Film noir, in its classical sense, existed in Hollywood from the 1940s to the late 50s; at the time, though, film noir wasn't a term, and when these movies were referred to as a genre, it was as melodrama. Influenced by the novels of the “hard-boiled” crime fiction authors who gained popularity during the Great Depression, film noir is a profoundly modern genre, in that it is rooted, at its base, in existentialism. Hence, the term film noir is, not surprisingly, of French origin, and was indeed applied after the fact by the Gallic film critic Nino Frank.
The term was used to classify films which, in the main, used low-key lighting (rather than the evenly exposed 3-point lighting of classical Hollywood cinematography, film noir used harsh shadows and contrasts of black and white, an influence taken, in large part, from the German Expressionist cinema of the 20s and early 30s, e.g., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Fritz Lang’s M) and which featured deeply cynical views of human nature.
Genres come and go, but 70 years after its birth, the “rules” of film noir have become part and parcel of the conventions of modern cinema. Why do filmmakers come back again and again to this bleak landscape? And why are these films still popular? And just what, precisely, are its rules — rules so skilfully subverted by modern directors? A documentary from the BBC, originally aired in 2009, seeks to answer just that, shining a light on the dark corners of film noir.
