Film noir is french for black film. It was named by french critics in th 1930's who noticed the trend of how dark and downbeat the themes were of many American crime and detective films. Nino Frank was first to use the term in 1946 about films the film ‘Double Indemnity".
Most noir films are/were filmed in black and white to help emphasise the shadows of the movies. It often doesn't show a person directly instead, distorting the person by showing them reflected in a mirror or with the use of unusual special effects. This adds to the dark and gloomy nature of a film’s plot. Film noir will frequently disturb usual narrative sequence by using Flashbacks and flash-forwards to provide background to a scene or setting. Voice over narration is also used and is usually provided by the lead actor or protagonist in the film.
A quality that separates film noir from other genres of film is the storyline. it almost always has a murder or an other crime as its main theme. Film noirs almost always take place in an urban setting, usually large cities like New York with the action taking place in bars, nightclubs, dimly-lit alleyways and streets. In film noir the main character is normally a male who has a major character flaw which eventually leads them to ruin. There is also always a femme fetale who will be cruel and dishonest to destroy the main character. To balance the femme fetale out there is normally a redemptive woman who is pure and virtuous and only wished the best for the main character.
These are some Noir Films provided by google:
an excellent start - to improve see if you can find further evidence of the genre including neo-noir. Remeber to use media language. ANd remember to always reflect on what/why/who/how etc
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