Film Noir Research: What is it?

Following the production of my group's preliminary task, and due to the fact it was edited to be black and white, in the film noir style, I researched film noir and the modern film noir, neo noir.

Film noir means'black film or cinema', and are in black and white. It is not a genre but the mood, style, point-of-view, or tone of a film. When studying Film Noir during my time at college, I was taught the word chiaroscuro which is two words, it  means light-dark, therefore relating to film noir, it is referring to the use of contrasting light and shade, which is most likely generated by low key lighting or high contrast lighting.

The primary moods of classic film noir were sadness, alienation, disillusionment, pessimism, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.There are many characteristics and paradigms of Film Noir films, such as smoking, fast pace talking, a femme fatale and the signature black and white. An example of a film noir film is Double Indemnity which was released in 1944.A femme fatale is 'a woman of great seductive charm who leads men into compromising or dangerous situations, an example of a femme fatale is Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity who seduces an insurance rep into helping her commit the murder of her husband so she can get the money from his life insurance.

Not only is there film noir but there is neo noir which means 'new black', so in effect neo noir films are more modern films with updated visual, style and themes. Neo Noir films incorporate film noir characteristics, an example of a Neo Noir film is Se7en which incorporates moral corruption, the same dark downbeat tone. Plus, the in depth plot which includes murder and corruption with very original styles of murder, the insurance scam in Double Indemnity where Walter (the insurance rep) pushes Phyllis' (the femme fatale) husband off of the back of a train and then poses as him and in Se7en where every crime committed is carefully executed by John Doe for each of the seven sins. In Se7en the femme fatale could be seen as Detective Mills' wife Tracy as she becomes caught up in the murders and eventually, the downfall of her husband follows. In both Double Indemnity and Se7en we are seeing the murders through the killer's eyes in a manner of speaking, in Se7en the murders are thoroughly planned and in Double Indemnity we have the main character Walter Neff, the murderer, confessing to his crime and telling the backstory and planning to the murder.