Film Noir and Femme Fatale

FILM NOIR
What is Film Noir?
Film Noir (meaning 'black film”) was coined by French film critics who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941). A wide range of films reflected the dark and black of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are evident in noir, reflecting the Cold War period when the fear of death and torture was shown because of the nuclear threat. The criminal, violent, dark, cruel and greedy anti heroes in film noir reflect society’s evils. There were rarely happy endings in noirs “Classic” film noir changed and developed during the Second World War and after. It used the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism and suspension which was is used in most detective and crime films. It was a style of black and white American films that evolved in the 1940’s and became noticeable after the war. It lasted in a classic “Golden Age” period until the 1960’s.Film noir is not classed as a genre, but rather the mood, style, point-of-view, or tone of a film. It is also helpful to realize that 'film noir' usually refers to a historical period of film history.
Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive, brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners, struggling to survive and in the end, ultimately losing.
Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks, witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and reflective and confessional, first-person voice over narration.
Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy greys, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.
Settings were often interiors with low-key lighting, Venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses.
Femme Fatales- Femme Fatales are mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women.


A good example of a femme fatale is Gilda. Gilda is a prime example of a femme fatale because she is seductive,mysterious,gorgeous and manipulative. She attracts all of the men and brings attention to herself. She also rebels which  is another aspect of a femme fatale in some ways.





Another example of a femme fatale is the bride from Kill Bill, but she is a modern day version of a femme fatale. She is lethal,deadly and mysterious. She is also seductive but not as much as your classic femme fatale such as Gilda.






























Information from http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html