Three of the best films in film noir is :

Double indemnity directed by Billy Wilder (1944)

Its based on a married Queens woman and her lover. Ruth persuaded her boyfriend, Judd, to kill her husband Albert after having her husband take out a big insurance policy—with a double-indemnity clause. This film uses the use of real time and remembered time. Using effects like flashbacks which is narrated by a voice over occasionally, so you can understand the story line, so when it comes back into the present you know another fact of the underlying story.

Cinematography and Editing.

Film noir was marked on its visual expressionistic lighting and the deep focus and the depth of field. They would jar editing or use juxtapositioning of elements to baffle the audience and make the storylines seem more misleading. Some of the elements they made sure they would use in editing are shadows, skewed camera angles, cigarette smoke and gloomy appearances. This straight away gives the depressive feel straight away, in which noirs would try to acheieve. The settings tended to be claustrophobic and with low key lighting. This gave a more personal feel. It's like you are on the charecters level in the small room as a voiceover plays about the bad they have done.They used confusing fades and transitions to keep the audience feeling quite unsettled. They would put use piano music to underlie the becoming story line to give a seedy or erratic feel [depending on what scene is playing]

The femme fatale

The stereotypical 'dangerous women' was around in the 1920's with 'the vamps.' These women reinforce film noir. The 'ordinary Joe' detective is lured in by her 'superwoman powers' This linked to how America felt useless to Europe conflict. The femme fatale tend to be in a love triangle. Threatening a nuclear family. Or herself being married and falling for the 'hero' of the film. They are always beautiful and have a lot of class. This helps with the seducing of the antagonist. They always end up having a second motive to which they originally tell the male.

Characters

The male characters always had the same dark haired 'hard boiled' look about them. The sort of person you wouldn't want to be caught down a dark alley with. None of them look like they have heard the word fear. They tend to be associated with underground crime and corruption, in which gets them into a troubled situation which they tend to have to fight they're way out of. This can make them be known as an anti hero.Theres always a Hero who falls in love with one of the promiscuous leading ladies. ''femme fatale'' The film normally starts with the male character confessing of something they have done wrong, or them in some kind of trouble. They are usually telling this via voice over. Then we go back and recap what happened for them to be at this point of time. Although they are hard boiled. They are easily seduced by the femme fatales. It hardly takes any time at all. He will do anything for her, which usually leads him into the trouble that he is in at the beginning of the film

Mise - En - Scene

The locations tend to be in the back alleys and offices of detectives. Dark streets, rainy nights and shadows are always a main part of film noir

The one major prop needed and used in film noir is a gun. Every male character tends to have one, even the female characters if they’re the daring, seductive type. Here are some general codes and conventions of film noir:

-dark streets

-rainy nights

-shadows

-smoking

-women

-taboo language

-guns

All these put together make the perfect film noir movie.

All of these conventions helped towards giving the film a seedy, eerie look which is what was being reflected at the time with what was happening in America. Nothing was what it seemed. It was based on betrayl and lies and the conventions had to reflect this. The dark streets and rain would give a dramatic feel to the films. The dark streets made it seem like you never knew who was going to come round the corner next. The shadows were mainly what you'd see first, before the person. So it gave a mysterious feel to it. You'd never know who was where. And that was a frightening thought. The guns, taboo language and guns gave a cool edge to the charecters. They all had a careless element to them. So call and collected no matter what situation they were in. Because they could handle it. The women were seductive and the men were hard boiled [usually detectives] who wanted to go it alone, until they met the beautiful women who always had a trick up her sleeve.

Characteristics of film noir.

Story-lines and narratives

The story lines tended to be very twisting and elliptical. The narrative was usually very complex, hard to understand. It made you think and concentrate on the words. The story usually has underlying eerie background music and accompanied by a series of flashbacks. The dialogue between characters seemed to be very witty. The men tend to have sharp tongues, and when they talk to women the conversation always turns to innuendo. The 'hero' of the movie always tends to make cynical remarks to his life.

Kathie: Remember the mountains? Higher then these, with always snow on them…We should have stayed there.

Jeff: I’m trying to remember something else.

Kathie: I never told you I was anything but what I am. You just wanted to imagine I was. That's why I left you. Now we're back to stay.

Jeff: And I have nothing to say about it.

Kathie: Have you? Whit’s dead, bundle of papers will do you no good, if Joe was around you could use him but Joe’s dead too. So what are you going to do about Eels and Fisher, that matter what are you going to do about this? Someone has to take the blame, nothing on me but I’d make a fine witness for the prosecution. Don't you see you've only me to make deals with now?

Jeff: Build my gallows high, baby.

brief example from 'out of the past'

There is hardly any lighting in film noir. In fact a pure lack of it. They usually use one dim table lamp or moonlight through some venetian blinds. Anything that causes some shadow in the framing. The ambiguous shadows causes the scene to seem more eerie. The locations were usually dark, dreary places. Like a dim bar or a detectives office.

History of film noir.

Film noir is a film type that emerged from the untied states in the 30's and became mainly popular in the 40's. Quite a few of the films reflect the tensions of the 40's time period, which is why it was so popular. It also conflicts with the optimism of musicals and comedies that were evident in Hollywood at the time. The theme of film noir were conventions like paranoia, despair and bleakness. All which reflected the cold war period. It's described as a crime drama which emphasizes cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Though strictly speaking, film noir isn't a genre as such, it's more a mood style or 'tone' of a film. Film noir budgets were very little. They were produced by low budget companies and filmed in small locations. Though film noir was a great deal to cinema, the magic soon faded for many reasons. Tv crime shows pushed film noir aside. As it had a higher budget and more appealing as it was on the TV screens, usually in a series. It was something for the viewers to latch onto, the colour and glamour was put back into crime. The film noir genre was dead by 1955.