Film Noir research

Socail and Historical context 

'Film Noir' is a term used to describe Hollywood crime dramas originated in 1930s but became popular in the early 40's- late 50's. Film Noir films were created to return home life to how it was before the war having the man as most powerful and the woman being a stay at home housewife, this was no longer the norm as during the war women became a lot more powerful due to them being the only ones at home while their husbands went to warm the men also became dependent on the women to produce equipment and keep the country afloat, many men, especially those in power, were not happy about this.

Film Noirs are typically very dark and over dramatic, they often use dramatic lighting, shadow effects and silhouettes to create mystery and set an atmosphere. As they were popular after the war they used the fact that people were a lot more comfortable with violence and death to their advantage, Every Film Noir has many deaths, usually the main characters and although there is a lot of violence in the films they are never gory, the deaths are quite clean and quick.

Typical Film Noir shot

The basic narrative structure is as follows;

*starts at end*
Everyman is broken or dying
*flashback*
Everyman gets approached by gangster
Everyman falls for Femme Fatal, usually the gangsters girlfriend, due to the Femme fatals seducing
Femme Fatal asks everyman to kill gangster (or asks for a crime as a favor)
Everyman does crime, then realizes Femme Fatal has used him
Femme Fatal rats on the everyman
Femme Fatal gets punished for her actions, she usually dies

*back to present time*

Everyman some how ends up dead or dying, sometimes he ends up with the girl next door but not often

Film Noir plots are very predictable, the majority of them start off at the end with the 'everyman' broken or dying, there will be a voice over of him saying something meaningful or perhaps on the phone to someone explaining what hes done, then show a flashback of how the 'everyman' got to where he is now.

Lighting and mise-en-scene 

There are many repeated traits of a Film Noir, for example they are always in black and white, if not they are called a Neo Noir. 

The lighting in Film Noirs are very important, as they are in black and white it is harder to use lighting in certain ways. Rooms are often filled with smoke and white light to create foggy atmosphere, this helps set the scene and makes it more convincing. In Film Noirs windows are often used as a light source, for example in a room the Everyman and Femme Fatal will be near a window which will be the only light source, this creates gives the impression that it is a secret and no one should know, this photo is a perfect example.

Shadows are often used to exaggerate the emphasis on the character, having a shadow in the composition creates a mysterious atmosphere which is very important in Film Noirs. The composition of the film is usually very clean cut, there will always be smoke of some type in the air.

Camera angles and editing

Camera angles are often used to create a tension for the viewers, extreme close ups and uncomfortable angles such as looking up at the character or looking down a street at an odd angle are often used.  Often in scenes there will be an obvious focus such as a gun or the main character, this is just to make the audience know where they should focus or who to think about. 

As Film Noirs were created in the 40-50s there wasn't a lot of editing skills available so the films are very lightly and simply edited. They use a lot of sudden cuts between shots, this gives the film quite a harsh feel. 

Sound

Classic Film Noirs start with a long opening scene which will have dramatic jazz music, this was a very popular music genre at the time however it was quite controversal as it was new and different to what was normal until then. throughout the film there will be scenes which have dramatic music in the background to create tension for the audience. This is the Double Indemnity opening scene, as you can tell there is dramatic music, they create this effect by using a lot of brass instruments.