Film noir in French, or “black film” is a terminology used to illustrate stylistic Hollywood crime drama. It extended from early 1940s to the late 1950s. This movie rooted with German Expressionist cinematography.
Film noir has mysterious ambiance. It’s like having camera angle from top to bottom of the grayscaled wall with stairs and smoke in it. One of the examples the director gave while watching the interview about Film Noir is that there is this man who has a stable job, a stable relationship with his fanily and wife, actually has a good living. And then one night, a messenger came. The stable man had a car ride with the messenger in the middle of the dark, rainy night. That same night, the messenger died while the stable man decided to replace the messenger’s identity. This kind of character is called fall or down fall.
Since it has mysterious calling, film noirs are only black and white with the presence of shadow and light effect. Most examples given are apartment connected side by side where a woman tries to gaze at their neighbor’s window but only saw shadow of a man that increases the intensity and the curiosity of the viewer. Is it a bad man? A stalker? A killer? Whatever a viewer may think that will enhance his or her mental imagery.
In this kind of film, we will notice that women are mostly dominant in the film. Directors hire talents or actress with angelic face, pleasing to the eyes, and nice looking not knowing that they’re snakes that lures his man on the bed then gets him on trouble. These women are strong-spirited, fearless and usually smoke and sexy in appearance.
According to one of the directors interviewed, this kind of film are graded ‘B’ unlike other films that are graded ‘A’ or has high quality and high in cost. Nevertheless, though low in quality and cost, they provide good plots, choice of character, storyline, angles, etc.
The setting of this kind of film if in outdoor or exterior type is usually along the streets of a certain city, riding in a car or taking a walk by the asphalt hall. However, if interior, it is most commonly inside the room, dark room or living room.
NASAH. 