Film noir - French for "dark film" - is a cinematic term used to describe a motion picture stylized to create a mood of moral ambiguity. "Good guys" are often inseparable from "bad guys," good may not always win, and the purported "hero" of the film may not be a likable character. While film noir was applied in early Hollywood without this problem, in modern times, film noir pictures often include sexuality, nudity, and characteristics that make the films not family-friendly. Realistic, rather than glorified, depiction of violence has always been characteristic of film noir technique. They usually take place in the 1920s-1950s.
Recurring characters in film noirs include mobsters, gangsters, bikers, law enforcement officials (including police officers, detectives, spies, and bounty hunters), and seductresses. They usually take place in urban areas of the Midwestern and northeastern states, as well as California, Florida, Las Vegas, Seattle, or Portland. However, they can sometimes take place in small towns, much like westerns.
The vast majority of the greatest films noir were made in the 1940s, and a few were in the 1950s and at least one in the late 1920s.[1] The great director Alfred Hitchcock filmed several; Orson Welles starred in at least one, The Third Man (1949). Film noir often works well with black-and-white cinematography, which made the 1940s a perfect time for these films as the public was more accustomed to black-and-white movies then.
Examples, without spoilers, are:
[3] hyism, and the looming threat of atomic warfare manifested themselves in a collective sense of uncertainty. T