History and Development

History

            The history of Film Noir can be tracked back from the early 1940’s stretching to the late of 1950’s. Firstly, we need to grasp the understanding of what Film Noir is really about. According to Susan Hayward in her book, she stated that many critics said that Film Noir is a movement rather than a genre. It can be identified as the mood, style, point-of-view, tone of a film or it refers to a distinct historical period of film history. Film Noir emerged from the political instability, during the war time period, after war time period, similar to other film movements like German Expressionism and French New Waves Period.

            Film Noir, known as "black film” was first introduced by a French critic, Nino Frank in 1946. This era of Film Noir is unknown by numerous American film industry professionals in that classical era. As mention above, the classic film Noir developed during and after the war period, taking advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism, and suspicion. Film Noir is characterized based on films that reflected the resultant tensions and insecurities of the time period where it is portrayed as the world of dark, greed, slick city streets and crime and corruption. There were rarely happy or optimistic endings in film noirs. The films are noted for its dark visual style. Many European directors used this artistic style called German Expressionism in their films, which played an important role in the development of film noir (Keaney, 2003). As a result of World War II, there were vast changes on the impressions and judgments made towards women. They have changed their existing roles as individuals who stay at home without education to having economic independence and moved into the workforce. They are on par with men. Therefore, we can see the existence of power of femme fatale in the films during this era.  The films often show the dark side and bad characteristics to reflect the people and society during that period of time. 

Development

            Post Noir or Neo Noir is an evolution from the classic Film Noir. It maintains the characteristics from Film Noirs but with updated new elements in terms of the themes, style, content and visuals. The later films which are called neo noir can be seen in the early 1960’s till 1970’s but if often said to be a part of Film Noir due to their independent features. It began to be distinguished and separated from those of the classic period in the 1980’s and started to become more noticeable and matured from 1990’s to the present day.

Back in the 1940’s and 50’s, audiences are led to understand and build a relationship with the protagonist in the film but Neo Noir films often reverse this role. The usage of unconventional camera movements and the way plot moves from one point to another are reminder for audiences that they are not partaking in the storyline but merely watching the film. Besides that, the later films are most likely shot in colours and use modern technology, details that were absent to the plot of classic film noir. Blade Runner is a good example of film that incorporates aspects from the original Film Noir movies. It contains many dark, urban scenes which is typically found in classic noir films but at the same time it is different because it portrays futuristic type of plot. The sexual content that is portrayed during the classic film noirs is also different compared to Neo Noir films. Audiences get to watch more explicit details on the sexual content in Neo Noir films. The lines between right and wrong, good and evil are blurred in Neo Noir films.

Contemporary film makers have to produce films that fit the audiences’ needs and wants at the specific period of time due to the changing social and cultural perspectives. They have to take up the challenge of classic Film Noir and broadened the genre. Film Noir manage to reflect the society at that period of time using its own elements in the classical era but Nero Noir films manage to portray the storyline in different types of elements to the audience in the modern era. Whatever said and done, the films are developed and constantly changing to satisfy the audiences.