The Death of a Film Noir Genre, Essay example

Film noir is the term used to describe movies that emphasize on cynical attitude and sexual motivations. This genre is thought to have last between the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir is a French term for ‘black film’ Biesen, p2). This term was coined in the post world war II period to bring out what was seen not only as the black visual aspects of the then emerging films but also their darkness of content and theme. Before the adoption of the term film noir, this genre was referred to as melodrama (Hanson, p2). In this genre, there is focus on the protagonist. The film revolves around this character, who, as opposed to other film genres, is shrouded in guilt. He/she may be a victim of societal rejection, an innocent person lured into crime, etc. as compared to other genres where an action movie has a triad of a victim, a murderer and a detective, in film noir the detective may turn out to be the murderer. Usually, a noir film has a tragic ending although some may be ambivalent and other still portray happy endings. Approaches that have been used to arrive at comprehensive definition of noir are four fold:

• Visual (camera) style
• Narration
• Setting, plot and character
• Morality and tone of the film

Visually, the film is produced in low key lighting offering a black and white stark contrast. The character’s face is partially obscured behind some dark shade. There are shots of characters reflected through mirrors and the camera applies the low-angle shots with wide lensed cameras (Hanson, p5). Narration in film noir is distorted with several flashbacks and voiceover narration. As opposed to the classical first person narration, noir is characterised by third person narration giving it a documentary feel. The commonest plot is that of crime, often with a lone investigator who is either a detective or an interested civilian. Other plots include greed, jealousy and adultery. The heroes in these films are of questionable character and morality. The tone is usually downbeat and the film casts a corrupt society and a pessimistic approach to life.

Is Film Noir a Dying Genre?

Emergence of film noir is traced to post World War II America. This was a time when America has suffered greatly from the effects of the world war. Even after significant victories in the war, the country suffered what was termed post war malaise characterised by industrial unrests and unavailability of consumer gods (Roger, p3).  By 1955, noir was literally dead. There was emergence of the ‘pulp’ crime on TV (Roger, p2) as the way of life changed. And the action was now in broad light as opposed to the darkness of the noir. Truly, noir is a dying genre. However, it is still relevant to our lives today. It gives an outline of the development of the film industry. We may argue that noir is dead, but it may reinvent itself in a neo-noir form depending on new developments in society. This is what happened in the 1960s and 1970s when everyone thought it was dead.  There is no clear borderline between the late noir film and early post noir classics (Ballinger, p40). These formed the neo-noir films of the 1960s. These extended into the 80s and early 90s through movies such as the Raging Bull. After neo-noir came the sunshine street thrillers. New thrillers such as Kiss or Kill have since been produced by the turn of the millennium (Ballinger, p41).

Works Cited

Ballinger,A. The Rough Guide to Film Noir. London: Rough Guides. 2007

Biesen, S.C. Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University. 2005

Hanson, H. Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film. New York: I.B. Tauris. 2008

Roger, W. What Is This Thing Called Film Noir Anyway? Web Retrieved 08 Dec. 09 <http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/RW-ThingCalledNoir.html >