Film Noir

I have seen a number of movies that can be classified as film noir. What I didn't know is that there are movies I have seen that I hadn't classified as film noir, but that may actually be the case. What that says to me is that the idea of film noir is that it evokes the tone and mise en scene of a movie and it does not refer to a specific genre or genre conventions. There are certain practices and techniques that a filmmaker can use to create the film noir tone. It's dark, pessimistic, uneasy, and bleak, as well as numerous other "negative" adjectives. To compare "film noir" to "Western" may really be like comparing apples to oranges. You can more or less predict the course of a Western because, as a genre film, it's meant to follow certain patterns. With film noir, that's not the case, you cannot predict the plot simply based on its classification as film noir.

One similarity between film noir and genre films, however, is that you know it when you see it. It's all in the lighting, the camera angles, the narrative form, the dark tone, and the sense of coming doom for the main characters. These two articles were the best I've read yet and that's because I have a great appreciation for film noir. Something about the very deep and dark feelings and the confusion in the films resonate with me. It was interesting to read about the influences of film noir. Some of these are things I could have guessed, others, like German Expressionism, are only things I've heard about in passing. I'm starting to get a better idea of film elements and how filmmakers, not just the directors necessarily, create tones, moods, and scenes.