Film Noir (although I may need a glass of Pinot Noir after this reading...!)

Much to my disbelief, film noir in itself is not classified as a genre; it is a style based primarily in subtle qualities of tone and mood. As Schrader succinctly puts it, "it is a film noir, as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white" (53). While I superficially generalized this style as "what my grandma watched on her honeymoon," film noir ultimately marks a time period in itself, albeit one that is dark and filled with crime.

Film noir, as Schrader insisted, is quite difficult to define in all of its 50 shades of black, but it sought to embody post-war realism and the societal mood of the time. After the war, movies could not be limited to the same studios they had been using in the past; film noir called for a darker, more corrupt sense of setting and plot. Many viewers struggled to identify with the characters-as the narratives were typically centered around despair- and neglected the category and deemed it "un-American."

Noir lighting is intentially designed to be "low-key,"which creates drak and dramatic shadows. Claustrophobic framing and off-angle compositions contributed to the themes, too.

Are these films dark? Absolutley. Are they dated? Probably. Do we enjoy them? Not always. But film noir is a monumental device in cinematic history that is just about impossible to ignore.