The Film Noir Genre

        What is Film noir? Film noir is a cinematic term used to describe the stylish Hollywood crime dramas that highlights satirical attitudes and sexual motivations.

Film noir is at its peak from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. In this age, film noir is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that is influenced by the German Expressionist cinematography. Many film noir stories are about crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.

"Black film “is the French term for film noir. But before it was accepted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noirs were referred to as melodramas.

Some information are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Femme Fatale

Typical femme fatale of film noir uses sexual attractiveness and cruelness to manipulate men in order to gain power, independence, money, or all three at once. Women always portray to reject the typical conservative roles of devoted wife and a loving mother. In the end, her misbehavior of social norms leads to her own destruction and the destruction of the men who are attracted to her.

Film noir's portrayal of the femme fatale seems to support the existing social order and gender roles of society. It builds up the powerful, independent woman, but in the end it only punishes her.

If we dig deeper and take a closer look at the film noir, it somehow suggests an opposite interpretation. Even though it depicts women as dangerous and worthy of destruction, film noir also shows that women are limited by the roles usually open to them. Women’s destructive struggle for independence is a response to the limitations that men place on them.

Film noir gives us a taste of reality in life.  In this type of film genre, women are depicted to be dangerous, corrupt, and irrational and that they contain no order for how they should act. And in the end, the image of the powerful, fearless, and independent woman sticks in our minds. This is because she
remains true to her destructive nature and refuses to be changed even if it means that she must die.

Some information are from http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/no_place5.asp

Lights

          When it comes to the lighting styles, Film noir uses plain contrast between light and shadows to create a moody atmosphere. This style of lighting allows the scene to be extra dramatic in effect.

There is a common threat in film noir lighting; it is the low key lighting. Film noir uses the style called Chiaroscuro. It is a style that emphasizes on the shadow and harsh lighting to create a sense of depth and volume. The hardness of softness of a light is the type of shadow it creates.

Film noir generally uses hard lights because it leaves sharp edge shadows and these hard shadows more or less define the film noir look. On the other hand, it also uses soft light to balance and to leave a fuzzy shadow effect and soft lighting also helps in glamorizing female characters.

See http://vimeo.com/61871347 for the full details on the basics of lighting for film noir

FILM NOIR FILMS