As I think about the term film
noir, the first thing that comes into mind is classic Hollywood crime dramas,
usually a black-and-white cinematic crime fiction film resulting in a battle
between good versus evil. This is a
vague description I came up with but there is actually more to it than what
meets the eye. To understand the basis
of film noir, we need to recognize its origins.
The concept of film noir can be
traced back to the 1940s and 1950s, a time when America was going through a
severe economic struggle known as The Great Depression along with fighting in
World War II. Novelists like Raymond
Chandler, Dashiell Hammet and James M. Cain inspired the noir vision, but it
was the type of film making approach of expressionism from Europe that
Hollywood adopted to help ease and inspire Americans through this
struggle. It was this type of film
making that Hollywood produced movies that were both popular and artistic.
Reading, “The Neo-Noir ‘90s” by David Ansen with Tina Weingarten, it appeared
that besides most of the film noir being set in a crime-infested,
shadow-draped, black-and white setting, these style of movies had themes that
addressed the human condition through a state of complete disorder or a luck of
fortune. These classic movies were well made with a type of style of
movie making that we today don’t regularly see anymore, though the art of film
noir movies are still continuously being produced today, but with a lesser
degree. Its value as a work of art
continues to fascinate a handful of directors and film fanatics such as film
students and critics.
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