Film Canon | Best Noir Films

Brief Film Noir Outline

In 1946 the French critic Nino Frank coined the term "Film Noir" to describe what he perceived as a new trend within Hollywood wartime cinema.
Film Noir is not a genre. It is a movement that began in the forties and fifties which portrayed the world of dark, slick city streets and crime and corruption. It's defined by the more subtle qualities of tone and a mood of cynicism, pessimism and darkness.

There were four conditions in Hollywood in the 1940s which brought about the Film Noir:
- War and post-war disillusionment - audiences and artist were now eager to take a less optimistic view of things. The antagonism turned with a new viciousness toward American society itself.
- Post-war realism - honest and harsh view of America
- The german influence - directing german expressionistic lighting onto realistic settings
- The hard-boiled tradition - the language - tough, cynical, controlled - sign of the hero's potency. Language is a weapon, and is often more a measure of the hero's prowess than the use of guns.

Film Noir has 3 phases:
- Wartime period 1941- 46 - phase of the private eye, the lone wolf. 'Stranger on the Third Floor' is the first film-noir produced by RKO in 1940.
- Post-war realistic 1945 - 49 (dates overlap as the films) - problem of crimes in the streets, political corruption, police routine, less romantic heroes
- Final phase 1949 - 53 - period of psychotic action and suicidal impulse - phase of "B" noir film - loss of public honor, loss of heroic conventions, loss of personal integrity and psychic stability.

By the mid 1950s Film Noir had ground to a halt. There are a few notable stragglers: "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Big Combo", and the noir epitaph "Touch of Evil" but for the most part a new style of crime film had become popular.
Film Noir was the most creative period in Hollywood history and achieved an unusually high level of artistry.

Film Noir recurring techniques:
- Majority of the scenes are light for night - chiaroscuro lighting
- Oblique and vertical lines are preferred - compositional imbalance
- Actors and setting are given equal lighting emphasis
- Compositional tension is preferred to physical action
- Freudian attachment to water - rain fall increases with the drama
- Love of romantic narration
- Complex chronological order is used to reinforce the feelings of hopelessness and lost time.
- Allusive eroticism
The Film Noir techniques emphasize - loss, nostalgia, lack of clear priorities and insecurity.

Film Noir - Movement or Genre

MORE Film Noir

WOMEN in Film Noir

In Order of Excellence

1. Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958)

Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

2. In a Lonely Place - Nicholas Ray (1950)

A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him.

3. Sunset Blvd. - Billy Wilder (1950)

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

4. The Third Man - Carol Reed (1949)

Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna,
only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime.

5. Reckless Moment - Max Ophuls (1949)

After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover,
a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.

6. Le Samorai - Jean-Pierre Melville (1967)

Things suddenly go badly for a successful French assassin.

7. Le Deuxieme Souffle - Jean-Pierre Melville (1966)

Gustave Minda, better known as Gu, a dangerous gangster, escapes from jail.

8. A Bout de Souffle - Jean-Luc Godard (1960)

A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him.

9. Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder (1944)

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme
that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

10. Human Desire - Fritz Lang (1954)

A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in a sordid affair
with a co-worker's wife and murder.

11. Le Doulos - Jean-Pierre Melville (1962)

Burglar Maurice Faugel has just finished his sentence.
He murders Gilbert Vanovre, a receiver, and steals the loot of a break-in.

12. The Killing - Stanley Kubrick (1956)

Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.

13. The Maltese Falcon - John Huston (1941)

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals,
a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

14. The Black Book - Anthony Mann (1949)

Robespierrre, a powerful figure in the French revolution,
is desperately looking for his black book, a death list of those marked for the guillotine.

15. The Killers - Robert Siodmak (1946)

Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.

16. The Big Heat - Fritz Lang (1953)

Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

17. Detour - Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)

Chance events trap hitch-hiker Al Roberts in a tightening net of film noir trouble.

18. The Big Combo - Joseph H. Lewis (1955)

A policeman is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown, because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him.
He then goes after Brown's girlfriend who despises him, for information instead.

19. Criss Cross - Robert Siodmak (1949)

An armored truck driver and his lovely ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route.

20. Out of the Past - Jacques Tourneur (1947)

A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him.
Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames.