The Characteristics, Forms and Coventions of Film Noir

The main character is often male, either a cop, private eye, or war veteran, and is trapped in a difficult situation (often because of a woman). Sometimes he would be stuck between two women, one dutiful and responsible whilst the other was sexually attractive and unreliable (the Femme Fatale - a woman with no morals). The male would make decisions out of desperation. In Fargo, the 1996 film by the Coen Brothers, the main character has some kind of debt (which is not revealed) and knows he’ll receive lots of money if his wife is kidnapped, because she and her father are both very wealthy.

Film noirs covered a wide range of genres, from gangster movies, detective and private-eye stories to films about social problems. They were made in black and white not only because this was low-budget compared with the new ‘Technicolor’, but also gave a dark and sinister feel to the film. The mood is also created by the setting, the dialogue, the filtered lighting through 'Venetian Blinds' which gives long shadows, and the locations which were often dimly-lit rooms with circling cigarette smoke to give a claustrophobic, gloomy appearance. Back alleys were often used to create paranoia and the fear of being followed. First-person voice-overs were used in some films to give a sense of reality and to speak directly to the audience. The music was often heavy, discordant and serious. Some tunes became popular because of their haunting nature, such as the theme tune from the film Laura (1944).

Camera techniques included low-angled camera shots which made the character seem taller and more powerful; deep-focus shots allowed both the foreground and background to remain in focus in the same shot; high contrast lighting was used to produce silhouettes and shadows in some of the films whilst camera panning was also used in film noir. The most used narrative is the first person voiceover, using flashbacks to tell the story, and sometimes narrated by the character who had died. Deep shadows, odd camera angles and wide shots were used to give a sense of perverse reality.

(Sources used: Wikipedia-"Film Noir" and "Neo-Noir"; A Guide to Film Noir Genre - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com; www.filmsite.org; The Rough Guide To Film Noir (book) by Alexander Ballinger & Danny Graydon, 2007)