CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR

'film noir' literally translates to black film.  It was coined by French film critics and was used to describe how dark and moody many American crime and detective films looked at that time, around the 1940s and 50s.
Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are common themese in film noir, and the triumph of evil is also a common motif. Film noir often uses the 'anti-hero', a criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy man. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing. It optimised a time of the Cold War period when many people thought the world was against them, and at the same time in ruin. The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).


Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall. We will be using these three stereotypes in our own film noir production, but using the point of view of one of the female characters to put a new spin on it.

Source://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html