An Introduction to Film Noir and Neo-Noir

I've always admired how Film Noir's are visually presented, the use of dark and light, shadows, smoke, giving them an un-realistic, mysterious element. The rest of my knowledge was that they were made predominantly in the 1940s and 50s, were filmed in black and white, and had pretty cool names. And that was about it.

But, I thought I would share a little bit of knowledge of what I have learnt so far, in this post.

Film Noir's are usually crime dramas/thrillers and the plot would usually be, as the title tells you, dark. Usually, they pushed cynical attitudes and sex. Although, there was a cynical attitude around the sexuality in these films, especially at the height of their popularity.

Below are some trailers to Film Noir, including The Big Sleep (1946) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

'The Big Sleep' trailer

'The Asphalt Jungle' trailer

Tropes of Film Noir include smoke, dramatic contrast in dark and light, the use of shadows, dramatic music, and a specific set of stock characters, which I will talk about in more detail in a later post. Most Film Noir's also followed a certain structure and had very similar visual elements. 

Neo-Noir is another genre we have been studying, and one I find very interesting. Neo-noir films are modern takes on Film Noir, whether that's using a similar narrative, characters, or just similar visual features used. The narrative can be entirely original and not like a classic Film Noir's at all, but the images created on screen are similar. On the other hand, a similar set of characters can be used, but the look can be entirely different. Neo-noir is very experimental, and adds another dimension to an already brilliant genre. Below are trailers to some Neo-Noir films, Lost River (2014) and Bound (1996). 

'Lost River' trailer

'Bound' trailer

I will be posting more soon about the different features of Film Noir and Neo-Noir in more detail soon.