Origins of Film Noir

Before 1946, many classic noir films were classified as melodramas, because it was not until this time that the term, film noir is a retronym and was first used by film critics.

Noir films are very recognizable. Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton described them as having five main qualities that varied from film to film.

1.      Oneiric (dreamlike)

2.      Strange

3.      Erotic

4.      Ambivalent (contradictory ideas)

5.      Cruel

In fact, Raymond Durgnat denied that film noir was even a genre, saying it was more classified by motif and tone.

Most classic noir films emerged from detective thrillers, which were based on pulp detective stories involving an anti-hero protagonist, a femme fatale, an intricate storyline with realistic dialogue. The term “pulp” comes from gripping stories that were published cheaply for the masses, like a magazine or a periodical. This kind of publication goes back to novels of Dickens, and to the Strand Magazine serializations of Sherlock Holmes.

For a shilling you could get the latest adventures of the world’s most famous fictional detective. Even scene behind him is in the style of film noir.

Sherlock Holmes fits the idea of a central protagonist, anti-hero. He was an outsider, but he was living and working in London, who was not a policeman or a criminal, but had moral code; although he would bend the law when required. He was a man who well fitted Raymond Chandler’s criteria of the ideal gumshoe (detective):

….down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in such a story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything.

The transition of the genre from the very English Holmes to the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe evolved through the incorporation of a particular American literary style. Speech patterns were in a realistic style of everyday people, and which could be found in novels Mark Twain, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway. The Agatha Christie style English country house murder story, gave way to the real world. Pulp fiction crime took place in streets, back alleys, night clubs. The stories focused less on finding out who committed the crime, but why they committed the crime. The main character was now a outsider who observed a messy world and who is not afraid to fight if needed. He became ‘hardboiled’ hard on the outside and the inside.

The 1929 Black Mask edition containing Hammett’s “Maltese Falcon”. The popularity of the detective story is indicated by the red lettering of the word “DETECTIVE”.

What made these tales into films noirs was a definitively American look. But this look was actually born in Germany. German Expressionism was an art movement beginning in northern Europe before the First World War, and continuing in Weimar Germany. It influenced architecture, painting, dance and theatre, but also the movie industry. Cinema and photography started using strong contrasts, asymmetrical lay out, images seen from strange angles, occasional elements of surrealism to imitate dreams, which were used to disturb viewers. Classic expressionist films of the era included “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari” (1920), Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1927) and “M” (1931). In which Peter Lorre was given his first full time role, which started his career as one of the greats of film noir. Lang himself went on to direct a number of Hollywood noir movies.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)

Metropolis (1927): with strong use of light and shade (chiaroscuro) a typical style of German expressionism.

 Fritz Lang’s “M” (1931). Some argue this was the first noir film. Silhouettes were used to indicate threat and this method was commonly used in noir film. 

Expressionism was part of German cinema’s golden age, but as Nazism increased numerous, mainly Jewish filmmakers, fled Germany and Austria and made their way west. Cinematographers and film makers began to adopt realism, merged it with the style of expressionism. The bleakness of vision that these filmmakers brought with them was perfect for the dark world of the Hollywood crime melodramas of the late thirties to fifties.

Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet in “The Maltese Falcon” (1941). A year later these actors starred in “Casablanca” together. “The Maltese Falcon” was believed to be the first major film noir by “Panorama du Film Noir Américain” (1955).

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in “The Big Sleep” (1946). Philip Marlowe is a tough private eye, typical of pulp fiction, but Chandler’s character was over 6 foot tall, and the writer always Bogart as too small (at 5ft 7inches).

Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity” (1944). Silhouettes, doorways, asymmetric composition, Dutch (strange) camera angles, and a wheelbarrow (which looks out of place) all help to unsettle the viewer.

Double Indemnity again. Strong side lighting, anti-hero, femme fatale, striped shadows of venetian blinds.


info credits:

Film Noir: the dark side of the screen. By Foster Hirsch.