Film Noir Genre

A film noir is a term used to describe a hollywood crime drama. The older film noir's were always shown in black and white to create a more dark and sinister atmosphere and because of the cost of colour productions back in the 1940s. However, in newer film noir's made in the last 20 years, colour is more common in these films. The films were produced mainly after the second world war and aimed to send a message to families about how life should be. The violence that was included in the films was something that very little people were used to seeing but after the war so many people were used to the idea of violence because of the events of the war film noir's didn't shock them that much.

The films usually consist with a similar plot and tend to include the same characters in each film just with a different story.
The characters usually are:
- The everyman
- The femme fatal
- The villain
- The henchman/henchmen
- The girl next door
The everyman is always the main character and the films usually begin with the end of the actual film with him hurt or broken in some way. From here we learn his story and discover the events that has resulted in him hurt in this way.
The femme fatal is normally at the center of the everyman's pain. In the majority of film noir's she lures the main character using her seductive techniques. After pretending to care about him she betrays him at the end or he realises she was using him all along.
The villian is sometimes connected in some way to the femme fatal and is generally the enemy of the everyman. In a typical film noir the villain will be in a relationship with the femme fatal and the everyman will have an affair with her resulting in the villain taking action and often using his henchmen to afflict pain on him.
As mentioned before, the henchmen take orders from the villain to attack or kill the everyman, however in some film noir's this isn't always the case and sometimes they aren't included in the production at all.
The girl next door is a rare and irrelevant character who doesn't have a consistency in appearing in film noir's. When she does, she usually ends up comforting the everyman after his betrayal or ends up hurt and broken with him.