Introduction to Film Noir concepts

1. Film noir

2. Period
• 1941 (The Maltese Falcon) to 1958 (A
Touch of Evil)
– 2nd World War and Cold War

3. 3 Main Characteristics
• Highly stylized visual style
• Stylized narrative
• Stylized stereotypes

4. Ingredients
• High contrast / low key lighting
• Tightly framed shot
• Extreme camera angles
• City settings: Interiors and rainy streets
• Particular psychology and moral
ambiguity associated with the main
character

5. The “femme fatale”
• “Active, intelligent,
powerful, dominant
and in charge of her
own sexuality
• Until the end when she
dies or submits

6. Narrative
• Proliferation of points
of view: “In the end
film noir is about
which voice is going to
gain control”

7. “The 1940’s film noir was an expression of
male concern at women’s growing
economic and sexual independence and a
fear of the men’s own place in society once
they returned from war. The 1950’s film
noir functioned to reassert the value of
family life not just so that the men could
get their jobs back but so t hat national
identity, so much under siege in postwar
United States, could be reasserted”