Film Noir, Vincent Vincendeau

Noir is also a French word Ginette Vincendeau The theme of this French article is the French antecedents of film noir. Film noir is a term used to describe the large body of films in America in the period of 1941-58, generally they focus on urban crime and corruption, on sudden episodes of violence in a culture who’s fabric seems to be unravelling. They crumble the American dreams most basic promices, of hope prosperity …

…and patterned lighting on charaters faces and bodies, locations of a sleazy bar or club were also prevalent. While the distorted camera angles and strong contasts of light and shadow in German expressionist films of the 1920’s are always accepted as sources of film noir, the impact of poetic realism has been underestimated. Classic examples of poetic realism films are; Renoir’s ‘La Bete humaine’, Carne’s ‘Quai des Brumes’, Duvivier’s ‘La Belle Equipe’ (1936).