Film noir

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Film noir is a term used to describe crime drama films from Hollywood that are often focused on sex and corruption. Film noir movies were mostly made from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir movies were often shot in black-and-white. The term film noir comes from the French for "black film." Film noir movies include many different types of movies, such as gangster films, police movies, and detective movies.

Film noir movies were often shot with so that there were lots of dark shadows in the movie, even on characters' faces. The Hollywood film noir movies were influenced by German film directors such as Fritz Lang, who used dramatic lighting techniques. Another influence on film noir movies was 1930s French culture, with its romantic attitude and celebration of doomed heroes. Film noir movies were also influenced by crime novels, such as detective and crime stories by Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler.

[edit] Examples of Film Noir Movies and Actors

Some important film noir movies are: Stranger on the Third Floor (1940); The Maltese Falcon (1941) Double Indemnity (1944) The Big Sleep (1946) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Key Largo (1948 Kiss Me Deadly (1955), and Touch of Evil (1958). The important actors from Hollywood film noir movies were Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Lorre.

[edit] Movies from after the Film Noir period

The film noir period was the 1940s and 1950s. Even in the years after the 1950s, movies were made that were like film noir movies. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were movies like The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Chinatown (1974), which were influenced by the film noir movies from the 1950s. In the 1980s and 1990s there were movies like Body Heat (1981), Basic Instinct (1992), Kill Me Again (1989), Red Rock West (1992), and Fargo (1996). In the 2000s, there are also movies that are like film noir movies in some ways. For example, there are films such as Memento (2000) and Sin City (2005). There are also science fiction movies that have an influence from the film noir style, such as Soylent Green (1973), Blade Runner (1982), and Minority Report (2002).

[edit] Things you see in film noir movies

Film noir movies often have a lot of shadows, such as the shadows of window frames, blinds, or stair banisters. There are also often dark shadows on the movie scenes, even on the faces of the actors. All of the shadows make the film noir movies feel mysterious and stressful. Film noir movies are often about stories of crimes, such as murder. The characters in film noir movies are often motivated by greed, jealousy, or revenge. The characters in film noir movies are often private detectives, police officers, criminals, gang members, and people who do bad or illegal things, such as gambling or prostitution. In film noir movies, there are often stories about robberies, heists or other crimes. In film noir movies, even the heroes are often bad or partly bad in some way. For example, the hero of a film noir movie may commit crimes or tell lies to other people. Film noir movies are often shot in cities at night, and the stories often take place in bars, nightclubs, gambling clubs, casinos, and cheap hotels.