What is Neo-Noir

Neo-noir is a modern take on "classic noir" which was at it's peak from 1940s to the late 1950s. The updated genre borrows what it can from film noir: hard-boiled stories, protagonists, themes and darkly lit visuals – and leaves behind what it cannot associate from the popular culture of a different historical era .

Although the films are 36 years apart, they share similar film conventions. Both are crime films that deal with a social, psychological and aesthetic response to the sense of anxiety, alienation and disillusionment of their age, and both express the dark side of the human nature. Both films also contain a manhunt that forms the dramatic and psychological action.

(I got some of this information of: Filmnoir Neonoir)

What is Neo-Noir..

Classic noir: The big sleep

Directed and Produced by: Howard Hawks

Stylish, smoky, sexy and smart, The Big Sleep (1946) set a high standard for hard-boiled crime fiction on the big screen, and served as a showcase for the smoldering romance of one of Hollywood’s royal couples – Bogie and Bacall.

The mystery is told from Marlowe's perspective, with Bogart in every scene. We see things as Marlowe sees them, and try to tease out the truth from a tangled mess of lies and liars as he does.
Marlowe is summoned to the elderly General Sternwood's mansion, where among the general's hothouse orchids he is asked to find Sternwood's missing chauffeur and pseudo-son, Sean Regan. He meets the general's hothouse daughters, the somewhat wild Vivian (Bacall) and the very wild Carmen, who's being blackmailed over some naughty photos. Marlowe is quickly plunged into a puzzle of pornography, drug abuse, gambling and murder - seven murders, to be exact.

Here is a trailor of the big sleep ->

http://www.archive.org/details/The_Big_Sleep_trailer

Classic film noir: Detour

Directed by: Edgar G. Ulmer
Produced by: Leon Fromkess

Budget: $20,000 (estimated)

Although made on a small budget with bare sets, straightforward camera work and shot in six days, Detour has gathered much praise through the years and is held in high regard.

Detour begins when hitchhiker Al Roberts accepts a ride from affable gambler Charles Haskell Jr. When Haskell suffers a fatal heart attack, Roberts, afraid that he'll be accused of murder, disposes of the body, takes the man's clothes and wallet, and begins driving the car himself. He picks up beautiful but sullen Vera, who suddenly breaks the silence by asking, "What did you do with the body?" It turns out that Vera had earlier accepted a ride from Haskell and has immediately spotted Roberts as a ringer. Holding the threat of summoning the police over his head, Vera forces Roberts to continue his pose so that he can collect a legacy from Haskell's millionaire father, who hasn't seen his son in years.

Classic film noir: Stranger on the third floor.

Directed by: Boris Ingster
Produced by: Lee S. Marcus

Budget: $171,200 (estimated)

As i have mention, Stranger on the third floor is often referred to as the first "true" film noir of the classic period (1940-1959). It has many of the hallmarks of noir: an urban setting, heavy shadows, diagonal lines, low camera angles shooting up multi-storey staircases, and an innocent protagonist falsely accused of a crime and desperate to clear himself.

Rising reporter Michael Ward is a key witness in the murder trial of young Joe Briggs, who is convicted on circumstantial evidence while swearing innocence. Mike's girl Jane believes in Joe and blames Mike, who (in a remarkable sequence) dreams he is himself convicted of murdering his nosy neighbor. Will his dream come true before Jane can find the real murderer? Written by
A newspaper reporter gives truthful but circumstantial evidence at the murder trial of pathetic loser Briggs. Briggs is convicted despite crying his innocence and the reporter begins to feel guilty for the key role he played in the trial. Haunted by memories of the poor man's pleas, he begins to wonder...

Here is a clip of Stranger on the third floor ->

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=206839

Film noir: Characters

Like in many aspects of film noir, characteristics are similar throughout the genre. Their are two main characteristic's of film noir. A man, not seen as a hero, but rather an anti-hero, usually a normal, venerable and coy ex-detective who seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and comes into some sort of trouble or misunderstanding, leaving him involved in a downward spiral, he usually becomes a depressing character and ends up needing to find a life for himself again.

Needless to say, the character who manages to trap the hard-boiled detective is the femme fetal, typically a sexy, manipulative, flirty and dangerous woman - who seduces men into falling in love with her, and turn his world upside-down. She can then persuade him into doing her "dirty work" at any moment. The women in film noir are always projected as the more dominant person possibly reflecting male fears of female liberation and independence during the war years.

Film noir: Sound

Like in any other movie, Film noir uses a mixture of digectic and non-digetic sound;

Non-Digetic: (Not heard on scene) Downbeat jazz was widely used in film noir, it seemed to follow the mood of the film. If something exciting was going to happen the music would speed up, if something mysterious was happening the music would slow down. However, it was usually the same song being played over again, just at different tempo’s. Voice overs from characters flashbacks were added in to give the feel as if your reading into their mind.

Digetic: (Heard on scene) There are alot of moments in film noir when no sound was present, this silence emphises the paranoia and makes you feel on edge, you can also hear a lot of ambience from the city were used to make the scene feel as realistic as possible, this included

sounds such as busy traffic, people and perhaps gunfire.

(This is a mixture of my own work, and from filmnoir wikipedia)

Film noir: Mise-en-scene & Editing

Money was scares during the time when film noir was at it's peak, so expensive "hollywood" editing was not usualy used, however, the editing that was used was unique and gave film noir it's identity. Like in many films today, Continuity editing was widely used to make the film flow nicely and make sence.

It was well known for making the viewer feel disorientated. It was usually non-linear story lines that start at the end and tell the story in flash-backs. Also to make the viewer feel uncomfortable they used jump cuts and juxtapositioning which is not what we are used to in everyday lives. They also used to shoot day for night using filters to which was cheaper, but gave the image of it being night time.

Low key lighting was used along with venetian blinds to make scenes hard to see, and this leaves the viewer wanting to see more. It also made the scene appear more mysterious and literally ‘dark’. The contrasts used in film noir were usually dark blacks and whites - greys were rarely used. It was usually that the hero of the movie was lit up with a brighter light, whereas the villain was a ‘dark shadow lurking in the background’.

Exterior settings are often urban night, deep shadows, rain slicked streets/alleyways, dimly lit and abandoned places. They used familiar locations to make what was happening seem even more real to the viewer.

Film noir Cinematography

Film noir cinematography usually aims to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, and ill at ease. This meant using distorted and/or skewed images. This was done with the cameras, using low and high angles – to make characters seem intimidating or intimidated, using deep focuses and reflections. Positioning the camera at an unnatural angle changes the horizon line for the viewer which is impossible to do without using cameras, again, making the viewer feel uncomfortable. Cinematography also obscured faces in the scene, so the viewer couldn’t see exactly what was going on. Lots of deep shadows were used throughout film noir; this created a good atmosphere when things looked dodgy and mysterious.

Film Noir Characteristics, Codes and Conventions

Film noir is often described as essentially pessimistic, and there are certain elements that make up a film noir, they were shot in black and white and had very poor back lighting which made the set very dingy and created long shadows which gave the genre it's identity. Story lines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were complex, maze like and told with a foreboding background music with flashbacks.

Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular—are the location of many of the classic films. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "maze".Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action.

Personalities in the films include; cynical, obsessive, menacing, sinister, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners, struggling to survive and of course, femme fatals. There were certain 'need Be's' to make a classic film noir - the narratives that makes these are;

• Crooks
• Sin and punishment
• Downward spiral
• One wrong call
• Murder
• Drugs
• Who done it
• Black Widow
• Psychological
• Gangsters
• Sexual obsession

Characteristics, codes and conventions of film noir

History of Film Noir

Film noir is a trend of how ‘dark’, downbeat and black the themes in the film are. It disturbs viewers; it disorients them; it produces a profound uneasiness in audiences. And it does this by whatever means possible. Classic film noir was developed after World War II (1940’s – 1950’s), the movie now most commonly seen as the first "true" film noir is Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trained Boris Ingster it was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades. Film noir is not a genre of film, but rather the mood, style and tone of the film portrayed. Story lines were often elliptical, non-linear, twisting and depressing. The moods from film noir were a pathetic fallacy of the people during this period. Narratives were complex, maze like and told with a foreboding background music with flashbacks.


The females in film noir were known as ‘femme fatales’ and were mysterious, gorgeous, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually the male protagonist in film noir follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames, then ultimately become a doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime or passion coupled with twisted love.

During the war, women had to take over the male role back at home and enjoyed working. However, when the men returned, women were reluctant to go back to their housewife ways. This is why females are portrayed as Strong and inferior roles in these movies. This also was often visually projected into their stage positioning, usually entering from the top of a stairwell.

Most of the film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly budgeted features without major stars— B movies either literally or in spirit, this is obviously another reflection from the War.