Film Noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas. The term film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era. Film Noir is mainly used in Films but as our music video is also telling a narrative we decided it would be appropiate to use. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir, which is the era we wanted our music video to come across in.

Conventions of Film Noir:
- The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
- Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers.
- Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting.
- Mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites

Some examples of Film Noir movies which I have looked at include:

- Night and the City. Director: Jules Dassin Released: 1950.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQw_tNGA7Q

'Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is a London hustler with ambitious plans that never work out. One day, when he encounters the most famous Greco-Roman wrestler in the world, Gregorius, at a London wrestling arena run by his son Kristo, he dreams up a scheme that he thinks will finally be his ticket to financial independence. As Fabian attempts to con everyone around him to get his scheme to work, he of course only ends up conning himself. This is an interesting tale of blind ambition, self-deception, broken dreams, and how a man who always thinks he's ahead of the game ends up tripping himself very badly.'

-Sunset Boulevard. Director: Billy Wilder Released: 1950.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8JXbV7JWI

'The story, set in '50s Hollywood, focuses on Norma Desmond, a silent-screen goddess whose pathetic belief in her own indestructibility has turned her into a demented recluse. The crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion where she lives with only her butler, Max who was once her director and husband has become her self-contained world. Norma dreams of a comeback to pictures and she begins a relationship with Joe Gillis, a small-time writer who becomes her lover, that will soon end with murder and total madness.'

- The night of the Hunter. Director: Charles Laughton and Robert Mitchum. Released: 1955.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5AKK_om1VU&feature=PlayList&p=D591E14417498A1F&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=31

'Harry Powell marries and murders widows for their money, believing he is helping God do away with women who arouse men's carnal instincts. Arrested for auto theft, he shares a cell with condemned killer Ben Harper and tries to get him to reveal the whereabouts of the $10,000 he stole. Only Ben's nine-year-old son, John and four-year-old daughter, Pearl know the money is in Pearl's doll and they have sworn to their father to keep this secret. After Ben is executed, Preacher goes to Cresap's Landing to court Ben's widow, Willa. He overwhelms her with his Scripture quoting, sermons and hymns, and she agrees to marry him. On their wedding night he tells her they will never have sex because it is sinful. When the depressed, confused, guilty woman catches him trying to force Pearl to reveal the whereabouts of the money, she is resigned to her fate but the children manage to escape downriver, with Preacher following close behind.'