Codes and Conventions of Film Noir

Codes and Conventions of Film Noir.

There are many things that define the film noir genre. Different codes and characteristics are used to give a distinctive look about film noir which separates them from the other genres for example lighting, shadows, cinematography and ideology.

Storylines and Narrative

Typical storyline would be: A depressed man who is often a detective,  gets manipulated by a beautiful and promiscuous femme fatale. She usually gets him to something for her such as murder someone or take the blame etc. In the end their actions would lead them both to fall, often after a betrayal where the detectives life is taken. Often at the beginning of the film is shows the ending and leaves the viewer wondering what's happened and show the story through flashbacks. It's common for film noir to be narrated throughout the story by the main character.

Characters and Representation

There are generally two main characters in a film noir: the detective and the femme fatale.
The dectective is never much of a hero, he is usually a depressed man who walks aimlessly through dark allies and bars at night and never has anything good happen to him in his life. He is usually entranced by the femme fatale allowing her to control him and gets him into trouble.
The femme fetale is a promiscuous woman, she manipulates men into getting what she wants, often through the use of her beauty, provocative language and suggestion. The femme fatale is normally the detective's love interest and in the end betrays him and gets him killed. These noirs were made during the war with the women now being able to work, this meant the females in these films were a representation of the working women being empowered and being equal to or better than the males being shown how they are easily controlled.
Editing
Directors of film noir would use various techniques to distort and make the film uncomfortable for the viewer to watch such as: lighting. Film noirs have different uses of lighting to change how the viewer feels. They usually have low key lighting, involving stark light and contrasting dark shadows (also known as chiaroscuro) which partially covers characters faces or venetian blinds creating patterns, adding suspense and texture to the scene.

Cinematography

The use of cinematography in film noir is to make the viewer feel discomfort and the imagery distorted to make it unusual for the eye to watch. Various shots are used to produce this effect such as: dutch/skewed angle, low angle and wide angle.

Mise-En-Scene

Noirs have common locations and settings such as bars, dark alleys and are often set in the same scene. They are often in a large city such as New york or Los Angeles. Directors would normally re-use sets from other noirs as they are already there so the same set maybe seen in different films as it was cheaper than making a new set. The scene would usually be dark with only hints of contrasting light coming through barely open windows or light across the characters face. Typically rainy or wet weather.

Sound

As film noir is usually set in a bar or alley etc, there is minimal background noise to keep the quiet atmosphere and keep the viewer focused on the characters and what they are doing or thinking.

Ideology

The messages and values that film noir often gives is that doing bad things gets you nowhere, both the detective and the femme fetale get what they deserve in the end.