takes on "cases" in which he "hunts down" lethal threats to humanity posed by thecosmos. The animated sequences combine the characteristics of film noir with those of a pulp fiction graphic novel set in the mid-20th century, and they link conventional live-action documentary segments in which experts describe the potentially deadly phenomena.[154][155][156][157]
In the post-classic era, a significant trend in noir crossovers has involvedscience fiction. In Jean-Luc Godard'sAlphaville (1965), Lemmy Caution is the name of the old-school private eye in the city of tomorrow.The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972) centers on another implacable investigator and an amnesiac named Welles.Soylent Green (1973), the first major American example, portrays a dystopian, near-future world via a noir detection plot; starringCharlton Heston (the lead inTouch of Evil), it also features classic noir standbys Joseph Cotten, Edward G. Robinson, andWhit Bissell. The film was directed byRichard Fleischer, who two decades before had directed several strong B noirs, includingArmored Car Robbery (1950) andThe Narrow Margin (1952).[160]
The cynical and stylized perspective of classic film noir had a formative effect on thecyberpunk genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1980s; the film most directly influential on cyberpunk wasBlade Runner (1982), directed byRidley Scott, which pays evocative homage to the classic noir mode[161] (Scott subsequently directed the poignant 1987 noir crime melodramaSomeone to Watch Over Me). Scholar Jamaluddin Bin Aziz has observed how "the shadow ofPhilip Marlowe lingers on" in such other "future noir" films as12 Monkeys (1995),Dark City (1998) andMinority Report (2002).[162] Fincher's feature debut wasAlien 3 (1992), which evoked the classic noir jail filmBrute Force.
David Cronenberg'sCrash (1996), an adaptation ofthe speculative novel byJ. G. Ballard, has been described as a "film noir in bruise tones".[163] The hero is the target of investigation inGattaca (1997), which fuses film noir motifs with a scenario indebted toBrave New World.The Thirteenth Floor (1999), likeBlade Runner, is an explicit homage to classic noir, in this case involving speculations aboutvirtual reality. Science fiction, noir, andanime are brought together in the Japanese films of 90sGhost in the Shell (1995) andGhost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), both directed byMamoru Oshii.[164]The Animatrix (2003), based on and set within the world ofThe Matrix film trilogy, contains an anime short film in classic noir style titled "A Detective Story".[165] Anime television series with science fiction noir themes includeNoir (2001)[164] andCowboy Bebop (1998).[166]
The 2015 filmEx Machina puts an understated film noir spin on theFrankenstein mythos, with the sentientandroid Ava as a potentialfemme fatale, her creator Nathan embodying the abusive husband or father trope, and her would-be rescuer Caleb as a "clueless drifter" enthralled by Ava.[167]
A sub-genre of noir fiction has been named "rural noir" in the US;[168][169] and sometimes "outback noir" in Australia.[170][171] Many rural noir novels have been adapted for film and TV series in both countries, such asOzark,No Country for Old Men,[168] andBig Sky in the US,[172] andTroppo,The Dry (and its sequelForce of Nature: The Dry 2),Scrublands,[170] andHigh Country (2024) in Australia.[173]
In Australia, outback noir increasingly includes issues relating toIndigenous Australians,[170] such as the dispossession of land fromAboriginal peoples[174] andracism. FilmmakerIvan Sen is known for his exploration of such themes in hisMystery Road TV series andfilm of the same name with its prequelGoldstone,[175] and his more recent award-winning filmLimbo (2023).[176][177]
Film noir has been parodied many times in many manners. In 1945,Danny Kaye starred in what appears to be the first intentional film noir parody,Wonder Man.[178] That same year,Deanna Durbin was the singing lead in the comedic noirLady on a Train, which makes fun of Woolrich-brand wistful miserablism.Bob Hope inaugurated the private-eye noir parody withMy Favorite Brunette (1947), playing a baby-photographer who is mistaken for an ironfisted detective.[178] In 1947 as well,The Bowery Boys appeared inHard Boiled Mahoney, which had a similar mistaken-identity plot; they spoofed the genre once more inPrivate Eyes (1953). Two RKO productions starring Robert Mitchum take film noir over the border into self-parody:The Big Steal (1949), directed byDon Siegel, andHis Kind of Woman (1951).[b] The "Girl Hunt" ballet inVincente Minnelli'sThe Band Wagon (1953) is a ten-minute distillation of—and play on—noir in dance.[179]The Cheap Detective (1978), starringPeter Falk, is a broad spoof of several films, including the Bogart classicsThe Maltese Falcon andCasablanca.Carl Reiner's black-and-whiteDead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) appropriates clips of classic noirs for a farcicalpastiche, while hisFatal Instinct (1993) sends up noir classic (Double Indemnity) and neo-noir (Basic Instinct).Robert Zemeckis'sWho Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) develops a noir plot set in 1940s Los Angeles around a host of cartoon characters.[180]
Noir parodies come in darker tones as well.Murder by Contract (1958), directed byIrving Lerner, is a deadpan joke on noir, with a denouement as bleak as any of the films it kids. An ultra-low-budgetColumbia Pictures production, it may qualify as the first intentional example of what is now called a neo-noir film; it was likely a source of inspiration for both Melville'sLe Samouraï and Scorsese'sTaxi Driver.[181] Belying its parodic strain,The Long Goodbye's final act is seriously grave.Taxi Driver causticallydeconstructs the "dark" crime film, taking it to an absurd extreme and then offering a conclusion that manages to mock every possible anticipated ending—triumphant, tragic, artfully ambivalent—while being each, all at once.[182] Flirting withsplatter status even more brazenly, the Coens'Blood Simple is both an exactingpastiche and a gross exaggeration of classic noir.[183] Adapted by director Robinson Devor from a novel byCharles Willeford,The Woman Chaser (1999) sends up not just the noir mode but the entire Hollywood filmmaking process, with each shot seemingly staged as the visual equivalent of an acerbic Marlowe wisecrack.[184]
In other media, the television seriesSledge Hammer! (1986–88) lampoons noir, along with such topics ascapital punishment, gunfetishism, andDirty Harry.Sesame Street (1969–curr.) occasionally castsKermit the Frog as a private eye; the sketches refer to some of the typical motifs of noir films, in particular the voiceover.Garrison Keillor's radio programA Prairie Home Companion features the recurring characterGuy Noir, a hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce (Guy also appears in theAltman-directed film based on Keillor's show).Firesign Theatre's Nick Danger has trodden the same not-so-mean streets, both on radio and in comedy albums. Cartoons such asGarfield's Babes and Bullets (1989) andcomic strip characters such asTracer Bullet ofCalvin and Hobbes have parodied both film noir and the kindred hardboiled tradition—one of the sources from which film noir sprang and which it now overshadows.[185]It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia parodied the noir genre in itsseason 14 episode "The Janitor Always Mops Twice."[186][187]
In their original 1955 canon of film noir, Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton identified twenty-two Hollywood films released between 1941 and 1952 as core examples; they listed another fifty-nine American films from the period as significantly related to the field of noir.[190] A half-century later, film historians and critics had come to agree on a canon of approximately three hundred films from 1940 to 1958.[191] There remain, however, many differences of opinion over whether other films of the era, among them a number of well-known ones, qualify as film noirs or not. For instance,The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring Robert Mitchum in an acclaimed performance, is treated as a film noir by some critics, but not by others.[192] Some critics includeSuspicion (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in their catalogues of noir; others ignore it.[193] Concerning films made either before or after the classic period, or outside of the United States at any time, consensus is even rarer.
To support their categorization of certain films as noirs and their rejection of others, many critics refer to a set of elements they see as marking examples of the mode. The question of what constitutes the set of noir's identifying characteristics is a fundamental source of controversy. For instance, critics tend to define the model film noir as having a tragic or bleak conclusion,[194] but many acknowledged classics of the genre have clearly happy endings (e.g.,Stranger on the Third Floor,The Big Sleep,Dark Passage, andThe Dark Corner), while the tone of many other noirdenouements is ambivalent.[195] Some critics perceive classic noir's hallmark as a distinctive visual style. Others, observing that there is actually considerable stylistic variety among noirs, instead emphasize plot and character type. Still others focus on mood and attitude. No survey of classic noir's identifying characteristics can therefore be considered definitive. In the 1990s and 2000s, critics have increasingly turned their attention to that diverse field of films called neo-noir; once again, there is even less consensus about the defining attributes of such films made outside the classic period.[196] Roger Ebert offered "A Guide to Film Noir", writing that "Film noir is...
Thelow-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/darkcontrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known aschiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting).[c] The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become acliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood filmmaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color filmsLeave Her to Heaven (1945) andNiagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, whileSlightly Scarlet (1956),Party Girl (1958), andVertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critics.[198]
Film noir is also known for its use oflow-angle,wide-angle, andskewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene inStrangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature.Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm ofday-for-night, was often employed.[199] From the mid-1940s forward,location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir.[200]
In an analysis of the visual approach ofKiss Me Deadly, a late and self-consciously stylized example of classic noir, critic Alain Silver describes how cinematographic choices emphasize the story's themes and mood. In one scene, the characters, seen through a "confusion of angular shapes", thus appear "caught in a tangible vortex or enclosed in a trap." Silver makes a case for how "side light is used ... to reflect character ambivalence", while shots of characters in which they are lit from below "conform to a convention of visual expression which associates shadows cast upward of the face with the unnatural and ominous".[201]
Certain technological advancements in film stock allowed for film noir to achieve its distinctive look. Beginning in 1935,Eastman Kodak released a new, higher-speedfilm stock, which found particular usage indocumentary/newsreel-types of filmmaking where on-location shooting was required.[202][203] Cinematographers soon caught on to the potential for this new technology and began using it.[204][205] The advantage of this new film stock was that, because it captured light faster, the film cells could effectively absorb more light with eachexposure, eliminating the need to flood the set with light. Thus, cinematographers could be far more expressive in their lighting, allowing for darker scenes dominated by shadows.[206] However, by the 1950s, the very unstablenitrate film stock was universally replaced with the far more stable acetate "safety film." The trade-off, however, was that this film stock produced an image with significantly less contrast. Thus, the high-contrast, black-and-white imagery that was essential to film noir effectively disappeared with the more greyscale imagery of the acetate, and it forced the other elements of film noir to be emphasized.[207]
Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involvingflashbacks and other editing techniques that disrupt and sometimes obscure thenarrative sequence. Framing the entire primary narrative as a flashback is also a standard device. Voiceover narration, sometimes used as a structuring device, came to be seen as a noir hallmark; while classic noir is generally associated with first-person narration (i.e., by the protagonist), Stephen Neale notes that third-person narration is common among noirs of the semidocumentary style.[209] Neo-noirs as varied asThe Element of Crime (surrealist),After Dark, My Sweet (retro), andKiss Kiss Bang Bang (meta) have employed the flashback/voiceover combination.
Bold experiments in cinematic storytelling were sometimes attempted during the classic era:Lady in the Lake, for example, is shot entirely from thepoint of view of protagonist Philip Marlowe; the face of star (and director)Robert Montgomery is seen only in mirrors.[210]The Chase (1946) takesoneirism and fatalism as the basis for its fantastical narrative system, redolent of certain horror stories, but with little precedent in the context of a putatively realistic genre. In their different ways, bothSunset Boulevard andD.O.A. are tales told by dead men. Latter-day noir has been in the forefront of structural experimentation in popular cinema, as exemplified by such films asPulp Fiction,Fight Club, andMemento.[211]
Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all film noirs; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant, basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated inheists orcon games, or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. According to J. David Slocum, "protagonists assume the literal identities of dead men in nearly fifteen percent of all noir."[212]Amnesia is fairly epidemic—"noir's version of the common cold", in the words of film historianLee Server.[213]
Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, oftenfall guys of one sort or another. The characteristic protagonists of noir are described by many critics as "alienated";[215] in the words of Silver and Ward, "filled withexistential bitterness".[216] Certain archetypal characters appear in many film noirs—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepidclaims adjusters, and down-and-out writers. Among characters of every stripe, cigarette smoking is rampant.[217] From historical commentators to neo-noir pictures to pop culture ephemera, the private eye and the femme fatale have been adopted as the quintessential film noir figures, though they do not appear in most films now regarded as classic noir. Of the twenty-six National Film Registry noirs, in only four does the star play a private eye:The Maltese Falcon,The Big Sleep,Out of the Past, andKiss Me Deadly. Just four others readily qualify as detective stories:Laura,The Killers,The Naked City, andTouch of Evil. There is usually an element of drug or alcohol use, particularly as part of the detective's method to solving the crime, as an example the character of Mike Hammer in the 1955 filmKiss Me Deadly who walks into a bar saying "Give me a double bourbon, and leave the bottle". Chaumeton and Borde have argued that film noir grew out of the "literature of drugs and alcohol".[218]
Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular—are the location of many of the classic films. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "labyrinth" or "maze".[219] Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action. The climaxes of a substantial number of film noirs take place in visually complex, often industrial settings, such as refineries, factories, trainyards, power plants—most famously the explosive conclusion ofWhite Heat, set at a chemical plant.[220] In the popular (and, frequently enough, critical) imagination, in noir it is always night and it always raining.[221]
A substantial trend within latter-day noir—dubbed "film soleil" by criticD. K. Holm—heads in precisely the opposite direction, with tales of deception, seduction, and corruption exploiting bright, sun-baked settings, stereotypically the desert or open water, to searing effect. Significant predecessors from the classic and early post-classic eras includeThe Lady from Shanghai; theRobert Ryan vehicleInferno (1953); the French adaptation ofPatricia Highsmith'sThe Talented Mr. Ripley,Plein soleil (Purple Noon in the United States, more accurately rendered elsewhere asBlazing Sun orFull Sun; 1960); and director Don Siegel's version ofThe Killers (1964). The tendency was at its peak during the late 1980s and 1990s, with films such asDead Calm (1989),After Dark, My Sweet (1990),The Hot Spot (1990),Delusion (1991),Red Rock West (1993) and the television seriesMiami Vice.[222]
Film noir is often described as essentially pessimistic.[223] The noir stories that are regarded as most characteristic tell of people trapped in unwanted situations (which, in general, they did not cause but are responsible for exacerbating), striving against random, uncaring fate, and are frequently doomed. The films are seen as depicting a world that is inherently corrupt.[224] Classic film noir has been associated by many critics with the American social landscape of the era—in particular, with a sense of heightened anxiety and alienation that is said to have followed World War II. In authorNicholas Christopher's opinion, "it is as if the war, and the social eruptions in its aftermath, unleashed demons that had been bottled up in the national psyche."[225] Film noirs, especially those of the 1950s and the height of theRed Scare, are often said to reflect cultural paranoia;Kiss Me Deadly is the noir most frequently marshaled as evidence for this claim.[226]
Film noir is often said to be defined by "moral ambiguity",[227] yet theProduction Code obliged almost all classic noirs to see that steadfast virtue was ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished (however dramatically incredible the final rendering of mandatory justice might be). A substantial number of latter-day noirs flout such conventions: vice emerges triumphant in films as varied as the grimChinatown and the ribaldHot Spot.[228]
The tone of film noir is generally regarded as downbeat; some critics experience it as darker still—"overwhelmingly black", according to Robert Ottoson.[229] Influential critic (and filmmaker) Paul Schrader wrote in a seminal 1972 essay that "film noir is defined by tone", a tone he seems to perceive as "hopeless".[230] In describing the adaptation ofDouble Indemnity, noir analyst Foster Hirsch describes the "requisite hopeless tone" achieved by the filmmakers, which appears to characterize his view of noir as a whole.[231] On the other hand, definitive film noirs such asThe Big Sleep,The Lady from Shanghai,Scarlet Street andDouble Indemnity itself are famed for their hardboiled repartee, often imbued with sexual innuendo and self-reflexive humor.[232]
The music of film noir was typically orchestral, per the Hollywood norm, but often with added dissonance.[233] Many of the prime composers, like the directors and cameramen, were European émigrés, e.g.,Max Steiner (The Big Sleep,Mildred Pierce),Miklós Rózsa (Double Indemnity,The Killers,Criss Cross), andFranz Waxman (Fury,Sunset Boulevard,Night and the City).Double Indemnity is a seminal score, initially disliked by Paramount's music director for its harshness but strongly endorsed by director Billy Wilder and studio chiefBuddy DeSylva.[234] There is a widespread popular impression that "sleazy" jazz saxophone and pizzicato bass constitute the sound of noir, but those characteristics arose much later, as in the late-1950s music ofHenry Mancini forTouch of Evil and television'sPeter Gunn.Bernard Herrmann's score forTaxi Driver makes heavy use of saxophone.[citation needed]
Inflected Form(s): plural film noirs \-'nwär(z)\ or films noirs or films noirs \-'nwär\
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