Film Noir Essay

#1 Film Noir is a film genre that has a very distinct style and mood. But what exactly this style and mood are seems to vary from scholar to scholar. Like all genres, different people have different feelings about what makes or does not make a film noir. In this essay, I will be analyzing film noir definitions from Naremore, Harvey, and Borde and Chaumeton; to understand how each party views film noir in their own subjective way. In Naremore’s book, he describes film noir as a genre that is very

According to Todd Erickson, he states that neo-noir is a genre exhibits a self-consciousness about its indebtedness to the earlier noir films. Neo-noir has emerged notably in the 1980s, with such films like the 1982 film “Blade Runner,” that incorporates familiar narrative and stylistic elements from the noir films into a science-fiction genre. With its tone and specific style, Film Noir itself has become one of the prominent elements from the 1940s and 50s that helped shape the American cinema,

directed many film with different genres including Film Noir. Film Noir translates to “Dark Film,” the name was given by the French after watching Hollywood crime thrillers that began to show after World War II. These films typically had dark lighting style closely related to those in German Expressionist films. However, Film Noir borrows its form from influences of major Hollywood popular genres, using themes that were related to social context and civilian life in the United States. Two films that demonstrate

its tone and specific style, Film Noir has become one of the prominent elements that helped shape the American cinema. Within film noir, drama, romance, thriller, and crime are the main genres that can be seen in noir films. From all this amalgamation of genres, the topic of whether film noir is a genre or not does seem interesting, but it is particularly the themes and the style that seems to generate this conversation. Film noir itself can be seen as more of a film movement than a genre. Paul

Schrader’s “notes on film noir” essay, he was carefully to describe a very vagueness to the almost genre of film noir. He made it clear that it is a genre that cannot be specifically pinned down to a single black and white definition. For example he very wisely described it by saying, “It is a film “noir”, as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white”. This explains how there is this subtle thing, or a je ne sais quoi, that belongs to film noir that makes it film noir. While this “thing”

Film Noir is a style that first originated during the early 1940s, influenced by the tumultuous social and political environment of World War II. These style of films was a subversion from the conventional gangster films of the 1920s and 1930s. The resurgence of Noir style films in the 1970s retained the themes of crime, vice and moral ambiguity, but updated the content due to the relaxation of the Production Code. In this dissertation, the origins of film noir and its techniques will be examined

Film Noir is a term used to describe a collection of films ranging from John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon in 1941 to Orsen Welles’s Touch of Evil in 1958 (Naremore 14). There is much argument whether film noir is to be classified as a genre, style, or period; however, there is little disagreement when it comes to the characteristics of film noir. Many are adapted from hard-boiled detective novels and share similar visual and narrative traits (Naremore 14). One of the most popular film noirs is Billy

The term film noir was coined by French critics for 1940s-50s American films that shared a dark sensibility and a dark lighting style, such as Double Indemnity (1944), Out of the Past (1947), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Many theorists related the common noir attributes and aesthetic elements to a post war society characterised by insecurity about gender roles, the economy, changing definitions of race, and nuclear technology. One of the cultural problems the term genre attempts to

American Film Noir Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation American Film Noir There have been several debates over a long period of time concerning the validity of film noir as a distinct genre. Essays and books have debated the term for years using various criteria and rubrics to back up their respective positions on the subject. As the 21st century brings new and creative trends from screenwriting to post-production and everything in between, the boundaries of noir become even

Film Noir's Effect on Modern Cinema High heels click on wet pavement, shady detectives stand in the shadows, shots ring out through the cold, dark city night-just another moment in film noir. These seedy, almost underground films are considered to be some of the best and most influential pictures in the history of Hollywood by anyone's standards, most certainly some of the darkest. Even though the glory days of film noir have long passed and given way to big budget productions, their influence