Film Noir and What Came After

What the two labels actually cover

When you introduce the season, give your audience two dates and one translation. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the classic period of American film noir, and the French term translates literally as "black film," with "dark film" closer in meaning. French critic Nino Frank first applied it to Hollywood films in 1946, but it was unrecognized by many American industry professionals of that era, and before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many classic noirs were referred to as melodramas. That history helps you explain why historians defined the category retrospectively and why there is no consensus on whether noir is a genre, a style, a cycle, a pathway, a mood or a canon. For the second half of the season, use a working rule stated on the neo-noir page: any film coming after the classic period that contains noir themes and noir sensibility, made in the 1970s in the era of New Hollywood and later, with updated themes, content, style and visual elements.

Why start with motive instead of shadows

If you open with motive, your audience can follow any visual choice that follows. Classic noir is described as a Hollywood crime drama that emphasizes cynical attitudes and motivations, with plots commonly built around mysteries, crime dramas and detective fiction and themes of corruption, organized crime, redemption, cynicism and tragedy. The primary literary influence was the hard-boiled school of American detective and crime fiction, led in its early years by Dashiell Hammett, whose first novel Red Harvest was published in 1929, and James M. Cain, whose The Postman Always Rings Twice appeared five years later. That hardboiled school was carried above all by the pulp magazines, Black Mask first among them. You can stage this in one evening by pairing The Maltese Falcon from 1941 and The Glass Key from 1942, both based on novels by Hammett, with Double Indemnity from 1944, based on Cain, and point to the reading of Double Indemnity as a shape for American noir. Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all noirs, and in addition to greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation, which gives you a plain sentence to print in your program.

Which classic shape travels best

Pick archetypes your viewers can name after one screening. The page lists a private investigator in The Big Sleep, a plainclothes police officer in The Big Heat, an aging boxer in The Set-Up, a hapless grifter in Night and the City, a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime in Gun Crazy, a femme fatale in Gilda, and a victim of circumstance in D.O.A. Remind the room that the private eye and the femme fatale, though adopted as quintessential figures, do not appear in many films now regarded as classic noir, and that of twenty-six National Film Registry noirs only four cast the star as a private eye: The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past and Kiss Me Deadly. That fact lets you build a clean pairing. Show The Big Sleep from 1946, with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet as background, then show The Long Goodbye from 1973, directed by Robert Altman from the novel by Raymond Chandler, where Philip Marlowe is replayed as a hapless misfit out of touch with contemporary mores. Your audience sees the same detective function with altered manners and morals.

Can a color film still work as noir?

Yes, and you should prove it early so color does not read as a break. Though noir is often identified with low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions, films commonly identified as noir show a variety of visual approaches, including ones that fit comfortably within the Hollywood mainstream. The shadows of Venetian blinds cast upon an actor, a wall or a set, faces partly obscured by darkness, low-angle, wide-angle and skewed shots, mirrors, curved or frosted glass, and night-for-night shooting all belong to the toolbox, and from the mid-1940s forward location shooting became increasingly frequent. Black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be an essential attribute, yet Leave Her to Heaven from 1945 and Niagara from 1953 are routinely included in noir filmographies. The page that describes cynical Hollywood crime dramas also notes how neo-noir often uses vibrant colors and high contrast, with more graphic depictions of violence or sexuality, thematic motifs and nonlinear narrative or editing. Program Double Indemnity next to Body Heat from 1981, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, which invokes classic elements in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting, then add Basic Instinct from 1992, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, to show how a polychrome palette can reproduce many expressionistic effects of black-and-white noir.

How does place change the story?

Use cities to mark continuity and distance. Noir is often associated with an urban setting, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago are the locations of many classic films, with the city presented as a labyrinth or maze and bars, lounges, nightclubs and gambling dens frequently the scene of action. Climaxes in a substantial number of noirs take place in visually complex, often industrial settings such as refineries, factories, train yards and power plants, with the explosive conclusion of White Heat at a chemical plant as the cited example. The semi-documentary approach characterized a substantial number of noirs in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with Jules Dassin pointing to the neorealists as inspiring his use of location photography with non-professional extras for The Naked City from 1948, and Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street from 1945 showing the parallel influence of the cinematic newsreel. Then move the map forward. Chinatown from 1974, written by Robert Towne, is set in 1930s Los Angeles, an accustomed locale nudged back a few years, while Taxi Driver from 1976, directed by Martin Scorsese from a script by Paul Schrader, brings the noir attitude crashing into the present day, and Blade Runner from 1982, directed by Ridley Scott, pays evocative homage to the classic mode through science fiction.

What does self-awareness do to the detective?

Your second half needs one evening about films that know they are noir. The clichés of noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, and later films share attributes with classic noirs and often treat their conventions self-referentially. In a different vein from straight continuation, films began to appear that self-consciously acknowledged the conventions of classic noir as historical archetypes to be revived, rejected or reimagined. Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless from 1960 pays literal respects to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a new style, and Arthur Penn, John Boorman with Point Blank from 1967, and Alan J. Pakula with Klute from 1971 directed films that knowingly related themselves to the original noirs, and Woody Allen paid affectionate homage with Play It Again, Sam from 1972. For structure, teach two devices: framing the entire primary narrative as a flashback, and voice-over narration, with first-person narration by the protagonist associated with classic noir and third-person narration common among noirs of the semi-documentary style. Lady in the Lake is shot entirely from the point of view of Philip Marlowe, with the face of star and director Robert Montgomery seen only in mirrors, while both Sunset Boulevard and D.O.A. are tales told by dead men, which prepares your viewers for later structural play in films such as Pulp Fiction, Fight Club and Memento.

How do you close without repeating the opening?

Close with law and time rather than with another private eye. Orson Welles's Touch of Evil from 1958 is frequently cited as the last noir of the classic period, though some believe noir never ended but continued to transform, while a majority regard comparable films made outside the classic era as something other than genuine noir and call these later films neo-noir. Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential from 1997, based on the James Ellroy novel, demonstrates the deliberately retro tendency, with a tale of corrupt cops and femmes fatale seemingly lifted straight from a film of 1953, the year in which it is set. Christopher Nolan's black-and-white debut Following from 1998 was an overt homage to classic noir, and during the new century's first decade he was one of the leading Hollywood directors of neo-noir with Memento from 2000 and the remake of Insomnia from 2002. The Wikipedia page does not publish print sources or license terms for these titles. Check your venue needs through guidance on sourcing prints and DCPs, then lock one classic and one later title that share a motive, stage the classic first, and ask your audience to track what changed in the city, the light, and the ending.

About the Film noir page on Wikipedia. It defines film noir as a Hollywood crime drama with cynical attitudes, dated to a classic period in the 1940s and 1950s. It traces cinematic roots in German expressionism, French poetic realism, and Italian neorealism and literary roots in Hammett, Cain, Chandler, Woolrich, and Burnett. It lists directors, actors, visual devices, plot types, and debates over genre, style, cycle and mood, with sections on international titles, neo-noir, science fiction crossovers, rural noir, and parody. Use it to verify years, credits and pairings before you set your season order.