What is a Noir Movie?

Film Noir, or as translated in French, Black Movies, were a specific type of film that were popularized in the 1940’s and 1950’s. They all generally were crime dramas or psychological thrillers that were characterized by overly complex plots, a deep contrasting European style of filming, cynical self-destroying protagonists, and la femme fatale.

While the term “Noir” was coined in 1946, It wasn’t popularized until much later. You see, noir films never had an official rise and fall. They weren’t classified as such until much later once film making moved on from the dimly lit asymmetrical dramas to more modern post WWII films. However the roots of Noir films date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Many famous films that would later be classified as noirs are adaptations of early “pulp fiction” novels. No, not the Tarantino classic which I will be reviewing later, but rather intricate crime novels published in news papers from 1860 to 1950. These include the John Carter series and the Tarzan series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the Conan the Cimmerian series written by Robert E. Howard. These early stories are called pulps as they refer to the cheap wood paper these stories were printed on

As time passed however the circumstances in these stories began to change due to events like the the great depression and increasing modernization in America. Large scale epics began to fade out and authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett began to rise to fame with their gritty crime dramas. Stories like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, and Red Harvest soared in popularity in the late 30’s early 40’s.

Along with the growth of pulp crime novels, America saw an influx of European directors beginning to make movies in America. This was largely due to the Nazi movement demanding propaganda and suppressing impressionist filmmakers. These directors, who are pioneers of surrealist film making, saw America (and it’s intriguing novels) as a safe haven where they can express their cynical artistic style

Add all of this together and you have yourself the beginning of a genre. Directors like John Huston, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and Otto Preminger adapted works like The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Laura, and The Big Short to great success, launching the careers of actors like Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, James Cagney, and Dana Andrews.

While no two movies were exactly the same, many had conventions that were shared throughout this period of film making. These include:

• Being set in L.A. (out of necessity mostly. These were extremely low budget movies)
• Dark, sinister lighting (shadows and high contrast played a key role in how these movies “feel”)
• Unorthodox shooting style (asymmetrical composition, deep focus, mirrored reflections, extreme high/low angles, close ups, etc.)
• Poetic, fast paced dialogue (The 1930-1968 hays code and timely taboos meant characters relied on euphemisms, double entendre, and quips to illustrate emotions)
• The Investigator (while not always a PI, almost always these were heavy drinking, cynical characters with a bleak disposition thrust into circumstantial situations)
• The Criminal (generally some kind of thief or murderer the investigator works toward catching)
• The Femme Fatale (the clever and beautiful woman who seduces or charms their way into the investigators path. Usually an antagonist revealed later)
• Complex Plots (the plots of Noir films tend to twist and turn throughout the narrative, often using flashback to add clarification)
• Bleak Outlooks (while not all end on a solemn note, most end with our protagonist worse off than before, or at least facing more problems that have arose while investigating)

Noir movies may seem complex but in reality they are easy to spot. Notice a heavy drinking private dick narrating to himself about the woes of his case and most likely you’ve got yourself a film noir.