Just like in the 1920s, American cities had an explosion during the 1940s with remarkably similar emotional results. Film noir picked up that uneasy feeling
The femme fatale won’t renounce the advancement marriage had given her, nor the fulfilment of a relation with the hero and so a transgression is necessary
Suspense is not, of course, specific to the 1940s noir, but in these films it tends to occupy a specific place, marking the protagonist lack of control
With very few exceptions, films noir were B movies filmed on a budget, even the ones we now consider classics. They needed resourcefulness in place of money
Dialogues were very important in film noir, because, as much as the plot relied on the action, some of this action happened in dialogues.
By the 1940s, a vulgarised form of Freudian psychoanalysis was so familiar to the Americna public that Hollywood could use it in its plots
Neo Noir refers to post-1960s films of similar content and expression, but which consciously employ noir stylistics and conventions
The noir hero often fails, has shrunken world aspirations, let basic impulses guide himself. For a reason or another, he is not in control of his life
In film noir, law manifests itself not just as the legally defined framework of law enforcement, but also as the law of patriarchy, which defines culture
While in previous thrillers the criminal was an outside evil, in film noir the hero becomes the criminal. Attention is given to reasons and consequenses
When I say ‘film noir jazz’ what do you think? A slow, moody kind of jazz, usually with a trumpet solo? I thought you’d say that
The Haye Code could have been a disaster for film noir. It became a source of creativity and gave birth to some of its most recognised characteristics