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Okay, but what is film noir?
Trying to define film noir in a way that encompasses all the movies that “truly” fit into the term while excluding any others is impossible. And yet, despite this, almost paradoxically, it’s easy to identify a noir just from its elements or general mood.
One way of approaching a definition of film noir is to start by saying what it isn’t. It’s not a genre, a movement nor a style- not rigidly, anyway. The term (literally meaning ‘black film’) was first coined by French critic Nino Frank, who created it to describe a list of American films from the 40’s that transcended the crime genre into a more bleak, grim atmosphere with heavy influence from German Expressionism. It’s worth noting this was done in retrospect (2 years after the latest films in the list and 5 after the earliest) so not a single noir produced during this era called itself as such.
Though Frank’s original list was small (only containing 5 films) the number of noirs has since expanded with some critics and writers stating there’s dozens, hundreds or even thousands of films that fit the category, a testament to how truly slippery the grasp on the phrase really is. All of this is to say that while we can discuss common elements in these so-called “noir” movies, there is no one true definition.
One could argue that film noir exists as a product of post-war disillusionment and nihilism in the United States. Soldiers came back from the war to find a widely different place where ‘home’ once was; European filmmakers fled to the US and used their experiences as basis for directing a new wave of movies; Freudian psychology suddenly became mainstream and the topic of the mind resurged time and time again; everything changed, for better or worse. As Wheeler Winston Dixon phrases it in Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia, “There was no solid ground anymore, no small-town America to return to.” (p. 36). This setting became the perfect soil for film noir to sprout, a group of movies that wasn’t afraid to show audiences the darker side of society, the so-called “underbelly” of the city and all the crime it brought with it. Following this line of logic, film noir could serve as a way of catharsis from all that was endured from World War II.
While the classic era of film noir ended sometime around the mid 50’s, I believe noir itself never truly died. The paranoia, the fear of the unknown, of what lurks in the shadows, the past coming back to haunt the present, the silhouettes in the fog, the feeling of being trapped, the godless, meaningless world; these topics are still discussed in modern movies, some going as far as to become neo-noirs. To say film noir is a collection of “old timey detective films” would be absolutely incorrect. It’s still kicking around, maybe with a new face, but donning the same sunken eyes.
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One way of approaching a definition of film noir is to start by saying what it isn’t. It’s not a genre, a movement nor a style- not rigidly, anyway. The term (literally meaning ‘black film’) was first coined by French critic Nino Frank, who created it to describe a list of American films from the 40’s that transcended the crime genre into a more bleak, grim atmosphere with heavy influence from German Expressionism. It’s worth noting this was done in retrospect (2 years after the latest films in the list and 5 after the earliest) so not a single noir produced during this era called itself as such.
Though Frank’s original list was small (only containing 5 films) the number of noirs has since expanded with some critics and writers stating there’s dozens, hundreds or even thousands of films that fit the category, a testament to how truly slippery the grasp on the phrase really is. All of this is to say that while we can discuss common elements in these so-called “noir” movies, there is no one true definition.
One could argue that film noir exists as a product of post-war disillusionment and nihilism in the United States. Soldiers came back from the war to find a widely different place where ‘home’ once was; European filmmakers fled to the US and used their experiences as basis for directing a new wave of movies; Freudian psychology suddenly became mainstream and the topic of the mind resurged time and time again; everything changed, for better or worse. As Wheeler Winston Dixon phrases it in Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia, “There was no solid ground anymore, no small-town America to return to.” (p. 36). This setting became the perfect soil for film noir to sprout, a group of movies that wasn’t afraid to show audiences the darker side of society, the so-called “underbelly” of the city and all the crime it brought with it. Following this line of logic, film noir could serve as a way of catharsis from all that was endured from World War II.
While the classic era of film noir ended sometime around the mid 50’s, I believe noir itself never truly died. The paranoia, the fear of the unknown, of what lurks in the shadows, the past coming back to haunt the present, the silhouettes in the fog, the feeling of being trapped, the godless, meaningless world; these topics are still discussed in modern movies, some going as far as to become neo-noirs. To say film noir is a collection of “old timey detective films” would be absolutely incorrect. It’s still kicking around, maybe with a new face, but donning the same sunken eyes.
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