key conventions of film noir

Key conventions of film noir

Film noir was influenced by the great depression surrounding world war 2, when many British people escaped to America to escape Hitler and the Nazi’s.

One of the key conventions of film noir is the often dark and pessimistic mood (the fact that these films were made during the great depression explains why this may have been). This often gives a sense of moral corruption and paranoia. There is often a hero (antihero) or corrupt character and villains such as bent cops, gangsters and government agents.

They were usually based on people such as war veterans, petty criminals or murderers. These protagonists are often morally ambiguous low- lives from the underworld of crime and corruption struggling to survive and often ultimately losing.

The females in film noir are either of two types: dutiful, loyal, trust worthy and loving women or femme fatals , mysterious, double-crossing, unloving, predatory, manipulative and desperate women. Usually the male protagonist in film noir often wishes to avoid their mysterious past and has to chose what path to take (or has the path chosen for him) the choice would often be an overly ambitious one. It would often be to follow the goading of a traitorous femme fatale who destructively would lead the struggling hero in to committing murder or some other crime of passion.

Film noir films are often shot in gloomy blacks, greys and whites. This helped show the dark and inhumane side of human nature. Lighting is also used to portray different characters and their nature. For example, hero, villain, good , bad. 

Film noir was marked by expressionistic lighting deep focus camera work, disorientation, visual schemes jarring editing, or juxtaposition of elements and skewed camera angles. The use of different lenses is also favoured in film noir experimenting with both high and low angle shots. The use of silhouettes is also popular in film noir, this follows Barts enigma code because it creates questions within the audience making them curious as to who the character is and why they are not allowed to see them.  Circling cigarette smoke is another typical key convention of film noir. Settings were often interior with low key lighting. Whether would also reflect the general mood as well. This is known as pathetic fallacy. Examples of this would be rain or fog. Moving the camera from object to object creates a tense atmosphere. Accentuating the eyes with lighting was used to portray the emotional and mental state of the character as well as illustrating emotion.

Shadows are also used for dramatic effect a great deal of the time and it is said that shadow is a film noir creators best fiend.

Yet another key convention of film noir is the frequently complex narrative typically told with foreboding background music.