Film Noir literally means ‘black film’ and this came
from the French critic Nino Frank in 1946, for how
dark the American crime and detective films were.
Classic film noir films were made in the 40’s and 50’s.
This was because of mood of the people in the
cold war period.
This comes from: www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
1945
Spell Bound
1940
1943
Strangers on the Third Shadow of a (Alfred H)
Floor (Boris Ingster)
Doubt (Alfred H)
1941
1944
Suspicion
Double Indemnity
(Alfred Hitchcock)
(Billy Wilder)
1947
Odd Man Out
(Carol Reed)
1946
Notorious
(Alfred H)
These are all
Examples of
classic and neo
noir.
1948
The Fallen Idol
(Carol Reed)
1949
The Third Man
(Carol Reed)
1951
Strangers on a Train
(Alfred Hitchcock)
1956
The Wrong Man
(Alfred Hitchcock)
1958
1953
Touch of Evil
I Confess
(Orson Welles)
(Alfred Hitchcock)
Carol Reed was born on 30th December 1906, in London, to the
stage actor, dramatics teacher, and impresario founder of
the Royal School of Dramatic Arts Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
Carol Reed was a film director and he directed a few film noir
films. These were:
 Odd Man Out(1947)
 The Fallen Idol (1948)
 The Third Man (1949)
The Third Man was released on 31st August 1946, and is a classic
noir film. It also won grand prize of the Cannes film festival
and a BAFTA Award for best British film.
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The Third Man is about a writer called Holly Martins.
Holly goes to Vienna to start working with an old friend Harry
Lime.
When he gets there he finds out that Lime is dead.
He decides to discover the truth about his death as it seems
suspicious.
Meets Lime’s love Anna and she helps him to try to unravel
the mystery.
It gets more and more suspicious and in the end Holly joins
forces with the police and they discover that Lime is actually
alive.
Film noir is often associated within an urban setting and big
cities. Some cities that you often see in classic film noir films
are; Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.
The main places for the scenes of action taking place are; bars,
lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens. They are also mainly
in dark places like alley ways to create a tension.
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The Third Man is set in Vienna.
Mainly in the evening.
The main locations are: bars, the street, alley ways
and the sewers.
These are all typical settings for film noir as they are
urban locations.
When it comes to lighting in film noir it is mainly low key lighting.
This is because it keeps it mysterious. Another reason for this
lighting is the light and dark patterning they use mainly
around the eyes, the face is dark and there is a light shinning
on the eyes.
This lighting is also reflected in the background. Sometime when
the character is walking through a dark place they will have
mist and a venetian blind effect on the wall were it is dark
and light lighting on it.
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The mood in The Third man is quite down as there
are a few murders and deaths.
The majority of The Third man is either at night time
or in a dark place. Some lighting that is used is
shadows on peoples faces to hide part of them in
the dark.
Most of him is in the shadow but his face is still in the
light.
The protagonist was usually a male character who wished to
escape his past of being mysterious and choose what path
that he should take. If he didn't decided then his fate would
be chosen by someone else. There fate was generally chosen
by whether the female character was loving or a femmes
fatales.
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The main character is Holly Martins.
Holly Martins- He is an author who discovers that Harry Lime is dead
and tries to discover the truth about how he died.
Harry Lime- He is believed to be dead until Martins discovers the
truth. Martins also join the police against Lime as he has been
involved in dodgy dealings.
Martins is the protagonist who is playing detectives to try to find out
what has happened to his friend who he believes to be dead.
Lime in the antagonist as he is involved with dodgy dealings and is
pretending to be dead to avoid being arrested.
With the female characters in film noir they were one of two things.
Either; reliable, trusting, loving and respectful or they would be;
mysterious, devious, double crossing, unloving and beautiful
women. These women are known as femmes fatales.
The femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman. Because of this
the man who falls for her normally ends up in danger.
The classic femme fatale will end up murdering her husband to get out
of an unbearable relationship as he is trying to possess and control
her, as if she were a piece of property.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/noir/np05ff.html
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Anna- She was in love with Lime. The femme fatal character
but she is vulnerable. She also helps Martins to help find out
what happened to Lime.
Anna is the femme fatal character but instead of being
devious and mysterious she is the vulnerable character who is
respected and loving.
Alfred Hitchcock was a famous film director who directed 67
films. His first film was Number 13 in 1922 and his last was
Family Plot in 1976. he was born 13th August 1899, London, to
a greengrocer, William Hitchcock.
Out of his 67 films, 7 of them were of the gene film noir. During
the 40’s and 50’s the only films that he made were film noir.
This was because all directors were reflecting the tension of
the public as it was the cold war period.
Even though he only done 7 films that were particularly film noir,
most of his others were horrors or thrillers, and extremely dark
and disturbing. He is remembered as a man who
was before his time in film making and as a very
clever man.
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Alfred Hitchcock made Spellbound in 1945. It is a film noir with
a hint of mystery and romance.
It is about a female psychiatrist who tries to protects the
identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while
attempting to recover his memory.